If Baptism produces faith, it stands to reason that one can be baptized before they believe.
1 Peter 3:21 - …and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ...
NIV notes on 1 Peter 3:21 – Baptism is a means of salvation, a means through which the Holy Spirit produces faith as a gift of God because of God’s grace.
OK off my soap box and Off to Church!!!!!
2007-07-22 03:09:58 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
no, it doesnt.
many protestant and catholic churches baptize to show and welcom the child into God's family. To wash away sins past present and future. The child then gets confirmed in the late to mid teens. The child is then saying, this is what i believe. Baptism is often just a welcome or invitation, confirmation is accepting God's offer. I like it that way.
2007-07-22 03:15:47 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
That's not what my Bible says. I personally don't like all these "New" versions. KJV states:
1 Peter 3:20-22
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:
22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
Read in context and you might find that it says something totally different than what your NIV notes say. According to what I read, it is stating that through Christ we can attain salvation and that baptism does not clean the flesh but cleanses the soul.
2007-07-22 10:19:44 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Bible teaches baptism is part of God's plan of salvation. (1 Peter 3:21, Mark 16:16, Colossians 2:12, Galatians 3:27, read Luke 24:47 along with Acts 2:5 and 38, Acts 22:16, et al)
It is necessary for salvation, but baptism does not produce faith!
"Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." (Romans 10:17)
2007-07-22 22:58:21 · answer #3 · answered by JoeBama 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Baptism does not produce Faith. It's merely an initiation into a religious community.
2007-07-22 12:23:27 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You've taken the verse completely out of context, unfortunately.
Baptism doesn't save anyone. If it did, the thief on the cross, who died beside Christ, wouldn't have gone to heaven. But Christ told him, because he BELIEVED, "today, you will be with Me in Paradise."
Faith in Christ is the ONLY means of salvation.
Baptism is an outward display of an inward decision. That is ALL it is. It shows that the person has chosen to be obedient and follow Christ.
And as God's Word states, faith is a GIFT, not something of ourselves.
2007-07-22 10:16:26 · answer #5 · answered by Devoted1 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I don't know your agebut it is always good to ask.
Baptism is the transmission of the faith of the parents to their offspring. You can't say actually that it produces faith. But if your parents baptised you they should also continue to pass their faith to you as you grow up. The parents only wants the best for their dear ones and so, eventhough, they wouldnot be conscious of if the babies receive that faith.
Your quote of St. Peter explains all. It means that not only the actual water of baptism is the salvation but it is the first step, to go living that faith in practice and beleive that only Jesus is our Saviour through His death and then in His resurrection ensuring us that if we really have faith in Him as Lord and live to His teaching , then we would have a good conscience to live up to that faith.
Jesus himself said said that "Faith without practice means nothing:". That's why we then have Confirmation when we are older so that we can choose and confirm for ourselves the faith that our dear parents instilled in us to have for eternel life.
He also sent the apostles saying" go all over the earth and baptise in the name of the Fther, the Son and the Holy Spirit and those who receive it shall have life". But it is always up to us if we want to accept this by living to our Faith.
2007-07-22 10:29:40 · answer #6 · answered by domenic x 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
no ...... its a physical act with a spiritual intent
2007-07-22 10:14:07 · answer #7 · answered by zee zee 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋