James W. Dale, a critic of baptismal regeneration, admitted that, at an early stage of Christian history, John 3:5 was understood as teaching the salvific efficacy of water baptism:
Historical
Fact.
This passage of
Scripture has, by the interpretation given to it, more profoundly moulded the
conception of Christian ritual baptism than any or all other passages beside.
At a very early period it was quoted by bearing on this rite, and very soon it
was accepted as expounding its nature and value. REGENERATION was supposed to
be the result of the co-action of the water and the Holy Spirit. On this
there was a very wide agreement perpetuated through more than a thousand years.
There was little
attempt to make such a view accord with the teaching of other passages of
Scripture; or to make a ritual regeneration harmonize with their own oftentimes
eminently spiritual views of truth and the way of salvation. (James W. Dale, Christic
Baptism and Patristic Baptism: An Inquiry into the Meaning of the Word as
Determined by the Usage of the Holy Scriptures and Patristic Writings [2d
ed.; Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1874; repr.,
Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Publishing, 1995], 355, emphasis in original)
