I don't believe Scripture teaches that we are converted by being baptized. The jailer at Philippi was told to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. It was only after he had believed that he was baptized.
I don't know what you mean by "Romans 8:29 mentions predestiny by foreknowledge. And Exodus when it first mentions Pharaoh." The first mention of Pharaoh in Exodus is here:
“Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses.” (Ex 1:11 NKJV)
Nothing there about foreknowledge or predestination.
Catholic baptism, of infants, as per normal, says that by the parents faith and the waters and the baptismal prayers, that the infant is born again and has spiritual gifts, later confirmed. And the old teachers, Augustine, Calvin, and Molin were not sure of infant salvation in the misfortune of death. They misunderstood. Arminius was sure of their salvation, based on the absence of sin and non rejection of grace. Calvin thought God would choose to condemn some infants at death. Molin believed baptism was necessary to wash away original sin, but God's middle knowledge could lead to salvation of the infant, who passed away. Of them I find Arminius the better one.
Romans 8:28-30 YLT
28And we have known that to those loving God all things do work together for good, to those who are called according to purpose;
29because
whom He did foreknow, He also did fore-appoint, conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be first-born among many brethren;
30and whom He did fore-appoint, these also He did call; and whom He did call, these also He declared righteous; and whom He declared righteous, these also He did glorify.
Exodus 4:8-9 NLT
8The LORD said to Moses, “If they do not believe you and are not convinced by the first miraculous sign, they will be convinced by the second sign.
9And if they don’t believe you or listen to you even after these two signs, then take some water from the Nile River and pour it out on the dry ground. When you do, the water from the Nile will turn to blood on the ground.”
Romans 9, 10:1-10 NLT
1With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.
2My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief 3for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters.
a I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.
4They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children.
b God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law.
He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises. 5Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.
c
6Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people!
7Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,”
d though Abraham had other children, too.
8This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children.
9For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”
e
10This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.
f 11But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes;
12he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.”
g 13In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”
h
14Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not!
15For God said to Moses,
“I will show mercy to anyone I choose,
and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”
i
16So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.
17For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.”
j 18So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.
19Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”
20No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?”
21When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?
22In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction.
23He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory.
24And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.
25Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea,
“Those who were not my people,
I will now call my people.
And I will love those
whom I did not love before.”
k
26And,
“Then, at the place where they were told,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called
‘children of the living God.’”
l
27And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out,
“Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore,
only a remnant will be saved.
28For the LORD will carry out his sentence upon the earth
quickly and with finality.”
m
29And Isaiah said the same thing in another place:
“If the LORD of Heaven’s Armies
had not spared a few of our children,
we would have been wiped out like Sodom,
destroyed like Gomorrah.”
n
Israel’s Unbelief
30What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. 31But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. 32Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the lawo instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.
33God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,
“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem
p that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in him
will never be disgraced.”q
1Dear brothers and sisters,a the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. 2I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. 3For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. 4For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given.b As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.
Salvation Is for Everyone
5For Moses writes that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands.
c 6But faith’s way of getting right with God says, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up to heaven?’ (to bring Christ down to earth).
7And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place of the dead?’ (to bring Christ back to life again).”
8In fact, it says,
“The message is very close at hand;
it is on your lips and in your heart.”d
And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: 9If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.
Whom He did foreknow, He also did foreappoint. He saw who when preached to, by Paul of faith and Christ, who would respond. They are foreknown and saved, some in Heaven right now.
We can't work for salvation, by God's choice, but a father or mother can ask for their children's salvation and guide them away from law systems.
Paul was in earnest about the Hebrews' salvation, not not to care or just trust God, but try, pray for them, lead them away from legalism, reveal scripture to them, tell them their secret thoughts, debate, heal them...
Pharaoh did not have grace because he was not Hebrew, not God's first born, and did not engraft himself into the Hebrews faith, or intermarry with them... God knew he would harden his heart at Moses' words, which didn't offer him anything anyway. For race, class, his "better" gods and for riches, God knew Pharaoh would harden his heart and not obey for Israel to see strength and preference. Even talking with Moses He says, "if" he doesn't respond to the first, show the second, describing a sense of unknowing, as if Pharaoh had a choice and he did, but is was too late, and he freely chose rebellion. Grace, his choice, and a hard heart came about. God foreknew, and did not forechoose to destroy against possible salvation, for Moses wrote that Egyptians could enter the assembly after three generations with Israel. And now Egypt has a bishop. Mark lived there.
Salvation is for anyone to believe and receive. John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that anyone who believes in Him should not die but have eternal life. They just need to hear the true Gospel preached and to receive grace. And God can even save someone from a corner of the world that has not heard the Gospel. All children who die end in the light of life, and some remain children at heart as they grow old.
