Nuggets from "Whatever Happened to Heaven?" by Dave Hunt

Nuggets from "Whatever Happened to Heaven?" by Dave Hunt

Baptism caused the greatest controversy within Protestantism. Catholicism's infant baptism was retained among both Lutherans and Calvinists as well as by Anglicans and Presbyterians in England and Scotland. There were many, however, who saw clearly that baptism was only for believers who had personally received Christ as Lord and Savior ("If thou believest with all thine heart"—Acts:8:36-39 [36] And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? [37] And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. [38] And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. [39] And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.
See All...) and were thereby making public confession of that fact. They saw from experience that infant baptism led to the false belief that a person was, by virtue of the baptism, in some sense a Christian. Even though Confirmation was required later in life, it became in many cases a mere formality. Most of those who repudiated infant baptism and submitted to baptism as believers in Christ were called Anabaptists (or "rebaptized ones"). Terrible was their suffering at the hands of both Catholics and Protestants.