Do Catholics Need to Be Baptized Again

Q.  Doesn't the Bible say we must be "built-in once more" to exist "saved"?  Are Catholics "Built-in Again"?

Absolutely Catholics are "born again" — they are baptized!  This "born again" question is based on John iii:iii-5, where Jesus says to Nicodemus: "I say to you, no one can meet the kingdom of God without being built-in from higher up (some Bibles read, "born again", here)...  no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit."

Both Protestants and Catholics agree that to be "saved" [i.e. to be able to enter Heaven], a person must exist "born again".  The difference lies in how Catholics and Protestants believe a person is really "born once more".

Most Protestants consider being "born again" to hateful, "Take you accustomed Jesus every bit your personal Lord and Savior" and confessed something called "the Sinner'due south Prayer".  They as well understand "beingness built-in of water and Spirit" to be two separate events.  Existence "born of water" refers either to the amniotic fluid of natural homo childbirth or to the preached Word of God, and beingness born of "spirit" refers to accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior.

How practice 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 unmarried outcome, involving both h2o and the Holy Spirit, not a divide baptism of "h2o", then a 2d baptism of the "Spirit".  And when St. John actually does speak about natural man birth in John 1:thirteen, he refers to it as being "built-in... of blood", non as "existence born of water"!

Additionally, since the time of the Apostles, the Church has ever taught that John 3:3-v unquestionably refers to baptism.  Every Church Father in the showtime 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 in that location is water, and they are reborn: 'In the name of...  the Male parent... and of... Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit,' they receive the washing of water.  For Christ said, 'Unless you exist reborn, y'all 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 make clean, by ways of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord...  beingness spiritually regenerated as newborn babes, even as the Lord has declared: 'Except a human being be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven'".  If you want to believe what the early on Church believed almost John 3:3-5, you must interpret it every bit referring to baptism.

Merely ultimately, it is Jesus Himself who definitively answers the question. In Mark 16:sixteen, He says, "whoever believes and is baptized will be saved."  Need nosotros say more?

Thirdly, and perchance nigh evidently, it just simply isn't what the text says!  Now don't go me wrong, accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior is a good thing!  And we shouldn't do this simply once, merely fifty-fifty several times a day!  But the bespeak is that John 3:three-five speaks only of being built-in of water and spirit [i.e. baptism] as the means Jesus specifies for entering the Kingdom of Sky.  Information technology says nothing virtually taking Jesus as Lord and Savior, good every bit it is.  No one would deny that God-given faith and taking Jesus as Lord are necessary before baptism is given (see my earlier article on infant baptism) — but both organized religion and baptism are necessary to be "saved".  That is merely just what Jesus says!

And this brings up nevertheless a fourth point.  The context all around John 3:3-5 is very much nearly baptism.  In John one:31-33, Jesus himself is baptized and the Holy Spirit descends upon him — clearly prefiguring the sending of the Holy Spirit at baptism.  And in John iii:22 and John 4:ane-3, we read most Jesus and the Apostles baptizing.

But the final and irrefutable answer comes from Scripture itself.  What does the Bible say well-nigh baptism?  Is it simply a symbolic washing, as some Christians believe, or is it necessary for salvation, i.e. does information technology "salve" u.s.a., as the Catholic Church teaches.

Unquestionably, the Bible teaches that baptism "saves you lot".  This is literally what St Peter says in 1 Peter 3:20-21: "[In the ark]... eight persons were saved through water.  Baptism, which corresponds to this, at present saves yous".  It doesn't get much clearer than that!  So, in Acts two:38, St. Peter again says: "Repent, and be baptized every one of you lot in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins; and you 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."

Only ultimately, it is Jesus Himself who definitively answers the question. In Mark 16:sixteen, He says, "whoever believes and is baptized will be saved."  Need nosotros say more?

If God has ordained water baptism every bit the means He chooses to convey the Grace of conservancy, who are nosotros to debate?

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Source: https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/protestant-objections/are-catholics-born-again.html

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