Baptism
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What is the merit of baptism?<br />
CHAPTER FIVE<br />
BAPTISMAL GRACE<br />
Evidently baptism is an act in the material world. Has it got any spiritual<br />
significance? Does it do any spiritual regeneration? This is what is<br />
commonly termed as baptismal grace. Does the act of baptism confer any<br />
spiritual merit or grace beyond the symbolic declaration of faith and<br />
consequential strengthening of faith? Evidently any open declaration and<br />
confession of faith produces strengthening of faith. This is why we have<br />
witnessing sessions as part of fellowship. Has baptism any magic power?<br />
Yes, says both the Roman Catholics and Cults including legalistic<br />
Pentecostals.<br />
Roman Catholic Church teaches that baptism is a work of merit, i.e., the act<br />
itself merits salvation whether any faith exists behind the act or not.<br />
The official Catholic approach is that baptism need not be an act of faith at all<br />
and an unbeliever who so desires may be validly baptized even though he<br />
have no faith provided the proper formula and mode are employed and the<br />
recipient need not even be conscious when he is baptized. Baptize any person<br />
unconscious and dying it will lead to salvation. A miscarried fetus or embryo,<br />
no matter how small, must always be baptized - absolutely if certainly alive,<br />
conditionally if doubtfully alive. The general rule is, of course, that a child<br />
should not be baptized until fully born. But if there is a danger that the child<br />
will die of suffocation, or from some other cause before complete delivery, it<br />
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