Featured The Council of Trent and its support of paganism.

They don't have a "secret" meaning.
They mean what they say.

 

You mix up metaphor and literal!

 

There's nothing metaphorical about Acts 2:38 and 1 Pet. 3:21.
They are about WATER Baptism and its regenerative effects.

 

There is NO regeneration in water baptism....

 

That's NOT what the Bible says, sparky . . .

Titus 3:5
He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

In Acts 2:38, Peter says this renewal of the Holy Spirit comes from WATER Baptism.

 

peter states that the person whom they are baptized into is the source of salvation, not the water!

 

Correct.
But, he states that the Water Baptism is necessary for salvation and to receive the Holy Spirit.

 

As it says in Ezekiel (36:25-29):

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.

I will save you from all your uncleanness.

 

"But in that is expressed the divine and spiritual equality, that all men are like and equal, since they have once been made by God; and our age may have a difference in the increase of our bodies, according to the world, but not according to God; unless that very grace also which is given to the baptized is given either less or more, according to the age of the receivers, whereas the Holy Spirit is not given with measure, but by the love and mercy of the Father alike to all. For God, as He does not accept the person, so does not accept the age; since He shows Himself Father to all with well-weighed equality for the attainment of heavenly grace." --- CYPRIAN , Bishop of Carthage, Born 200-210, died 256 Roman execution.


In short you teach a person must MERIT their baptism. They merit by age, merit by choice.

Whereas God doesn't accept the person, There is no fitted right quality by which you merit baptism.

Making the error that "that very grace also which is given to the baptized is given either less or more, according to the age of the receivers,"

You have made yourself superior to all infants. Claiming you merit God's Grace something they cannot.

 

AMEN.

 

And YOU and every other Protestant on the planet has YET to show me that chapter and verse where this claim is made in Scripture.

Your buddy Luther had to ADD it to Rom. 3:28 in his German translation of the Bible . . .

 

Yes, reference to the coming New Covenant, when all who are saved will be by faith alone thru grace alone!

 

Yes, washed not by water, but by the word of God!

 

Jesus told us to believe in Him and have eternal life in his name, as did Apostle John!

 

You keep making this statement - and you have YET to show me a single verse that makes this claim.

Chapter and Verse, please . . .

 

Jesus and the NT writers also defined what "belief" is.
It entails:

- Being baptized (Matt. 28:19-20, John 3:5, Rom. 2:29, Rom. 6:1-11, Col. 2:12-17, 1 Peter 3:21)

- Picking up our cross daily to follow him (Matt. 16:24, Luke 9:23)

- Works of mercy and charity (Matt. 19:21, 25:31–46, Luke 18:22)

- Obeying his commandments (John 14:15, 15:10)

- Doing the will of the Father (Matt. 7:21, James 1:22)

- Suffering with Christ (Matt. 10:38, 16:24, Mark 8:34, John 12:24, Rom. 8:17, 2 Cor. 1:5-7, Eph. 3:13, Phil. 1:29, 2 Tim. 1:8, 1 Peter 2:19-21, 4:1-2)

Even the DEMONS "believe" in the truths about God - but they son't have TRUE faith that works through LOVE (Gal. 5-6, 1 Cor. 13:1-23).