Both Luther and Calvin, 2 primary founders of Protestantism, baptized infants. My question to objectors is: "Who was the first reformer to reform the former reformists?" And why it was never an issue for another 100 years?
Luther and Calvin both still had some very Catholic leanings, yes. Doesn't mean they were correct.
The Anabaptists at least understood that baptism of babies was not biblical. A belief is not correct or incorrect because of when it becomes popular.
For centuries before the Reformation, baptismal regeneration was rejected by Bible-believing Christians, whom the Roman
Catholic Church therefore persecuted, tortured and slaughtered by the millions.
The early Reformers such as Martin Luther were originally Catholics, and unfortunately, retained some
Catholic dogmas, among them baptismal regeneration and infant baptism. These heresies are still held by some Protestant denominations today. The issue is a serious one. If baptism is essential for
salvation, then to reject that gospel is to be damned. But if
salvation is through faith in Christ alone, then to add baptism as a condition for
salvation is to reject the true gospel.
Numerous verses declare that whosoever does not
believe is lost, but not one verse declares that whosoever is not
baptized is lost. Surely the Bible would make it clear that believing in Christ without being baptized cannot save if that were the case, yet it
never says so! Instead, we have examples of those who believed and were saved without being baptized, such as the thief on the cross and the Old Testament saints (Enoch, Abraham, Joseph, Daniel, et al.), to whom Christian baptism was unknown.
This dogma of "falling away," like baptismal regeneration, also comes from Roman
Catholicism. No
Catholic can be certain he is saved; for
salvation, which is by works in
Catholicism, could be forfeited at any time by failure to continue to perform the works prescribed. Trent declares, "If anyone says that in order to obtain the remission of sins it is necessary... to believe with certainty...that his sins are forgiven him, let him be anathema....If anyone says that he will for certain...have that great gift of perseverance [in the faith] even to the end...let him be anathema."7 While rebaptism is not practiced in
Catholicism, the sacraments of penance and the Mass are said to restore saving grace and are thus repeated endlessly.
If Jesus is re sacrificed at every Mass, how could he be said to have died once for all?
Christ never baptized anyone (Jn:4:2
)—very odd if baptism saves. The Savior of the world must have deliberately avoided baptizing to make it clear that baptism has no part in
salvation. Yes, Christ said we must be "born [again] of
water and of the Spirit" to be saved (Jn:3:5
), but it is unwarranted to assume that "water" here means baptism. To do so would contradict the wealth of Scripture we have seen which proves
salvation is not by baptism.
Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, a rabbi to whom "water" would not mean
baptism (which was unknown in Jewish law) but the ceremonial cleansing of someone who had been defiled (Ex 30, 40; Lev 13, 15, etc.). And that is what Christ meant. His death would make it possible to "sanctify and cleanse [His church] with the washing of water by the word [of the gospel]" (Eph:5:25-27
). Christ said, "Now ye are
clean through the word which I have spoken" (Jn:15:3
). Like Christ, Paul put water and the Spirit together, referring to the "washing of regeneration" and linking it with the "renewing of the Holy Ghost" (Titus:3:5
). We are born again by the Holy Spirit and by the Word or gospel of God, which is sometimes called "water" because of its cleansing power. As Peter said, we are "born again...by the word of God" (1 Pt 1:23).
Peter communicated to his Jewish audience in his Pentecost sermon: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins" (Acts:2:38
). It is clear from the many other scriptures we've given that Peter wasn't saying that baptism saves, but that it offered a ceremonial cleansing uniquely applicable to his Jewish hearers. To be baptized was to be identified before the fanatical Jews of Jerusalem with this hated Jesus Christ as one's personal Savior.
