Comments
Why would churches with opposing, contradictory plans of
salvation accept one another's water baptisms as valid? What exactly does
"valid" even mean in that context? It makes absolutely no
sense...unless, as the last paragraph states, none of the participants really
believe what they claim to believe about what one must do to be saved, in which
case they are all lying hypocrites.
The problem is, catholics are praying to Mary and a bunch of
other "things" out there.That is outright idolatry.Real christians
need to separate themselves.
Baptism is a sign that the person has repented of their sins
and has placed their trust in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ for
salvation.
There is no salvation imparted in baptism. This error of
salvation in the "sacrament of baptism" is taught by both Roman
Catholics and many Protestants, which would include Lutherans, Anglicans and
the Reformed and Presbyterians.
Protestant Denominations, Catholics Sign Ecumenical ‘Mutual Recognition of Baptism’ Agreement
http://christiannews.net/2013/01/30/protestant-denominations-catholics-sign-ecumenical-mutual-recognition-of-baptism-agreement/
January 30, 2013
The document, entitled “These Living Waters: Common Agreement on the Mutual Recognition of Baptism,” has been approximately four years in the making. The Presbyterian Church USA was reportedly the first to deliberate the move, followed by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
“The Common Agreement affirms that both Catholic and Reformed Christians hold that baptism is the sacramental bond of unity for the Body of Christ, which is to be performed only once, by an authorized minister, with flowing water, using the Scriptural Trinitarian formula of ‘Father, Son and Holy Spirit,” wrote the bishops in a news release about the matter two years ago.
Therefore, if a person is baptized by a Catholic priest but later converts to a protestant church, the denominations involved in the ecumenical gesture agree to accept the baptism and not ask that the person be baptized over again — and vice versa.
The Common Agreement was signed last night in Austin, Texas by members of both the Presbyterian Church USA and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as the Christian Reformed Church of North America, the Reformed Church of America and the United Church of Christ.
Writer Brian Cross says that while there has been somewhat of an alliance between Protestants and Catholics over the matter for centuries, disagreement has remained.
“The Catholic Church has long recognized the validity of Protestant baptisms in which the person was baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” he explained. “In the last ten or fifteen years, however, there were concerns among Catholic bishops regarding Protestant baptisms in which different names were substituted for the Holy Trinity, or in which a method of sprinkling was used that did not achieve any flow of water on the skin.”
“The Dutch and German Reformed traditions have generally recognized the validity of Catholic baptisms, as have most Presbyterian churches. The major exception to this were the Presbyterian churches in the United States since the time of James Henry Thornwell in the mid-nineteenth century, especially in the south. Thornwell argued that Catholic baptisms were invalid because Catholic priests were not ‘lawful ministers of the Word,’” Cross continued. “Some Reformed denominations in the United States remain on Thornwell’s side of that debate, and still do not necessarily accept the validity of Catholic baptisms.”
While there remains debate over whether Protestants — those who agree with Reformers such as Martin Luther, who rebuked and separated from the Roman Catholic Church with his “95 theses,” a document that outlined his many concerns with the establishment’s traditions and teachings — should agree to recognize Catholic baptisms, the greater question of whether Protestants and Catholics should engage in any forms of ecumenicism at all continues to be an issue among Christians.
“Everybody’s afraid to say that Roman Catholics are not Christians, and that if you make that statement, you are perceived as unloving or old school,” stated Pastor Jon Speed of the Log College and Christ is King Baptist Church in Syracuse, New York“ . But, either we’re trying to hide what we believe about the Gospel, or we don’t really believe it.”
