Catholics and baptism.

Let us first begin with catholics. Let us not be confused with their theology. It is complicated.

They believe that Christ's blood is applied in water baptism. The person is then regenerated and filled or rather infused with all the graces that leads one to be sanctified. These graces enable a person to do good until the person rejects them. Babies are saved in these graces (by baptism) because they are unable to reject these graces until they can reason and reject them. It is also up to the catholic to maintain this deposit of faith. A Catholic will remain righteous and thus saved if he does not reject these sanctifying graces.

This requires the ongoing act of Penance, works, and confession. Some catholics will believe that God works and wills within people within their sanctification. It is done by God alone within a person. This credits God not man for sanctification. It can be said that Augustinians may place the merit/value to God's credit. It is from this they can maintain that men do not make themselves righteous and God saves from first to last. These people rely on God to save.

But many times this turns into a synergism (Thomisians) of effort which credits both. Lastly there is the idea that God only gives the ability. The works are then ascribed as the person's merit which become necessary to be saved. (Most common and close to pelagrian.) A smart catholic would conclude the grace (despite it being granted by the church in baptism) is from God. They would say it is necessary but not suffiecent. This lack of suffiecency means that man's merit is required for God to save.

Augustinians may believe it is suffiecent but not without God's sanctification in a person. The person must still work to be saved but it is and is not him working. I cannot say they beleive in salvation by works but they don't believe in a righteousness apart from the law. This is a short summery of catholocism as I understand it. I may have left a great deal out but I hope this has done them justice. It is from this that one can conclude a few catholics, who trust in Christ for their righteousness, are saved and many more are not because they trust in their works. The invisible church remains unbroken since the time of Christ.

We shall look more closely at baptism from now within this foundation. It is understandable that Early catholics put off baptism to lessen their requirement of keeping themselves righteous until their death. Once baptised they are saved none-the-less. This changed once catholics made purgatory a dogma sanctification was still required even if one waited. There was no longer an urge to wait. It is also shown that Early catholics saw baptism as entrance to group of the faithful and the lord's army by application of the Grace. Baptism served for full entrance into the Catholic church.

Now Catholics who put off baptism till their deathbed were faced with a dilemma. What if they were not near water, a priest, and were dying. Could they be saved. They were willing to be baptised but had not the means at hand. If they died on their way to be baptized by a priest. (Not just any believer but one invested with the power of Rome.) What happens to his soul? Is it saved?

Lets see how in my next post the catholics want to have their cake and eat it too.