What is the deal with sprinkling kids at birth and calling it baptism... why does that count for baptism instead of immersion ala John the Baptist?
Happy to oblige. Indeed I feel for my friends of the evangelical persuasion after all this hoopla in Rome the last couple weeks. Are all those millions and millions of people going to hell? Was John Paul II the Anti-Christ and the Roman Catholic Church the Whore of Babylon? Many Bible-Christians would say yes. Somebody’s got it wrong.
Like your other question, this question too has many levels that basically boil down to: do we go with the Bible alone (and one’s personal interpretation of it) or do we trust the Church that Jesus left us. But here’s the short answer:
The bible gives no instruction on how a person is to be baptized. Jesus only commands that a person be born again of WATER and THE SPIRIT.
“Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:5 KJV)
John indeed baptized by immersion (a river was handy), but Jesus gave no such instruction. For a really detailed answer to this question click here: http://www.catholic.com/library/baptism_immersion_only.asp
The deeper question is why baptize at all (many protestant churches don’t) if indeed a person can be saved by a simple profession of faith as most protestant Churches teach. Our non-Catholic Christian brethren are fond of the following verses:
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Rom 10:13)
"And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.......... “(Acts 16:31)
The deal here is the word “shall”. Protestants take it for “are” as in “are saved”, like this very instant, like “done”, “finito”, “once saved, always saved”, “yeehah I’m going to Heaven!”
Catholics understand “shall” just as it should be understood: it’s a beginning – as in SHALL (future tense) There are things that need to be done. Protestants should read the Gospels (not just a few lines out of Paul) to find out what Jesus in fact commanded as necessary for salvation. But I can get into that another time if you’d like. However, I will say that the Catholic Church teaches that Jesus saves however He wills and that He desires that “all be saved”. That’s why even a child or a mentally incapacitated person incapable of the full profession of faith required by the protestant formula can be saved.