> The Other "I think this can help simplify it: I'm incredibly ignorant when it comes to my religion. *I* think that's particularly bad when you're a Catholic. But then, I'm the one sitting here saying I know nothing about this stuff." Matthew

I didn't realize you were Catholic when I responded to your response to Ria's post. I'm probably at least as ignorant as you on all things Catholic, but I am pretty certain that the Catholic take on baptism is significantly different from the fundamental Baptist doctrine.

The main problem I see with the Roman Catholic church is that they put waaay too much emphasis on ceremony and working one's way to heaven. The Church tells you that you have to do all the sacraments if you want to go to heaven, right? But if you don't get them all in, or maybe even if you don't do any of them, that's okay, you won't go to Hell unless you're really bad; you'll just have to sit in Purgatory until your relatives make penance for you.

Problem is, that's just not Biblical, as Martin Luther discovered. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast." -Ephesians 2:8-9. Scripture clearly teaches that a man cannot work his way to heaven.

I don't believe that baptism is necessary for salvation. Being baptised does not save you. Faith in Christ does that. To me, baptism is something a person does *after* salvation, to publicly identify and testify of what God has done for them.

Gri"owner of a concordance"shny