The Christian sacrament* of baptismal regeneration is required for the new covenant and salvation!
*this promise acts 2:38-39 is a sacred oath from God ez 36:25-27 and a sacred oath is a sacrament!
Initiation!!!
Faith & Baptism is the initiation of the new and eternal covenant!
You cannot enter on you’re own or by “faith alone”!
You cannot receive Christ or grace by “faith alone”!
“Accept Christ as you’re personal lord and savior” is fundamentalist tradition not found scripture!
Jn 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
2 pet 1: 11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Baptismal regeneration a new creation in Christ! 2 Cor 5:17
A sacrament is an oath! A sacred promise from God! Ez 36:25-27
Acts 2:38-39 (this promise)
No baptism no grace!
No union with God and His saints thru Christ the mediator!
A sacrament is an outward sign for all men including infants And a gift from God to help us see what he does inwardly and invisibly by his grace!
As grace Washes our souls in the merits of Jesus blood from original and personal sin, so the outward action of washing is visible!
without the outward action the inward action cannot take place!
Jn 3:5 Titus 3:5 water and washing
acts 22:16 wash away your sin!
Jn 3:5 Born again BY water and the spirit! Not by “faith alone”!
They did not go to Jerusalem and preach “accept Christ as you’re personal Lord and savior “
They went to the river (water) and they baptized! Jn 3:22
A covenant requires an outward sign of the inward action of grace!
Ez 36:25 I will sprinkle you with clean water and you shall be made white as snow.
Acts 22:16 washing away your sins.
Eph 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism.
1 pet 3:21 baptism saves you.
You cannot enter on you’re own or by faith alone! Jn 3:5
2 pet 1: 11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
Heb 2:11 For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
Baptism!
God breathed life into Adam, gen 2:7 and we received this life from our fathers!
Christ breathed on the apostles our spiritual fathers, we receive the new covenant life of God’s grace from them thru faith & baptism! Jn 20:21-23 Mk 16:16 acts 8:36-38 eph 2
Born again! Born from above!
'The Father has set his seal' on Christ (John 6:27) and also seals us in him (cf. 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:23, 4:30). Because this seal indicates the indelible effect of the anointing with the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of Baptism,
Baptism indeed is the seal of eternal life." 87 The faithful Christian who I has "kept the seal" until the end, remaining faithful to the demands of his Baptism, will be able to depart this life "marked with the sign of faith," 88 with his baptismal faith, in expectation of the blessed vision of God - the consummation of faith - and in the hope of resurrection.
St. Paul tells the faithful at Ephesus that they have been “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” This is in terms of an indelible character imprinted on the soul in the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. It is not as if this invisible mark is simply decorative. Rather, through it, we are enabled to participate in Christ’s mission and in his offices of priest, prophet, and king. Eph 1:13
Sealed by God eph 1:13 sealed by God (ez 36:25-27) in the ark of salvation by baptism just as Noah was sealed by God in the ark of the flood gen 7:16
1 Pet 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us!
(Ark of Noah a type of the church, member of Christ and his church and salvation by baptism!)
(Outside the ark of Noah none were saved, outside the church (the ark of salvation) none are saved!)
Sealed in the ark, sealed in the church the ark of salvation by God thru baptism!
Christ instituted the holy church to teach and sanctify all men unto eternal salvation. (repent and believe the gospel) with the institution of the sacraments to convey grace to sanctify souls!
Matt 28:19
Effects of faith & baptism!
Ez 36:25-27 washed in baptism, with a new heart and the Spirit
Jn 3:5 born again in baptism
Mk 16:16 faith & baptist
Acts 2:38 repentance & baptism
Acts 8:36-38 faith & baptism
Acts 22:16 baptism washes away sin
Rom 6:3 died with Christ
Col 2:12 risen with Christ
1 cor 12:13 baptized into the church
Gal 3:27 by baptism put on Christ
2 Tim 1:10 eph 2:1 and 5 brought to life
2 cor 5:17 new creation
Eph 1:13 eph 4:30 sealed by the Holy Spirit
Eph 4:5 one faith, one baptism
Eph 5:26 faith and baptism
Titus 3:5 baptismal regeneration
1 pet 1:2 washed in Christ’s blood
1 pet 2:9 the kingdom of light
1 pet 3:20-21 baptism saves us!
“Faith alone” accomplishes nothing!
1 cor 13:2 even all faith (alone) without charity avails NOTHING!!!
Faith and baptism!
Scripture says none of the things about “Faith alone”!
You have thrown a lot into the pot. Any indepth response to each and every line is prohibitive. As in
I Robot, “I'm sorry, my responses are limited”.
Going into Jhn.3, Andreas Köstenberger noted that Nicodemus having misunderstood Jesus to literally mean ‘born again’ instead of spiritually ‘from above’, Jesus proceeded to further explain γεννηθη ανωθεν as being born of water and spirit, which in turn neither referred to water and spirit baptisms, nor compared physical to spiritual birth. “The phrase probably denotes one spiritual birth…[developing Jhn.3:3] by the use of one preposition (εξ) to govern both phrases in 3:5, and by antecedent OT (prophetic) theology. The closest parallel is Ezk.36:25-7, which presaged God’s cleansing of human hearts with water and their inner transformation by his spirit” (see John (BECNT), 2004:123-4).
2 Pt.1:11 simply advised Christians to sincerely walk the walk and so to be well welcomed into the eternal kingdom.
Ac.16:17 was about what I call Level 3 salvation, viz Christianity.
I disallow the concept, baptismal regeneration: like the COVID19 ‘vaccine’, it can give a false sense of security, can be worse than the virus, yet can often do no harm and perhaps do some psychological good. I allow the concept, conversional regeneration: we are regenerated (perhaps better neogenerated—a new generation/life), at conversion, ie spiritually changed by the spirit when we welcome messiah as messiah. As said, water-baptism and spirit-baptism are good to follow. The sequence in which they follow—if they follow—is incidental (Ac.8:2,15; 10:45-7). Incidentally the new covenant was by the cross. We do not make individual covenants with God, but individually enter in to the preexisting covenant.
As to where you are getting the term,
fundamentalist (it has several meanings), I do not know, but I fear that you are using it as a pejorative term. You and I could both list doctrines we deem to be
fundamental—are we therefore both
fundamentalists, or is only the one in the wrong the fundamentalist? Both the pope and Calvin called each other
Antichrist.
I do not hold entrance-grace to mediated by clergy, but to be immediate by the spirit. That God's
offer of grace is mediated is often the case (eg Rm.10:14). That Christian teachers teach by grace, or that Christian pastors pastor by grace, I do not doubt. The body serves itself in grace by grace to grace.
On Tts.3:5, “this is an alternative expression of the same metaphor of ‘washing’ [λουτρον—not βαπτισμα] we find in Eph.5:26 and 1 Cor.6:11. Although many commentators take this to refer to water baptism which follows conversion, it is easier here as elsewhere to see a simple reference to a cleansing and life-giving transformation wrought by God. That baptism remains a powerful symbol of this saving act is clear, and it is entirely likely that a reminder of this experience is intended. In Eph.5:26, this ‘washing’ is specifically accomplished by the ‘word’, and there is no doubt that powerful preaching played a role in bringing hearers into this experience. However, that point is omitted here, leaving an emphasis on God’s initiative and the work of the spirit” (W Kay & J Moxon’s
A Pentecostal Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles (POTNTC), 2022:237-8).
Like you I like the idea of
sacramentum as an oath, a pledge: Pliny the Younger spoke of Christians binding themselves so. Like you I do not like the 5 Solas, which the Reformers didn’t formulate. For they can sound as if they each stand alone, rather than only together as a package deal (as all being needed), and some do disservice to trinitarianism, eg, saying Christ alone, discounts the father and the spirit as saviour. I replace them with the five
necessaria: Scripture is necessary:
Scriptura necessaria est; grace is necessary:
gratia necessaria est; faith is necessary:
fides necessaria est; the cross is necessary:
crux necessaria est; giving glory to the trinity is necessary:
trinitatem glorificare necessarium est.
