Regarding his recognition of Christ, John says (John 1:32), "And I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water . . ." John knew for sure that God had sent him to baptize.

page 97, God takes what has been corrupted or adulterated by sin and redeems it for himself. He can take pagan rituals and transform then through consecration to be used for his holy purpose.

Acts 19:19 concerns pagans that had been saved, "Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men . . ." The Catholic Church redeems (the word normally used is baptizes or Christianizes) pagan rituals; obedient Christians burn their paganism.

Ray tries to link God's saving of pagan sinful men with God's redeeming pagan rituals, but God's war against paganism can be seen in Deuteronomy 7:5. There God says, concerning how His people should treat pagans, But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. Total dissassociation with paganism in also spelled out for Christians in 1 Cor. 10:20, the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God.

Page 98, footnote, "There are books written to expose the 'fact' that the Catholic Church incorporated pagan practices and in so doing became a pagan religion. . . History shows the ludicrous nature of this argument. (Note this tactic in most Catholic apologetic writings. An exaggeration is deliberately used to subtly convey the idea that this is a fait accomplis, that history has spoken and only a fool would embrace such a ludicrous theory.)

Ray continues, "We ourselves were pagans at one time. Did we corrupt the Church as we entered, or did she, through the redemptive grace of God, redeem and purify us for God's service?

Besides the scriptural proofs we mentioned in the preceding paragraph, we know that when Christ returns He will free creation from the bondage it is now in. There will be future full natural restoration; there is still organized paganism of which warns His people. God does redeem people, not as Steven Ray would suppose, but by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, at which time He baptizes us into the Body of Christ. Pagan rituals are to be discarded; we are told "ye cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of demons" (1 Corinthians 10:21.)

page 98, "Even Protestants use the same marriage rituals and ceremonies as the pagan Romans (rings, veils, and so on), yet since these rituals are now sanctified by their Christian usage, Protestants feel no compunction about using them.

We do not use rings, veils, etc. because they have been "sanctified by Christian usage." The use of a ring does not validate the marriage, and the marriage is not tending toward salvation. The whole point is that pagan rituals and idolatry, when they become part of a sacramental system of salvation, are unacceptable in Christian worship.

Page 98, "Jesus instituted baptism himself, both by his example and by his instruction."

We know that John's Baptism was not the same as Christian Baptism. This is brought out very clearly by Paul's encounter with the disciples of John in Ephesus (Acts 19.)

Page 98, Ray talks about baptism as a "rite of salvation and initiation."

One problem is that whenever a Catholic reads the word baptism he immediately thinks of water. 1 Corinthians 12:13 talks about another Baptism, by the Spirit into the Body of Christ. This is not a "rite" which Webster defines as "a prescribed form or manner governing the words or actions for a ceremony." A rite is ceremonial; salvation is a work of God.

Page 99, "It was only heretics, Gnostics, schismatics, and unbelievers who denied the regenerating and renewing powers of water baptism."

In the book, The Triumph of the Church, by Jesuit priest John Markoe (he wrote during a time when Catholics could rely on the doctrinal purity of the Jesuits), we have a long list of those who denied Baptismal Regeneration. They include the Bogomilists, Petrobrosians, Albigenses, Anabaptists, Zwinglians, Mennonites, Baptists, Quakers and the Salvation Army. Steven Ray would possibly counter by saying that these groups are all heretical.

Many of these groups suffered the problem of not being able to write their own history because of Catholic persecution, and then had their history written by their enemies. After listing many errors, Priest Markoe continues with his history of the Bogomilists. They "did away with baptism by water; denied the Real Presence; rejected images . ."

Of the Petrobrosians, Markoe writes, They "rejected the baptism of infants; condemned altars and churches; prohibited the veneration of the Cross; rejected the Mass and Holy Eucharist and denied the utility of prayers for the dead." Along with a lot of charges which were falsely laid upon the Christians from Albi, one of their "errors" was the rejection of infant baptism.

If you want to get some facts about these and other groups, many maliciously maligned, see The Noble Army of "Heretics" available on our website at www.dodone.org/NA.html

Page 99, "These (heretics, etc.) would also be the ones who denied the Trinity (and) the deity of Christ."

The only group of the above-names who are supposed to have denied the deity of Christ were the Albigenses, but on closer examination, we can see that this charge is false.

Page 99, Ray says, "Not until after the German Reformation did any in the Church accept contrary teachings."

Of the above group, the Bogomilists (11^th century), Petrobrosians (12^th century) and Albigenses (13^th century) were all prior to the Reformation.

On page 99, Ray asks, "Is the Bible a doctrinal textbook - a comprehensive Church manual - that clearly explains everything about the faith, with no ambiguities?" The answer he provides is, obviously, No.

The Bible tells us that the scriptures are all that are needed to bring a man to faith in Christ (John 20:31) and to make the man of God perfectly mature regarding doctrine, reproof, correction and instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16,17).

On Page 100, Ray asks, "How does one receive salvation, justification, new birth and eternal life? He mentions several ways, and concludes, "Not one of them can be dismissed as means obtaining eternal life. Neither can one be emphasized to the exclusion of another.

Yet the Catholic Catechism (# 1213) says, "Holy Baptism is . . . the gateway to life in the Spirit . . . Through Baptism . . . we become members of Christ, (and) are incorporated into the Church. Ray quotes two scriptures to assert that believing is the way to become a Christian. The Catechism has 6 paragraphs wherein they cite these scriptures. John 3:16 is cited five times, but in only one does it address the issue of personal salvation.

That is paragraph 454, which states that "to be a Christian, one must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. They cite Acts 8:37 to prove this, but in Acts 8:37 the Ethiopian eunuch said he believed before Philip would baptize him. Since John 3:16 puts belief as the requisite for salvation, we see that baptism comes after belief.

Ray says the next requisite for salvation is repentance.

There is no reference to repentance in the Catholic Catechism. Both verses which Ray cites (Acts 2:38 and 2 Peter 3:9), in the Douay-Rheims Bible, the only authorized translation for 400 years, tell us to do penance. The Catechism does have six references to the two verses Ray used. Three of the six say nothing about repentance; the other three speak of repentance. #1037 tells us it is God's will that we should come to repentance, #1226 quotes Peter's calling men to repentance and #1427 quotes Jesus as telling people to repent.

The Rheims New Testament was the only New Testament available to Catholics for 400 years. Repentance is something that Steven Ray says must be present in conversion, and yet none of the Catholics who lived during that time were told they must repent. They were told to do penance, so we have 26 popes and millions of Catholics during that time who had no way of reading, in the Bible, that repentance was necessary.

The 1929 Catholic Dictionary doesn't even mention repentance, but a later (1962) book, Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible at least mentions repentance, but points us to articles about conversion and penance. In their article on conversion, they do set the record straight regarding doing penance, and state that neither John the Baptist nor Jesus taught doing penance. Also, in their article on penance, they do correct the notion that Jesus and John, according to Douay-Rheims and millions of Catholics for hundreds of years, had taught penance.

One thing to notice about modern Catholic apologists is that they assert some things that have scriptural warrant and militate against Catholic belief of the past. But, rather than admit the church had made a mistake, they act as if it never happened. The "peaches and cream" Catholicism of the 20th-21st centuries is not what real Catholicism always had been. If any pope before John XXIII were resurrected and asked to find a Roman Catholic Church, he could only do it if there were a notice board (or a Bingo sign) outside.

Baptism is mentioned, and Steven Ray thinks the first verse to prove it is John 3:5. "Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." Many Catholics will read this verse in this way, "...unless ye be born again of water and of the Holy Spirit...." This is not what the Bible says. This is a mistranslation of the Douay-Rheims Bible which is corrected in modern Catholic versions. Jesus said ye must be born of water and of the Spirit, not born again of water and of the Spirit. Francis X. Cleary, S.J., Roman Catholic scripture scholar cites the official interpretation of this verse. "Jesus' teaching in John 3:5 (is) that we must be born of water and of the Spirit" means that real ("natural") water must be used for a valid baptism ."

About this valid baptism, The Catholic Catechism (1994) teaches, (p. 46 #168), "It is through the Church that we receive faith and new life in Christ by Baptism." The Catholic Church teaches that valid baptism is the means of regeneration . Therefore, they interpret John 3:5 as meaning the waters of baptism and the work of the Holy Spirit bringing about the New Birth, or regeneration.

In my seminars, I have always taught that the simplest way to deal with this verse is from its context. Jesus said, in verse four, "Ye must be born again." From his response in verse five, it was apparent that Nicodemus thought only of a natural birth. Therefore, it was normal for Jesus to contrast natural and spiritual births in verses five and six. In verse five, Jesus uses the "water birth" to be natural birth, and the Spirit birth to be regeneration, or being born again. Note that the Bible does not say "Ye must be born again of water..." but simply, you must be born of water. If Jesus meant the natural birth, we can easily understand what He said in verse six, contrasting that which is born of the flesh and that which is born of the Spirit. Both are necessary. The word baptism seems to signify a beginning. Let us look at the use of this word during and after the ministry of Jesus. We must never think that whenever the word "baptism" is used, water is signified. It is interesting to note that in John 3:5, water is mentioned but baptism isn't. To automatically link the two is to fall into a Catholic trap.

We see from Acts 18:25 and Acts 19:3-5 that although John's baptism and Christian baptism are not the same, John's baptism was important. The Lord Jesus Christ thought so, as He initiated His public ministry by undergoing John's baptism. This inaugural part of His ministry (by water) could be what St. John is referring to in I John 5:6 ("He came by water and by blood"). The Apostle Peter, discussing who should replace Judas, also thought it was important, for the candidate had to be with them "beginning at the baptism of John." Before being baptized, Jesus said He was undergoing this baptism "to fulfill all righteousness." Since the redemptive work of Jesus was to become the end of the law for righteousness, He inaugurated His ministry by identifying with the sinner in the baptism of repentance, although, of course, He had nothing for which to repent.

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