Roman Catholic Beliefs- Part 3- Water Baptism
Part 3 of "Cathechism Chat"
Jesus said, "I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly."(John 10:10, Catholic Bible, Douay Version)
Just think about it, Jesus wants to give life to living people but he is talking about the highest form of life possible. He is the Lord God Almighty and he wants to live within his people.
I'll be using the same three books that I have been using on Catholicism in the last couple of articles. All Catholic approved books and they are: 'A Cathechism for Adults' by Rev. William J. Cogan, 'The Documents of Vatican II' by Walter M. Abbott, S.J., 'The Holy Bible'- Douay Version. This time I'll be writing on the subject of baptism. First I'll be sharing what the Catholic Church teaches concerning 'baptism' and then I'll be going to the word to see what it says about 'baptism'.
Turning to Lesson 19: The Sacrament of Baptism, point #1,
1. What is Baptism?
It is the Sacrament of spiritual rebirth in which we receive a share of the divine life which makes us children of God and heirs of heaven.
Point #2,
2. What does Baptism do for us?:
a) It cleanses us from Original Sin, from all personal sins, and from the temporal punishment due to sin.
b) It makes us holy with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially the gift of grace.
c) It makes us living members of His Body which is the Church.
d) It brings us into spiritual contact with the saving death and resurrection of Jesus [Col.2:12; Rom.6:4]
e) It gives us a right and a duty to share in the work of Christ the priest, Christ the Teacher, and Christ the King.
Also I'll be speaking on point #3,
3. Why do you have to be baptized?
Baptism is your rebirth into the life of grace; without grace you simply do not have the power to live in heaven.
"Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." [John 3:5].
Then I turn your attention to 'The Documents of Vatican II'. Reading in Chapter II,'The People of God' under #14, pages 32,33; it says, "This sacred Synod turns its attention first to the Catholic faithful. Basing itself upon sacred Scripture and tradition, it teaches that the Church, now sojouring on earth as an exile, is necessary for salvation. For Christ, made present to us in His Body, which is the Church, is the one Mediator and the unique Way of salvation. In explicit terms He Himself affirmed the necessity of faith and baptism (cf. Mk. 16:16; Jn. 3:5) and thereby affirmed also the necessity of the Church, for through baptism as through a door men enter the Church. Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by God through Jesus Christ, would refuse to enter her or remain in her could not be saved.
So based on their very own words that I just quoted to you, if I show in the Bible than water baptism doesn't save anybody then by the Catholic Church's own admission, they are not needed. Let's go to the word and find out. I'll use the two verses that they just used, Mk. 16:16; Jn. 3:5. I want to speak on John 3:5 first since I quoted it twice, once out of 'The Documents of Vatican II' just now and once out of 'A Catechism for Adults'. In the catechism book, he quotes John 3:5, Douay Version which says, "Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
The Catholic writers corrupted this text to fit their theology, their tradition. They added the word 'again' in that verse which changes the meaning entirely and it isn't in the Greek manuscripts. Jesus reproved the Jews for making the word of God of none effect by their tradition but at least they didn't change the word to fit their tradition like the Catholic Church is doing. The Catholic Church leaders have some heavy judgment coming from the hand of God.
If we read this particular verse in context, we will see that Jesus and Nicodemus are speaking of physical birth (born of water) and spiritual birth (born of the Spirit). In v. 4, "Nicodemus saith unto him: How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born again?
It's easy to see that Nicodemus is speaking of a physical birth. Okay now I'm going to read verse 5 leaving out the word 'again' that they added. V.5, "Jesus answered: Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." So Jesus is answering him based on what he just commented on, the physical birth. Then he goes on to say that you have to be born of the Holy Ghost and that is the spiritual birth, to see the kingdom of God. To truly believe is to truly receive and that lines up with the verses in this same chapter, John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but have life everlasting." The second birth or the spiritual birth is receiving Jesus into your life as your Lord and Saviour by asking him to come in. It says in this same book in the Douay Bible, St. John 1:12: "But to as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God, to them that believe on His Name."
In their catechism book and in their Documents of Vatican II book, they use the word 'gift' over and over but they don't really mean 'gift'. A gift by definition is something that is free, entirely free. That's what the Gospel, 'God's News' is all about. God did something for us that we couldn't do for ourselves, he actually became a man and died in our place to bring us back into a relationship with himself. Now that is 'Good News'. He sets us free to live for him! Awesome, Praise God, awesome!
They also used Mark 16:16 which says, "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be condemned." If we take this verse as a whole, we see that by comparing the last half with the first half that salvation is based on believing not on baptism if it were speaking on water baptism but I don't believe that it is, it's Spirit baptism. Believing and being baptized is a collective whole, they just come together. Check 1 to the Corinthians, Ch.12 v.13 which says, "For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ."
So it makes sense that those who don't believe won't be baptized into the body of Christ by the Spirit and in turn they will be damned. The word always lines up with the word and in St.John 3:18, it says, "He that believeth in Him is not judged. But he that doth not believe, is already judged: because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God." So we see from reading this that judgment or condemnation is based on not believing, nothing said about water baptism. And if water baptism is so important for salvation then why does Paul say in 1st To The Corinthians 1:17, "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not in the wisdom of speech, lest the cross of Christ should be made void."
"... not in the wisdom of speech" would also be another good subject to talk about concerning Catholicism, maybe later though.
They also used Romans 6:4 and I would like to discuss that one now but let's start reading at v.3, "Know you not that all we, who are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in his death? For we are buried together with him by baptism unto death; that as Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also may walk in newness of life."
Once again this is speaking of Spirit baptism, I wasn't water baptized into Jesus, I was brought into union with him by the Spirit and I shared those verses earlier. The word says there is one baptism in Ephesians 4:5. The real one is Spirit, water baptism is a outward type of the real one. It's used to show our death, burial and resurrection with and in him and is a sign to show the world that we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. And every Christian should want the world to know that they belong to him. As Paul says in Rom.1:16, "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ...." I'm not either, if there are any reading this page who think that they are Christians and are ashamed to speak his name or share him with others or don't have a desire to do so then something is wrong. We need to test the spirits to see if we are in the faith. If you received a billion dollars, I'm sure you would be telling people about it and would want to, just as many as you could. Well, if you are born-again and having Jesus living within, you have a lot more than a billion dollars and you don't have a consuming desire to share then something is wrong, I mean like bad.
Jesus loves you and he wants to come into your life. He'll give you a life like you never dreamed possible. Praise God! Jesus didn't say we are to receive a church but him. He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." If an organization, any religion says that they are the way to God then you are in a false religion. I have been using the Douay version of the bible even though it is a perversion like all of the others. The KJV is God's only true word. Check out my Bible Perversion Page in regards to this issue. Thanks again.
Also read my other article regarding water baptism at Part 2- Water Baptism
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