The following is from John Thomas’ Clerical Theology Unscriptural. It is a dialogue between two people:
“Heresian”
= Anglican who represents the ex opere operato understanding of the
sacraments, including baptismal regeneration for infants
“Boanerges”:
stand in for John Thomas himself representing the Christadelphian position.
Notice
that, while Thomas does believe in the salvific efficacy of water baptism, it
is contingent upon the recipient having adequate knowledge of the
Gospel, and Thomas rejects the term “baptismal regeneration” as, in his view,
it would mean accepting both ex opere operato as well as infant
baptism:
[Boanerges]: When Satan thus became Lord of “the
Church,” baptismal regeneration was decreed to be God’s truth: and his bishops
and clergy (I mean Satan’s, not God’s) such as the right reverend fathers of
London, Exeter, and Oxford, and their adherents, became the zealous stickers
for the fable. So long however as men “held fast the form of sound words”
delivered by the apostles, there was no scope for the ideas contained in “the
strife of words and perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute
of the truth, and who supposed that gain was godliness” (1 Tim. vi. 5; 2 Tim.
i.13). “Infant baptism,” “baptismal regeneration,” “immortal soul,” and a
multitude of like phrases, do not belong to “the form of sound words.” There is
nothing about them in the Bible. (John
Thomas, Clerical Theology Unscriptural, or, The Wisdom of the Clergy Proved
to be Folly, in Contending for the Faith From the Writings of Dr.
J. Thomas [West Beach, South Australia: Eureka Press PTY LTD., 1990], 120)
HERESIAN: . . . do you in rejecting the doctrine of
baptismal regeneration also reject the doctrine of baptism for the remission of
sin? Is it not a scriptural doctrine?
BOANERGES: If by “baptism” is to be understood the
sprinkling, pouring, or dipping of a man in water, saying “I baptize thee into
the name,” etc., without regard to faith, or the quality of the
faith which is determined by the things believed, I say that the dogma
of remission of sins in baptism is unscriptural. There can be no remission of
sins without belief of “The truth as it is in Jesus;” for it is the “faith that
works by love and purifies the heart” that is counted to a man for
righteousness. He must not only have faith, but it must be the “one faith”
(Eph. iv. 5), even the belief of “the things concerning the Kingdom of God and
the Name of Jesus Christ,” for the condition is, “He that believes the
gospel (Mark xvi. 15-16; Rom. i. 16-17) and it baptized shall be saved.”
(Ibid., 136)
HERESIAN: But divines teach, and man repeat it after
them, that if a man be “born of the Spirit,” it is quite unimportant for him to
be “born of water.”
BOANERGES: “Divines” teach many very foolish and
pernicious dogmas, and this among the number. The Lord Jesus, who is to possess
the kingdom, says that no man can enter it unless he be born of two things,
namely, “out of water” εξ υδατος, ex hydatos, “and of the spirit.” The spirit
is the begetter. He is the Father of lights, and begets men and women by the
word of truth (James i. 18; 1 Pet. i. 22-25), through the belief of which they
are brought into the water. Hence, they are said to be “sanctified and cleansed
by the bath of water with the word;” and thus “by one spirit they are all
baptized into one body” (1 Cor. xii. 13). It is good evidence that a man is not
born of the spirit who is not born of water.
HERESIAN: I apprehend that few will be willing to
admit that. Would you say that all who are born of water are born of the
spirit? Are there not many pious people who have not been baptized, who are far
more circumspect than multitudes who are very zealous for water?
BOANERGES: I do not mean to say any such thing. The
vast majority who go into the water come out of it as they went in, namely,
“dead in trespasses and sins.” No immersed man is born of the spirit who does
not understand and believe with “a good and honest heart” (Matt. xiii. 19, 23;
Luke viii. 15) the things of the Kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ. A
man who is begotten of the Spirit believes the truth, and his faith “works by
love” and purifies his heart and induces him gladly to submit to whatever “the
law of faith” requires. Many people are “pious” or have an ignorant zeal of
God; but such piety is not the fruit of the Spirit. (Ibid., 139)