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Have you not heard of the doctrine of Baptism by Desire? In a nutshell, if a person desires to be saved and to be baptized, but is otherwise prevented to be baptized, their desire to be baptized is accounted as the equivalent of baptism and, as in the case of the repentant thief on the cross, they will enter paradise (which, curiously, some folks think of it as not heaven, but purgatory, but I digress).
I was baptized at the age of 4 or 5. I had no idea of what was going on and it didn’t change me in the slightest. When I was 38 years old I came to Christ and received the Holy Spirit. I decided to get baptized a second time as a sort of pledge to God in my new found faith. But yes I agree the scriptures record people receiving the Holy Spirit before baptism and not receiving Him after baptism.
The thief on the cross may have been baptized. We don’t know either way.
We also assume wrongly that such households did not include slaves and servants who were legally required to do whatever their masters commanded, regardless of their personal inclinations or beliefs.
You are correct. If he had been baptized, then his baptism didn't apparently amount for much given the fact that he had committed a serious crime which had led to the death sentence. John the Baptist refused to baptize the Pharisees, even though their deeds of righteousness far exceeded their countrymen,
Baptism is ordinary. The normal life of the Christian is to be baptized.
The actual question ought be "Is baptism optional for the unbeliever?" IOW, if one is a believer then it is not an option, but for unbelievers is baptism a requirement?
They are tons of things that couldn't hurt, so that is a really lame excuse. In the Orient syncretism is rampant. The common attitude is to add various images and statues to the pantheon of an individual's altar in their home. What harm is there in having statues of Vishnu, the Buddha, a crucifix, Mary, one's own ancestors, etc.. etc., etc.?
The Eastern apostolic churches don’t believe in it either. The EOC believes in ancestral sin, that is, that we inherited Adam & Eve’s sinful nature but not the guilt of their sin.
That’s not really a good comparison since infant baptism doesn’t actually involve any sinful act and idolatry does.
There are tons of things not forbidden in the scripture. The usage of tobacco is not forbidden, nor the use of narcotics, nor the owning of slaves, nor polygamy. The list goes on and on and on. Just because something is not forbidden hardly makes it allowable.
If one places one's faith and hope for salvation in anything or anyone other than the person and work of Jesus Christ, then it is quite harmful. I don't know about you, but I have met many individuals whose only experience with Christianity was when their parents took them to a church and had them baptized. For them, that is their ticket out of hell.
Actually in Romans 5 Paul specifically state that death came to all men because all sinned. Not because they were guilty of Adam’s sin.
But this still doesn’t make infant baptism a bad idea. The same could be said about receiving the Eucharist. Anyone who thinks they’re automatically saved just because they received the Eucharist but has no inward connection to Christ is sadly mistaken.
I will leave it up to you to determine if the various alternatives to the rite of baptism in the Catholic Church are acceptable. These are hardly new developments. Pope Gregory the Great authorized baptism using dust or dirt if there was no water available. Sprinkling of water instead of immersion has been permitted for centuries and has been a real benefit in frigid countries where baptism in the winter months would otherwise put the individual at serious health risk.
That is the problem. These things, in and of themselves, are hardly bad, but only become bad when they are misunderstood and misinterpreted. The same could be said for reading the Bible. The Bible is a great book and, we believe, inspired by God Himself. That said, many have been led astray from a pure faith in Jesus Christ either through their personal reading or through erroneous teaching from others.
