nemesis_juggernaut writes:
What circumstances might arise that someone could not have a priest come to them and perform a baptism? Maybe prison for a serious offender?
There are always priests in prison, nowadays. But there are tons of possible occasions. Imprisonment in a non-christian country. Hostile environment at home or abroad, death on the battlefield, any other sudden death.
The Holy Spirit came to Cornelius before baptism.
Yes, my answer is the same. It was baptism of desire. It does not replace water baptism since even Jesus was baptized by water. But Jesus wanted to show the apostles that the ritual does nothing in itself without faith, and faith can even accomplish the ritual. He is in a way asking the disciples not to start getting cocky about baptism like some were about circumscision.
This is basically a litmus test for true believers. You say that you need to be baptized in order to be saved, but no one can receive that Holy Spirit until they are saved.
Don't you feel that the Holy Spirit is
what saves? Do you think we can be saved without grace of God? And what is grace? Grace is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into our soul. It makes no sense to say that men can be 'saved' without the Spirit, and by their own merits. So much for faith and not works! If a person is saved before they receive Spirit, then what saved them? Works?
Indeed, we all are different members comprising one body in the name of Christ. But the Church doesn't equal Christ, because Christ existed before the Church. And the fact that Revelation distinguishes between the churches in chapters 2 and 3 is enough to show that we are not all united. Unless we come to believe in Him on His terms, we are simply following vain traditions it would seem to me.
Well, maybe you have found a different belief of a subsect. Th Catholic church believes that the Church and Christ are one and the same, 100% united, eternal and alive, undivided in Heaven and earth.
We don't need revelations to show that the churches are not united, but then, they can't all be part of the body of Christ then. I guess your church admits that it is not part of Chrsit to the extent the Catholic church is, so I would already quit it.
That's what it seems to imply. What exactly is one confirming? Their allegiance to Church and Christ? Is it merely a declaration of faith?
Yes, but not like a Boy Scout meeting. It is not merely a declaration in public for spectators, but a sacrament in which grace comes down from God.
I don't see how faith by proxy can save another human being. Does God hold the godparents accountable for the life of the godchild
Yes, the godparents are accountable for the spiritual life. Faith by proxy may sound weird, but you would have it that the child can be saved without faith of any kind...not really fair to the rest of us, right?
You are doing well, nemesis. It's a hard road getting past the rhetoric, and usually folks don't have the patience to see that the other side makes good sense also.