Featured OSAS Trap

So you never read Criswell or Spurgeon.

 

Note how all these Fathers quote Scripture, and their interpretation of being born again is Water Baptism.

I could quote many more fathers who are referencing Scriptures saying the same thing with same interpretation.

Born again is Water Baptism.

“This then is what it is to be born again of water and of the Spirit, the being made dead being effected in the water, while our life is wrought in us through the Spirit. In three immersions, then, and with three invocations, the great mystery of baptism is performed, to the end that the type of death may be fully figured, and that by the tradition of the divine knowledge the baptized may have their souls enlightened. It follows that if there is any grace in the water, it is not of the nature of the water, but of the presence of the Spirit.” Basil, On the Spirit, 15:35 (A.D. 375).

 

“For if no one can enter into the kingdom of Heaven except he be regenerate through water and the Spirit, and he who does not eat the flesh of the Lord and drink His blood is excluded from eternal life, and if all these things are accomplished only by means of those holy hands, I mean the hands of the priest, how will any one, without these, be able to escape the fire of hell, or to win those crowns which are reserved for the victorious? These verily are they who are entrusted with the pangs of spiritual travail and the birth which comes through baptism: by their means we put on Christ, and are buried with the Son of God, and become members of that blessed Head.” John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood, 3:5-6 (A.D. 387).

 

It’s endless honestly.

“And that the writer was speaking of baptism is evident from the very words in which it is stated that it is impossible to renew unto repentance those who were fallen, inasmuch as we are renewed by means of the laver of baptism, whereby we are born again, as Paul says himself: ‘For we are buried with Him through baptism into death, that, like as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we, too, should walk in newness of life.'” Ambrose, Concerning Repentance, 2:8 (A.D. 390).

“Therefore read that the three witnesses in baptism, the water, the blood, and the Spirit, are one, for if you take away one of these, the Sacrament of Baptism does not exist. For what is water without the cross of Christ? A common element, without any sacramental effect. Nor, again, is there the Sacrament of Regeneration without water: ‘For except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.'” Ambrose, On the Mysteries, 4:20 (A.D. 391).

 

Those beloved Church Fathers were quoting scripture just fine, and they interpreted them as the Apostles meant them to be understood.

The way Catholics today understand them.

Here, have some more.

“But the sacrament of baptism is undoubtedly the sacrament of regeneration: Wherefore, as the man who has never lived cannot die, and he who has never died cannot rise again, so he who has never been born cannot be born again. From which the conclusion arises, that no one who has not been born could possibly have been born again in his father. Born again, however, a man must be, after he has been born; because, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God’ Even an infant, therefore, must be imbued with the sacrament of regeneration, lest without it his would be an unhappy exit out of this life; and this baptism is not administered except for the remission of sins. And so much does Christ show us in this very passage; for when asked, How could such things be? He reminded His questioner of what Moses did when he lifted up the serpent. Inasmuch, then, as infants are by the sacrament of baptism conformed to the death of Christ, it must be admitted that they are also freed from the serpent’s poisonous bite, unless we wilfully wander from the rule of the Christian faith. This bite, however, they did not receive in their own actual life, but in him on whom the wound was primarily inflicted.” Augustine, On Forgiveness of sin and baptism, 43:27 (A.D. 412).

“No sooner do they rise from the baptismal font, and by being born again and incorporated into our Lord and Saviour.” Jerome, Against the Pelagians, III:15 (A.D. 415).

 

“Moreover, from the time when He said, ‘Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven;’ and again, ‘He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it; ‘ no one becomes a member of Christ except it be either by baptism in Christ, or death for Christ.” Augustine, On the Soul and its Origin, 1:10:9 (A.D. 419).

“One generation and another generation; the generation by which we are made the faithful, and are born again by baptism; the generation by which we shall rise again from the dead, and shall live with the Angels for ever.” Augustine, Psalms,135:11 (A.D. 433).

 

“And each one is a partaker of this spiritual origin in regeneration; and to every one when he is re-born, the water of baptism is like the Virgin’s womb; for the same Holy Spirit fills the font, Who filled the Virgin, that the sin, which that sacred conception overthrew, may be taken away by this mystical washing.” Leo the Great (regn. A.D. 440-461), Sermon 24:3 (ante A.D. 461).

“From that time when the Saviour said to us: ‘If any man is not born again from water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God’, without the sacrament of baptism–apart from those who without baptism in the Catholic Church shed their blood for Christ–no one can receive the Kingdom of God or eternal life.” Fulgentius, On Faith, 3 (A.D. 524).

Born again is Water Baptism. Always has been.

 

“The baptism then into Christ means that believers are baptized into Him…And He laid on us the command to be born again of water and of the Spirit, through prayer and invocation, the Holy Spirit drawing nigh unto the water. For since man’s nature is twofold, consisting of soul and body, He bestowed on us a twofold purification, of water and of the Spirit the Spirit renewing that part in us which is after His image and likeness, and the water by the grace of the Spirit cleansing the body from sin and delivering it from corruption, the water indeed expressing the image of death, but the Spirit affording the earnest of life.” John of Damascus, Orthodox Faith, 9 (A.D. 743).

 

You have been shown hundreds of years of consistent Scriptural interpretations of the Church Fathers and beyond, saying the same thing.

Born again is Water Baptism.

It was the universal belief of the entire Church, East and West, even Luther and the majority of Christianity today believe it.

Born again means Water Baptism.

 

Sorry Dave, he did.

“For consider, if there were somewhere a physician who understood the art of saving men from dying, or, even though they died, of restoring them speedily to life, so that they would thereafter live forever, how the world would pour in money like snow and rain, so that because of the throng of the rich no one could find access! But here in Baptism there is brought free to every one's door such a treasure and medicine as utterly destroys death and preserves all men alive.“ Martin Luther: