I found a whole list of early church fathers, Ante Nicene fathers who said baptism is necessary for salvation and it’s a regeneration. I got Irenaeus, Tertullian, Ambrose, Justin Martyr, Clement, Cyprian, and the list goes on. Can I use these men and their quotes to back up the Bible and the apostles? Most people take the Bible out of context or pick and choose verses, but if I give Bible verses on baptism and how it saves plus throw in the church fathers, who can argue with that?\u00a0 What do you think? Good source or no?<\/p>\n\t
The early Christian writers are not always reliable. They are uninspired men and sometimes got things right and sometimes missed the mark. I will use the early writers when someone argues, “It was never done …” to show that it was done. In your case, the early writers do show that others came to the same conclusion. It doesn’t prove the point, but it does show that what you are advocating isn’t a wild newfangled idea. In this case, the quotes from the early writers do show that it is the people claiming that baptism is unnecessary who are the ones introducing a relatively new idea. Another use of the early writers is to see how points are justified. Bad ideas constantly get recirculated so seeing the reasoning of others in the past can give you ideas on how to reason today.<\/p>\n
What proves that baptism is necessary is what God said in the New Testament. The quotes from the early Christian writers are just the opinions of respected men. They are worth thinking about, but they don’t make your particular argument stronger.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I found a whole list of early church fathers, Ante Nicene fathers who said baptism is necessary for salvation and it’s a regeneration. I got Irenaeus, Tertullian, Ambrose, Justin Martyr, Clement, Cyprian, and the list goes on. Can I use these men and their quotes to back up the Bible and the apostles? Most…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[78,52],"class_list":["post-35476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-authority","tag-baptism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":45351,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-we-use-the-writings-of-the-early-christians\/","url_meta":{"origin":35476,"position":0},"title":"Can we use the writings of the early Christians?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been studying the writings of early Christians like Justin Martyr and Ignatius. I know their writings are not inspired or biblical, but can we use them as examples in any way? Also in Ignatius' writings, I see the word Catholic. What does it mean? Answer: The word\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52091,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/irenaeus-on-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":35476,"position":1},"title":"Irenaeus on Baptism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 15, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dan Mayfield \"First of all it bids us bear in mind that we have received baptism for the remission of sins, in the name of God the Father, and in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was incarnate and died and rose again, and in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4178,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-you-trust-early-christian-writers-when-you-disagree-with-them-on-some-topics\/","url_meta":{"origin":35476,"position":2},"title":"How can you trust early Christian writers when you disagree with them on some topics?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 18, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I appreciate and respect your willingness (and the willingness of your church) to so openly and staunchly defend your beliefs to the world. If anyone \"has a ready answer,\" it's the folks at La Vista Church of Christ! You previously wrote: Allow me a moment to answer your last\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1782,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-having-a-baby-dedicated-wrong\/","url_meta":{"origin":35476,"position":3},"title":"Is having a baby dedicated wrong?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 26, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have found on your site when searching that several have asked this question, but I can't find an answer to this question. A friend, who is a Nazarene, is having their baby dedicated. Is this wrong? Thanks. Answer: In the Nazarene Church, a dedication ritual a vow that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":41087,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-didache-prove-that-pouring-was-an-acceptable-substitute-for-baptism-in-the-early-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":35476,"position":4},"title":"Does the Didache prove that pouring was an acceptable substitute for baptism in the early church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does the\u00a0Didache reflect that the early church allowed the pouring of water over the head three times as a legitimate alternative when immersion wasn't possible?\u00a0 I'm certain that many people will try to use this as an argument that sprinkling is an acceptable form of baptism, but it seems\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38992,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/an-inquiry-into-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":35476,"position":5},"title":"An Inquiry into Baptism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Sprinkling, Pouring, or Immersion, Which Shall It Be? by Jefferson David Tant Introduction Since the Bible teaches that baptism is an essential part of my relationship with Christ (Mark 16:16; Galatians 3:27; Romans 6:3-5, etc.), then it behooves me to make sure that my baptism is pleasing to the one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35476\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}