Subject: Was it complete? |
Bible Note: Friend Emmaus! Howdy from the Natural State [That's Arkansas for the untutored!]..... Being of Southern Baptist bent of mind, I'd be less than honest to say -- as you're keenly aware -- that your Catholic faith always runs in the same groove with mine on every issue, but we worship the same God, and are the both of us looking to the same Savior for redemption..... Now, whether baptism -- and we're speaking of water baptism -- is an act of man that should properly be placed in the category of works or whether it is, as your propose, something that Christ Himself does to us through His body, the church, or even weather it is neither, I believe are really rather secondary issues and not necessarily of vital import. But the real issue about water baptism, Emmaus is, or so it seems to me, is it salvific? Is it an act, a ritual, a sacrament -- call it what you will -- without which salvation is impossible? If you have been following these pages at all in the last few days, you are doubtless aware that we have been fed many lines (pun intended) about water baptism being the key ingredient, the sine qua non, of salvation. The Bible clearly exalts Christ and his redemption through His shed blood on the cross as being our one and only means for justification. I find it extremely disconcerting to read page after page on which we are told to believe that water baptism is an essential ingredient -- if indeed not THE essential ingredient -- in salvation. Emmaus, how does all this hue and cry about the salvific properites of water baptism set with you from your perspective as a Catholic? --Hank |