Who Should Get Baptized And When?

 
Anyone can be baptized in water, by anyone. But all that such a procedure or ritual will do, is make the person wet. It may cause them to THINK they have become a child of God, but water baptism is not a cause for the saving of souls or converting of sinners. It is meant by God and His Church, to be an outward sign of something God has already done within that person. That “something” is the spiritual transformation performed by God as described by the prophet Ezekiel here:
 
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. Ezekiel 36:26-27
 
GOD first adopts a sinner into His family and into His Church, by regeneration of the Holy Spirit, through faith in the merits of Christ alone. THEN and ONLY THEN should a TRUE Christian be baptized in water… as a sign of what GOD has done IN THEM by the power of the Holy Spirit – which is a SPIRITUAL baptism! Yes, the “new birth” or being “born again” or being “born from above” are the work of God and constitute a truly supernatural spiritual baptism.
 
A person is NOT spiritually baptized by God by the act of a Catholic Priest or Protestant pastor sprinkling water on them. Have any of you experienced death yet? If not, then how can you tell anyone about it? How can you even KNOW about that experience? BUT if you’ve been supernaturally BORN AGAIN by the Holy Spirit, then and only then will you REALIZE that you had been spiritually DEAD prior to that “new (second) birth” and so you will be able to compare your FORMER life as a spiritually dead person with your new life in Christ as someone whom GOD has made spiritually alive.
 
And because of the REALITY of this supernatural new birth, you can KNOW that you are no longer a condemned sinner, because the Holy Spirit shows you that your sins have been COMPLETELY covered by the blood of the Lamb of God, shed for sinners at Calvary. It is this wonderful SPIRITUAL event that a new believer in Christ celebrates and announces to the world by following up this event with a water baptism ceremony.
 
“There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:1-2
 

What Catholics are taught about water baptism

 
Catholicism teaches that adoption by God and regeneration happens when a person is water baptized. They say that is why Paul calls water baptism the “washing of regeneration” (mentioned in Titus 3:5).
 
When in actuality, the washing is OF REGENERATION (not of water), otherwise Paul would have said “washing OF WATER”. The washing away of SINS is OF (the result of) REGENERATION by the Holy Spirit. However, a person who has NOT BEEN regenerated – meaning those who are still what Paul refers to as “the natural man” – cannot understand these spiritual things, which is why it is so easy for Catholics to believe the false teachings of their church.
 
“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14
 
Rome’s teachings make a lot of sense to those who are spiritual unregenerated. Whereas, the spiritual reality, which is something they cannot see, appears as foolishness to them.
 
To a true believer salvation is an event that begins a process. The event is called the new birth, spiritual regeneration. And the process is called sanctification – growing in the knowledge and love of God. Without the SUPERNATURAL EVENT of the new birth, there cannot and will not be any process of sanctification. Instead, it will be a process of works and rituals as seen in the Catholic Church and their sacraments, which Catholics may think is sanctification but which cannot be, without the new nature implanted in the sinner by Holy Spirit regeneration.

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