I don’t know where to begin showing you the errors of your revisionist Biblical AND historical views. At best – they are tragically wrong . . .
ALL of the following verses of Scripture teach the regenerating power of Baptism with water (Mark 16:16, John 3:5, Acts 19:1-7, Acts 22:16, Acts 2:37-38, Gal. 3:27, Col. 2:11-12, Tit. 3:4-8, 1 Pet. 3:21)
The Early Church overwhelmingly taught this truth:
The Epistle of Barnabas (yes, the same Barnabas from Acts)
“… we have the evidence of Scripture that Israel would refuse to accept the washing which confers the REMISSION OF SINS and would set up a substitution of their own instead “[Jer. 22:13; Is. 16:1-2, 33:16-18; Ps. 1:3-6].
“Blessed are those who go down into the water with their hopes set on the cross.’ Here he is saying that after we have stepped down into the water, burdened with sin and defilement, we come up out of it bearing fruit, with reverence in our hearts and the hope of Jesus in our souls” (11:1-10 [circa A.D. 70]).
Hermas
”… we went down into the water and obtained the remission of our former sins.’ He said to me, ‘You have heard rightly, for so it is'” (The Shepherd 4:3:1-2 [A.D. 140]).
“They had need [the Shepherd said] to come up through the water, so that they might be made ALIVE, for they could not otherwise enter into the kingdom of God, except by putting away the mortality of their former life. “
“They go down into the water dead [in sin], and come out of it alive” (Ibid. 9:16:2-4).
Theophilus
“Moreover, those things which were created from the waters were blessed by God, so that this might also be a sign that men would at a future time receive repentance and remission of sins through water and the bath of REGENERATION–all who proceed to the truth and are born again and receive a blessing from God” (To Autolycus 12:16 [A.D. 181]).
Justin Martyr
“Then they are led by us to a place where there is water, and they are reborn in the same kind of rebirth in which we ourselves were reborn: In the name of God, the Lord and Father of all, and of our Savior Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they receive the washing of water. For Christ said, ‘Unless you be reborn, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.’… The reason for doing this, we have learned from the Apostles” (The First Apology 61:14-17 [inter A.D. 148-155]).
Clement of Alexandria
“When we are baptized we are enlightened.
It is a washing by which we are cleansed of sins, a gift of grace by which the punishments due our sins are remitted, an illumination by which we behold that holy light of salvation–t…”
(The Instructor of Children, 1:6:26:1 [ante A.D. 202]).
Origen
“The Church received from the apostles the tradition of giving baptism EVEN TO INFANTS. For the apostles, to whom were committed the secrets of divine mysteries, knew that there is in everyone the innate stains of sin, which are washed away through water and the Spirit”
(Commentaries on Romans 5:9 [Post A.D. 244]).
Cyprian
“But afterwards, when the stain of my past life had been washed away by means of the water of REBIRTH, a light from above poured itself upon my chastened and now pure heart; afterwards, through the Spirit which is breathed from heaven, a second birth made of me a new man” (To Donatus 4 [circa A.D. 246]).
Aphraates
“From baptism we receive the spirit of Christ. At that same moment in which the priests invoke the Spirit, heaven opens, and he descends and rests upon the waters, and those who are baptized are clothed in him. The Spirit is absent from all those who are born of the flesh, until they come to the water of REBIRTH, and then they receive the Holy Spirit….n the second birth, that through baptism, they receive the Holy Spirit” (Treatises 6:14:4 [inter A.D. 336-345]).
Cyril of Jerusalem
“If any man does not receive baptism, he does not have salvation. The only exception is the martyrs, who, even without water, will receive baptism, for the Savior calls martyrdom a baptism (cf. Mark 10:38)….Bearing your sins, you go down into the water; but the calling down of grace seals your soul and does not permit that you afterwards be swallowed up by the fearsome dragon. You go down dead in your sins, and you come up made alive in righteousness” (Catechetical Lectures 3:10,12 [circa A.D. 350]).
Basil
“For prisoners, baptism is ransom, forgiveness of debts, death of sin, REGENERATION of the soul, a resplendent garment, an unbreakable seal, a chariot to heaven, a protector royal, a gift of adoption” (Sermons on Moral and Practical Subjects: On Baptism 13:5 [ante A.D. 379]).
Ambrose
“The Lord was baptized, not to be cleansed himself but to cleanse the waters, so that those waters, cleansed by the flesh of Christ which knew no sin, might have the power of baptism. Whoever comes, therefore, to the washing of Christ lays aside his sins” (Commentary on the Gospel of Luke 2:83 [circa A.D. 389]).
Jerome
“This much you must know, that baptism forgives past sins, but it does not safeguard future justice, which is preserved by labor and industry and diligence and depends always and above all on the mercy of God” (Dialogue Against the Pelagians 3:1 [A.D. 415]).
Augustine
“The sacrament of baptism is most assuredly the sacrament of REGENERATION”
(Forgiveness and the Just Deserts of Sin, and the Baptism of Infants 1:9:10; 1:24:34; 2:27:43 [A.D. 412]).
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