In “response” to a post I wrote responding a rather intellectually dishonest piece he wrote, Robert Bowman, an Evangelical apologist wrote, in part:
Same song, second verse: yes, the NT teaches baptism as the initiatory ritual of the Christian faith. Duh. All evangelicals practice baptism. The issue is whether the rituals and rules (let's not forget those), even with their Christ-pointing significance, can be viewed as the complete path to salvation.
For someone who is 59 years old (and 30 years older than me), he really lacks maturity with the “duh” comment. Furthermore, I am well aware that Evangelicals practice baptism. I have never denied that—most Evangelicals, however, view water baptism solely as symbolic and that it does not affect salvation. However, this ignores the overwhelming biblical and historical evidence for baptismal regeneration—Rob’s view of baptism is both contrary to the teachings of the New Testament and, as admitted by Reformed authors (e.g., William Webster), the unanimous consent of the early Church. The same applies for other salvific ordinances as taught, not just by “Mormonism” but the New Testament, such as the sacrament of the Lord’s supper. There is no exegetical basis to the denial that "NT religion includes the ritual of baptism as an essential part of the Christian faith" as he wrote in the same posting.
Again, what I wrote in my paper that I linked to,
Top 17 Reasons Bill McKeever Doesn't Understand the Latter-day Saint Faith, discusses this issue in more detail.
Fortunately, more and more Evangelicals are coming to realise that ordinances, especially water baptism, affect salvation and are not mere symbols, such as:
Anthony R. Cross, Recovering the Evangelical Sacrament (Wipf & Stock, 2012).
Jordan Cooper, a Lutheran, has a pretty good critique of Reformed soteriology on the point of baptism that was released just a year ago:
The Great Divide: A Lutheran Evaluation of Reformed Theology (Wipf & Stock, 2015)
Again, what I wrote in my paper that I linked to,
Top 17 Reasons Bill McKeever Doesn't Understand the Latter-day Saint Faith, discusses this issue in more detail.
Fortunately, more and more Evangelicals are coming to realise that ordinances, especially water baptism, affect salvation and are not mere symbols, such as:
Anthony R. Cross, Recovering the Evangelical Sacrament (Wipf & Stock, 2012).
Jordan Cooper, a Lutheran, has a pretty good critique of Reformed soteriology on the point of baptism that was released just a year ago:
The Great Divide: A Lutheran Evaluation of Reformed Theology (Wipf & Stock, 2015)
If Bowman wants to use flippant language (and overall silly non-responses), I shall let Edmund Blackadder give his assessment of Rob's "response":
