Speak It, Live it… or Not…
Had a little chat with the Pastoral Associate in our parish today. We ended up talking about recent events on the homeschool forums I frequent, specifically the anti-Roman Catholic vitriol and blasphemy that included calling Mary, the Mother of our Lord, a demon goddess and all Catholics (with specific attention to the Irish Catholic populace) as idolatrous. (Blasphemy not for what they said about Mary, but because they called evil that which the Holy Spirit (through Elizabeth) testified to.)
I mentioned to her that I was stunned to find (after two years of repeated and intense discussions and debates with protestants of all flavors) that the one thing that unifies ALL protestants (and atheists etc et al) is a hatred of the Roman Catholic Church. She said something then that struck me and I’ve been thinking on it all day… while speaking about how the Catholic Church sees protestants as our separated brothers and sisters in Christ, and yet they do not view us similarly, she brought up baptism. The Catholic Church recognizes the baptisms of most protestant churches… given than they are done in the triune formula and with water as sacred scripture specifies. They believe and LIVE ONE baptism so truly that even letters from witnesses will be taken as evidence if the church itself did not keep records.
Yet, I remember that my father, godly man though he is, did not acknowledge my husband’s baptism and considered him an unbeliever despite evidence in his life to the contrary until he was ‘rebaptized’ in a Baptist Church. Not believing in infant baptism at the time, I am guilty of trying to persuade my husband to do this, God forgive me, and just as guilty of persuading him as if my words had done so. As I have been exposed to more protestants and the wide variety of belief that entails, it has been proven true over and over again. Despite claiming to affirm ONE baptism, they do not. They require things that God did not and do not recognize baptisms done according to scripture if they are not done in the way that particular protestant organization prescribes.
I love the church of my youth. I love the people who helped teach me to love the Lord… and yet as God continues to renew my mind and teach me, bringing me more in line with the fullness of Truth… I become more and more aware just how flawed the doctrines, teachings, etc are that I’ve been called out of. The more I become aware of this, unpleasant though it is, the more I am shown just how dangerous these faith traditions are when carried to their logical conclusion. It is truly a frightening and humbling experience because there but for the grace of God… I would still be. I did not become Catholic because it made sense to me, or because it was logical (though it does and is now). I became Catholic because God made me. Oh sure, I had a choice… follow Him into the Catholic Church or turn my back on Him. What kind of a choice is that…. but I am forever grateful that He loved me enough to chastise me…
ETA: Evidently, null and void baptisms are part of a long tradition of setting aside that which God has done.
An excerpt from Irish Penal Law…
19 Geo II c.13 (1745):
An Act for annulling all Marriages to be celebrated by any Popish Priest between Protestant and Protestant, or between Protestant and Papist, …Sec. 1. Every marriage celebrated after the 1st day of May, 1746, between a papist and any person who has been a protestant within twelve months before such celebration of marriage, or between two protestants if celebrated by a popish priest, shall be absolutely null and void.
I remember visiting a SBC for a seminar and reading that our Triune Nazarene baptism (full immersion no less) would not be valid for membership. We’d have to be re-baptized Baptist. I was floored.
I think you really hit the nail on — their actions belie “one baptism.”