I debunked nothing of the sort. Had you read all that I wrote and not just the edited part you posted, I answered all of that already.
No, it is a work of obedience. I have never seen anyone wash their hands with symbolic water. Jesus was quite clear on this point, He said "...born of WATER and the Spirit". If He meant "symbolic water", He would have said so. But He didn't.
John 1:32 – when Jesus was baptized, He was baptized in the
water and the Spirit, which descended upon Him in the form of a dove. The Holy Spirit and water are required for baptism. Also, Jesus’ baptism was not the Christian baptism He later instituted.
Jesus’ baptism was instead a royal anointing of the Son of David (Jesus) conferred by a Levite (John the Baptist) to reveal Christ to Israel, as it was foreshadowed in 1 Kings 1:39 when the Son of David (Solomon) was anointed by the Levitical priest Zadok. See John 1:31; cf. Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:9; Luke 3:21.
John 3:3,5 – Jesus says, “Truly, truly, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” When Jesus said “water and the Spirit,” He was referring to baptism (which requires the use of real, wet physical water, and the work of the Spirit).
Pitting "
calling on the name of the lord" against
water baptism is a false "either/or" dichotomy. It's "both/and", not "either/or.
Mark 16:16 – Jesus says that he who believes and is baptized will be saved. However, the Church has always taught that baptism
is a normative, not an absolute necessity. There are some exceptions to the rule because God is not bound by His sacraments.
Luke 23:43 – the good thief, although not baptized, shows that there is also a baptism by desire, as Jesus says to him that he will be in paradise. It should also be noted that when Jesus uses the word “paradise,” He did not mean heaven. Paradise, from the Hebrew “sheol” meant the realm of the righteous dead. This was the place of the dead who were destined for heaven, but who were captive until the Lord’s resurrection. Hence, the good thief was destined for heaven because of his desire to be with Jesus.
Matt. 20:22-23; Mark 10:38-39; Luke 12:50 – there is also a baptism by blood. Lord says, “I have a baptism to be baptized with” referring to His death. Hence, the Church has always taught that those martyred for the faith may be saved without water baptism (e.g., the Holy Innocents).
SACRAMENT OF BAPTISM
Repentance when we sin, yes. Water baptism is done only once.
Protestants divide into five major camps concerning the central rite of initiation into the Christian faith:
1.) Infant baptismal regeneration (e.g., Lutherans, Anglicans, Orthodox).
2.) Adult baptismal regeneration (e.g., Churches of Christ).
3.) Symbolic-only infant baptism (e.g., Presbyterians).
4.) Symbolic-only adult baptism (e.g., Baptists).
5.) No baptism required at all (e.g., Quakers, Salvation Army).
+1 new one: a waterless baptism.
Since this debate hasn’t been able to be resolved, many simply deny that baptism is “central".
Yet the Bible insists on the crucial nature of baptism:
Mark 16:16 “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; …
”Titus 3:5 “He saved us … by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit” (cf. Jn 3:5)1 Peter 3:21 “Baptism, which corresponds to this [Noah’s ark], now saves you, …”The Apostle Paul referred to “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph 4:5). The Catholic, when studying the Bible, wants to know if his interpretations are in line with those of the Church and apostolic tradition. In this way, doctrinal unity can be maintained.
It’s not that Scripture is so unclear and esoteric that it is an utter mystery and an undecipherable “code” that only Holy Mother Church can break, and that no individual can possibly understand. Rather, the Church is required to speak authoritatively as to what Holy Scripture teaches, just as it spoke authoritatively with regard to what books were to be included in Scripture. Holy Scripture remains inherently what it is: God’s inspired, infallible written revelation.
Tradition in the Bible (particularly for St. Paul) is not an individualistic thing, kept by each person as an esoteric “secret,” as the gnostic heretics would have it. No, it is obviously a corporately held entity. It is held in common by the Church, as the collectivity of Christians. And as this deposit of faith was one unified teaching, there necessarily had to be one Church to preserve and promulgate it.
The clarity of Scripture and the role of the Church -