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==Making disciples: Matthew 28:19-20 - Baptism, then doctrine of faith==

==Making disciples: Matthew 28:19-20 - Baptism, then doctrine of faith==

Jesus makes quite clear that disciples are made by the procedure that he himself ordained: <br> (1) baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit <br> (2) teaching them to observe all that he commanded his apostles. He explicitly stated, "Except one is regenerated of water and the Spirit, one cannot enter the kingdom of God." <br> This is fully in keeping with references elsewhere to the beginning of the Christian life (see Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; Romans 6:3, 4; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:27; Colossians 2:12; 1 Peter 3:21). <br> Whole households were first baptized, and then devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the eucharistic breaking of the bread, and to the prayers. Sixteen centuries of Christian doctrine established the apostolic tradition, grounded in the Bible and the preaching of the Gospel, of baptizing all who were to be made disciples, including all newborn infants of baptized and believing Christian parents, teaching them the saving necessity of producing by their professed faith the fruits of good works and living lives of moral purity, the purpose for which God created them in Christ, and that without producing the fruits of good works of mercy for those in need they would be condemned to the outer darkness. (Mark 16:15-16)<br> Then the Anabaptists and Baptists rejected this by preaching salvation by faith alone (which the Bible condemns), and in response to this doctrine they were condemned as heretics by the whole Christian world, Protestant, Orthodox, Catholic,  

Jesus makes quite clear that disciples are made by the procedure that he himself ordained: <br> (1) baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit <br> (2) teaching them to observe all that he commanded his apostles. He explicitly stated, "Except one is regenerated of water and the Spirit, one cannot enter the kingdom of God." <br> This is fully in keeping with references elsewhere to the beginning of the Christian life (see Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; Romans 6:3, 4; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:27; Colossians 2:12; 1 Peter 3:21). <br> Whole households were first baptized, and then devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the eucharistic breaking of the bread, and to the prayers. Sixteen centuries of Christian doctrine established the apostolic tradition, grounded in the Bible and the preaching of the Gospel, of baptizing all who were to be made disciples, including all newborn infants of baptized and believing Christian parents, teaching them the saving necessity of producing by their professed faith in which they are raised the fruits of good works and living lives of moral purity, the purpose for which God created them in Christ, and that without producing the fruits of good works of mercy for those in need they would be condemned to the outer darkness. (Mark 16:15-16)<br> Then the Anabaptists and Baptists rejected this by preaching salvation by faith alone (which the Bible condemns), and in response to this doctrine they were condemned as heretics by the whole Christian world, Protestant, Orthodox, Catholic,  

*for their unbiblical and non-Christian man-made doctrine of refusal to obey the command of the Lord (Luke 6:46; John 14:23-24) by their refusal to make infants disciples of the kingdom of God through (1) the saving regeneration of their souls by baptism, and then after baptism (2) raising them up in the teaching of the apostles and the breaking of bread and the prayers,  

*for their unbiblical and non-Christian man-made doctrine of refusal to obey the command of the Lord (Luke 6:46; John 14:23-24) by their refusal to make infants disciples of the kingdom of God through (1) the saving regeneration of their souls by baptism, and then after baptism (2) raising them up in the teaching of the apostles and the breaking of bread and the prayers,  

*condemned them for their denial of the unmerited grace of the saving power of God in the sacraments of baptism and eucharist by teaching that these are legal ordinances of symbolic ceremony only,  

*condemned them for their denial of the unmerited grace of the saving power of God in the sacraments of baptism and eucharist by their heretical teaching that these are legal ordinances of symbolic ceremony only,  

*and for their condemnation of the apostolic Christian doctrine of regenerative baptism,  

*and for their condemnation of the apostolic Christian doctrine of regenerative baptism,  

*because they made salvation dependent solely on the human work of listening, comprehending, understanding and then publicly confessing faith in Christ as their personal Lord and Savior in order to be saved, an act no infant is capable of performing, thus deliberately withholding from them rebirth to new life which would make them each "a new creature".

*because they made salvation dependent solely on the human work of listening, comprehending, understanding and then publicly confessing faith in Christ as their personal Lord and Savior in order to be saved, an act no infant is capable of performing, thus deliberately withholding from them rebirth to new life which would make them each "a new creature".