What Does the Catholic Church Say About Born Again
Q. Doesn't the Bible say nosotros must be "born again" to exist "saved"? Are Catholics "Built-in Again"?
Absolutely Catholics are "built-in once more" — they are baptized! This "born once more" question is based on John 3:three-five, where Jesus says to Nicodemus: "I say to you, no ane can see the kingdom of God without being born from above (some Bibles read, "built-in again", here)... no ane can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit."
Both Protestants and Catholics agree that to be "saved" [i.due east. to be able to enter Heaven], a person must exist "born once more". The deviation lies in how Catholics and Protestants believe a person is actually "born again".
Well-nigh Protestants consider existence "born again" to hateful, "Have you accustomed Jesus equally your personal Lord and Savior" and confessed something called "the Sinner's Prayer". They besides empathize "being born of h2o and Spirit" to be two separate events. Being "born of h2o" refers either to the amniotic fluid of natural human childbirth or to the preached Word of God, and existence born of "spirit" refers to accepting Jesus every bit Lord and Savior.
How do Catholics answer this? For starters, the phrase, "born of water and Spirit", in the grammar of the original Greek that St. John's Gospel was written in, is referring to a single event, involving both water and the Holy Spirit, not a separate baptism of "water", and then a second baptism of the "Spirit". And when St. John actually does speak nigh natural human nativity in John i:13, he refers to it every bit beingness "born... of blood", non as "being born of water"!
Additionally, since the fourth dimension of the Apostles, the Church has always taught that John 3:iii-v unquestionably refers to baptism. Every Church Father in the outset 1000 years of Christianity that has ever written on this passage has unwaveringly understood it to refer to baptism — they are resoundingly unanimous on this!
For case, in 151 A.D., St. Justin Martyr wrote: "they... are led... to a identify where there is h2o, and they are reborn: 'In the proper name of... the Father... and of... Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit,' they receive the washing of water. For Christ said, 'Unless you be reborn, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven'".
Similarly, St. Irenaeus (190 A.D., taught by St. Polycarp, who was taught past St. John himself!) would write: "we are made clean, past means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord... being spiritually regenerated equally newborn babes, even equally the Lord has alleged: 'Except a human being be born over again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven'". If you desire to believe what the early Church believed most John 3:3-5, y'all must interpret information technology as referring to baptism.
But ultimately, it is Jesus Himself who definitively answers the question. In Marking 16:16, He says, "whoever believes and is baptized will be saved." Need nosotros say more than?
Thirdly, and perhaps most obviously, it just simply isn't what the text says! Now don't become me wrong, accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior is a good matter! And we shouldn't practise this just once, simply even several times a twenty-four hour period! But the betoken is that John 3:3-v speaks only of being born of water and spirit [i.east. baptism] as the means Jesus specifies for entering the Kingdom of Heaven. It says cipher nigh taking Jesus equally Lord and Savior, good as it is. No one would deny that God-given faith and taking Jesus as Lord are necessary earlier baptism is given (see my earlier article on infant baptism) — only both faith and baptism are necessary to be "saved". That is but simply what Jesus says!
And this brings up yet a fourth point. The context all around John 3:3-five is very much well-nigh baptism. In John 1:31-33, Jesus himself is baptized and the Holy Spirit descends upon him — conspicuously prefiguring the sending of the Holy Spirit at baptism. And in John 3:22 and John 4:one-3, nosotros read almost Jesus and the Apostles baptizing.
Just the final and irrefutable reply comes from Scripture itself. What does the Bible say virtually baptism? Is information technology just a symbolic washing, as some Christians believe, or is it necessary for salvation, i.e. does information technology "save" us, as the Catholic Church teaches.
Unquestionably, the Bible teaches that baptism "saves you". This is literally what St Peter says in ane Peter 3:20-21: "[In the ark]... eight persons were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves yous". Information technology doesn't become much clearer than that! And then, in Acts 2:38, St. Peter again says: "Repent, and be baptized every one of y'all in the proper name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins; and y'all shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." And in Galatians 3:27, St Paul confirms that "all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."
But ultimately, it is Jesus Himself who definitively answers the question. In Mark 16:16, He says, "whoever believes and is baptized will be saved." Demand nosotros say more?
If God has ordained water baptism every bit the means He chooses to convey the Grace of salvation, who are we to argue?
Source: https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/protestant-objections/are-catholics-born-again.html
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