Wednesday, March 1, 2023

Nick Needham (Protestant): Baptismal Regeneration Being the View Held by All Christians from the 150s onward

  

Cyril’s Lectures give us a full account of how the Catholic Church had, by the 4th century, come to understand the meaning of baptism. Cyril called baptism “the bath of regeneration” and taught his catechumens that it had three main effects. First, it washed away the guilt of all sins committed prior to baptism. Second, it sanctified the baptised person, by conferring on him spiritual union with Christ in His death and resurrection, the gift of the Spirit, and adoption as God’s child. Third, it impressed a “seal” or permanent mark on the soul, by virtue of which the baptised person was set apart as the Holy Spirit’s temple. Cyril’s doctrine of baptism was the view held by all Christians in the 4th century, and indeed from the 150s onward. (Nick Needham, 2000 Years of Christ's Power, 4 vols. [revised ed.; Ross-Shire: Christian Focus, 2016], 1:197-98)

 

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