Oh, Sola!! That is not at ALL what I said or meant
by what I said! You have put words in my mouth!
You have completely miscontrued what I actually
said and have added to my thoughts, which never
intended any such thing or anything near it. Never
-- not once! -- did I intend that those who believe
baptism saves were either wrong or stupid or
any other thing. That never crossed my mind, was
not implied, . . .
I don't know what to say. I am stunned. I
appreciate that you answered me, telling me what
you thought, because I had No Idea where you
were coming from before!
This is what I wrote, exactly:
Originally posted by Abiyah:
8o) Any baptism other than complete
immersion is legitimate only if one thinks
that the act of baptism saves.
Now, without going into whether or not baptism
saves, my intention was this:
The only examples of baptism we have are those
given in the BIble, which are relatively few and
which are not at all detailed. People who say
that they can baptize by sprinkling or pouring, as
I understand it, base their belief upon either
Christian tradition or upon the examples of
pouring, and sprinkling, for purification, in the
Bible.
Those who say that baptism by sprinkling and/or
pouring may be done based upon Christian
tradition do so based upon the early writings
after the Bible writings were completed. I,
personally, do not accept those writings as
legitimate because of this and other beliefs
taught in them which I see as errant.
Those who base their belief upon what is actually
in the Bible about pouring and sprinkling use, in
my opinion, a more legitimate source, but they
misunderstand those particular Scriptures.
Personal baptism, or mikveh, was used by those
who were already clean, those who had already
accepted doctrine, not by those who were still in
dilusion. When the Bible speaks of sprinkling or
pouring upon things, however, this is used upon
something that was not at all clean -- something
that was ritually impure.
Baptism should always assume that at least a
change of mind has already occurred. Withouu
going into whether or not baptism saves, this is
all I ever meant by my statement above.
