speratus said: Believing and regenerate babies, toddlers, and mentally retarded are saved. Unbelieving and unregenerate babies, toddlers, and mentally retarded are damned. Mark 16:16.
Oh really? Mark 16:16 you say is the text that answers this question?
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Mark 16:16 (ASV) He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned.
I guess that the only ones that are going to be saved are those who believe and are baptized . . . according to your quasi Roman Catholic synergistic theology.
Quasi Roman Catholic synergistic theology? What are faith and the washing of regeneration other than gifts given entirely by the Holy Spirit without any work, merit, or cooperation by man? I reject every form of synergy including the Calvinist "Order of Salvation" whereby men actively cooperate in their own justification by faith.
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The BIBLE.... teaches us that ALL whom God has predestinated, those whom He has elected, those whom He has called, He justifies and at the end, glorifies. The BIBLE teaches us that it is not of man's will, nor of baptism, but of God's mercy that any are saved. Salvation is of the Lord, speratus. Oh when will you come to realize this?
God has chosen to work salvation through the means He has ordained. John 3:5. Those who despise the means that God has ordained have no faith and are not regenerate. Luke 7:30.
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I much prefer the BIBLICAL teaching as summarized rightly in the Westminster Confession of Faith:
<blockquote> <center><font size="4" color="blue">The Westminster Confession of Faith</font> Chapter X Of Effectual Calling</center>
III. Elect infants, dying in infancy, are regenerated, and saved by Christ, through the Spirit,[12] who worketh when, and where, and how he pleaseth:[13] so also are all other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word.[14]
12. Gen. 17:7; Luke 1:15; 18:15-16; Acts 2:39; John 3:3, 5; I John 5:12 13. John 3:8 14. John 16:7-8; I John 5:12; Acts 4:12<br> </blockquote>
What happened to "Sola Fide"? No quasi-Romanism here! The Papists would certainly agreely that infants are regenerated and saved without faith.
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Notice the stark difference between one having to outwardly believe and undergo baptism for salvation and one being elected by God, regenerated by God the Spirit and saved by Christ when, and where, and how HE pleases</font>. Again, "Salvation is of the LORD" and not by man's will or by some outward ritual.
Exactly, which is why I reject the Calvinist view of covenant baptism in favor of the baptism of scripture that truly cleanses the believing and regenerate of all sin in the blood of Christ. Acts 22:16
