The Damnable Heresy Of Baptismal Regeneration

1st Corinthians 1:17-18,“For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”

A web visitor recently sent me this correspondence with a Roman Catholic priest. This is the priest's defense of the heresy of Baptismal Regeneration, which is the lie that you must be water baptized to get into Heaven someday...

Subject: Re: Q about RC Baptism

Dear James,

Thanks for your note.

A person who isn't baptized can't receive the sacrament of confession. A person has to be baptized in order to receive the other sacraments. And baptism, of course, remits all sins.

It is possible that an adult catechumen with a checkered history might desire to prepare for baptism by unburdening his conscience in a confession-like dialogue with a priest.

A priest may accept such a dialogue as a pastoral measure but should make clear that it is not the sacrament of reconciliation and that absolution will not follow the conversation.

I hope this helps.

God bless,
Father Edward McIlmail, LC

Ask A Priest | RCSpirituality.org

Sadly, that Catholic priest is hellbound in his unbelief. Nowhere in the Holy Bible are we instructed to get water baptized to be saved. In our text passage of Scripture, the Apostle Paul said that Christ did NOT send him to baptize, but to preach the Gospel. Paul said that he did not receive the Gospel (the GOOD NEWS) from a mere mortal man, but from the risen immortal Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Galatians 1:12). Paul defines this Gospel for everyone in 1st Corinthians 15:1-4 as three things:

1. Jesus DIED on the cross for our sins.
2. Jesus was BURIED.
3. Jesus RESURRECTED three days later from the dead.

That is the Gospel by which all who choose to BELIEVE IT are immediately, irrevocably and permanently saved forever. No one in the Old testament was water baptized to be saved, yet Acts 10:42 says they were all saved by faith alone in Christ. Neither was the repentant thief on the cross water baptized...

Dear reader, you DON'T have to be dunked into a baptistery to enter into God's Kingdom, you must be BORN AGAIN (John 3:3). Getting water baptized is one's public profession of faith. Getting baptized doesn't make you a Christian, any more than walking into a garage makes you a car. Cults like Seventh-Day Adventism, Mormons, Jehovah's Witness and Church of Christ all mandate water baptism for salvation. They are all hellbound FALSE PROPHETS!!!

We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in the GOOD NEWS of Jesus Christ alone.