First, I would like to thank Mark for agreeing to do this debate with me. I hope and pray that through it, we and those reading can come to a greater understanding of the truth.
Old Testament Foreshadowing
�I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, says the Lord GOD, when through you I display my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleannesses, and I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you.� - Ezekiel 36:23-29
Here, the prophet Ezekiel prophesies that in the New Covenant, God will cleanse His people by sprinkling clean water on them. This harkens back to the ritual cleansing of the Levites (Numbers 8:5-7), and, because Jesus came to fulfill the Old Covenant (Matthew 5:17-18), brings to mind Christian baptism. Plus, since God chooses His words very carefully (Galatians 3:16), it makes sense that this sprinkling with water would refer to (surprise!) the sprinkling with water that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:19) and that several converts requested and/or received without delay (Acts 2:41; 8:36, 38; 16:30-33).
The Apostles� Message
�Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other apostles, �Brothers, what should we do?� Peter said to them, �Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.�� � Acts 2:37-38
�And now why do you delay? Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his name.� � Acts 22:16
When we get to the New Testament, we find exactly what Ezekiel predicted: a sprinkling with water to cleanse our souls. In the first passage, Peter�s audience had just heard him give the first Christian sermon and, moved his words, ask what they must do now that they have received the Gospel message. In reply, Peter tells them that they have to �be baptized�in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven.� In other words, they had to repent AND be baptized for their sins to be forgiven. In the second passage, Ananias tells Paul that he has to be baptized to have his sins washed away. Notice that baptism comes BEFORE having his sins washed away, so it has to bring about forgiveness of sins rather than symbolize it.
�What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.� � Romans 6:1-6
�For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body�Jews or Greeks, slaves or free�and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.� � 1 Corinthians 12:13
�Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.� � Galatians 3:24-27
In these three passages, baptism is portrayed not as a mere symbol but as an effective sacrament. We are actually baptized into Christ and enter the Church through baptism. Baptism doesn�t merely symbolize our death to sin; it actually kills our old selves. Baptism doesn�t merely symbolize our incorporation into the body of Christ; it actually makes us members. The last passage is especially relevant because it shows that faith and baptism work together; he pits faith against law but not faith against baptism. We are saved through faith, but God uses baptism as the means by which He gives us the grace that we must accept by faith. Contrary to what some Protestants argue, baptism is not a �work.� We don�t baptize ourselves; rather, someone else baptizes us. Through baptism, Jesus says to us:
Friend, you have multiple sins clinging to your soul, and they will cause you to be lost if we do not do something about them. I have a treatment which will take them all away. It is a very, very costly treatment, and I know that you do not have the ability to pay. So I--Jesus--will pay the entire price myself. All you have to do is allow yourself to be lowered into a tank of water and all those sins will melt away, and you will live forever.1
As we can see, baptism is a passive action in which we ourselves do not to any work. Thus, it cannot be argued that baptismal regeneration is some sort of Pelagianism or works salvation.
�In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.� � Colossians 2:11-14
In this verse, just like the previous three verses I quoted, Paul says that baptism actually does something: through it we are buried and raised with Jesus. Moreover, he compares it to circumcision, the sign of the Old Covenant, saying that it is a new �spiritual circumcision� through which we put off our old, unregenerate bodies and are made �alive together with him.�
�And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you�not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ� � 1 Peter 3:21
Here we have the most explicit proof for baptismal regeneration. Peter says that �baptism�saves you,� and then he goes on to explain exactly how it saves us. It is not, as some might think from seeing the ritual, �a removal of dirt from the body.� Instead, it is �an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.� Thus, baptism does not save us in and of itself; rather, it is an appeal to God for grace that we are confident He will give us. This is EXACTLY what the Catholic Church teaches. The waters of baptism have no power of their own, but God chooses to give us grace through those waters.
Water and Spirit
�Jesus answered, �Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.��� John 3:5
In his �Baptism and John 3:5,�2 Matt Slick gives four possible alternative interpretations of �water�: natural birth, the Holy Spirit, the ministry of John the Baptist, and the Word of God. Let�s go through each one of them and see if they fit the passage.
Natural Birth
Jesus first tells Nicodemus that �no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above� (v. 3), but Nicodemus misunderstands and thinks He�s referring to a second natural birth (v. 4). Then, in verse 5, Jesus reiterates His comment and makes it clearer. Thus, being born of �water and Spirit� is the same as being born �from above,� so our second birth must be through BOTH water AND the Holy Spirit. Additionally, the wording Jesus uses implies that He is referring to one birth of both water and the Holy Spirit. Had He said, �No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and being born of Spirit,� He would have been referring to two births, but that�s not what He said. He said �born of water and Spirit,� implying that being born again involves both water and the Holy Spirit. Moreover, interpreting �water� as amniotic fluid in natural birth (as some Protestants do) is biologically incorrect; we are NOT born of water (or amniotic fluid). While it does accompany birth, we are not actually born of it. In other words, it plays no part in forming us or giving us new life. With baptism, however, we are born again because the Holy Spirit gives us new life through water.
The Holy Spirit
If �water� were a synonym for the Holy Spirit, Jesus would be saying, �You must be born of the Spirit and the Spirit,� which is superfluous, so this is not what He meant.
The Ministry of John the Baptist
Jesus could have had John�s baptism in view as a precursor to Christian baptism, but John�s baptism did not confer the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-5), so it could not have been necessary for salvation. Plus, John�s ministry was not an end in itself; rather, his purpose was to prepare the way for Jesus, so his ministry ended when Jesus� began (John 3:30).
The Word of God
Slick bases this interpretation on Ephesians 5:26, which says that Jesus gave Himself up for the Church �in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word.� While at first glance this may seem like a possible interpretation, I would argue that �water� most likely means �water.� Let�s take a look at some other passages that talk about being cleansed through water.
�And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.� � 1 Corinthians 6:11
Notice that in this passage the washing comes before the sanctification and justification, so it must have caused them. Thus, if I can show that it refers to baptism, we have more proof for baptismal regeneration.
�But when the goodness and loving-kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.� � Titus 3:4-5
Again, if I can show that this �water of rebirth and renewal� is baptism, we have proof for baptismal regeneration.
�Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.� � Hebrews 10:19-22
We can approach �with a true heart in full assurance of faith� because we have had �our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.� The �pure water� with which our bodies are washed is an obvious reference to baptism, and because it allows us to �approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith,� we can conclude that it is more than a symbol. In fact, it seems that baptism is connected with our hearts having been �sprinkled clean from an evil conscience� (mentioning baptism and any sort of �sprinkling� in the same context implies a connection), which supports baptismal regeneration. Thus, we see everything come together in this one verse. The reference to our hearts being �sprinkled clean from an evil conscience� alludes to Ezekiel 36:23-29, and the washing with �pure water� shows that the Scriptural meaning of washing and/or water that cleanses us from our sins is baptism. Thus, Mark must now prove that John 3:5, 1 Corinthians 6:11 Ephesians 5:26, and Titus 3:5 all deviate from this usage.
Sacramentalism
I�ve given several Scriptural proofs for baptismal regeneration, so now I�d like to explain why God has chosen to regenerate us through baptism.
As beings made of both body and soul and entrenched in the material world, we learn and perceive reality through physical signs and symbols. We are not pure intellects, nor do we grasp reality in a purely intellectual manner. Thus, tangible symbols (such as baptism) help us to grasp things better, and God knows this. Consequently, He has chosen to give us grace through material signs and symbols, an idea not unknown to Scripture (for example, 2 Kings 13:21; Matthew 9:20-22; Acts 5:15, 19:12), and baptism is one of these material signs. Through the waters of baptism, we can not only know and believe that we are justified, but we can also see it.
It must be stressed, however, that God is not bound by His sacraments. Baptism is the normal way that God regenerates us, but in extraordinary circumstances where baptism is not possible, He can regenerate someone without it. Thus, for example, if someone gets hit by a car on the way to church to be baptized, he need not worry because God understands that even though he desired baptism, receiving it was physically impossible.
Endnotes
1) James Akin, �Whether Baptism is a �good work,�� http://www.cin.org/users/james/questions/q021.htm
2) http://www.carm.org/doctrine/John_3_5.htm