Some mainstream Christians believe God is a man

[Apologette]

Originally Posted by alanmolstad

As Walter martin makes very clear, the baptism of a person is an outward sign that salvation has come into the person's heart.
This is why people in the Bible are clearly saved and Christian, yet had not yet been baptized.

Now for some different christian churches we see them teach that "You must be baptized', however I also know that within the teachings of a church like the Catholic church they also do have a 2nd teaching that holds that if a person was seeking to be baptized yet is unable to be baptized and dies, God will take this into account.
Thus even for Catholics if being baptized was truly 100% needed to be saved, then God could not take our faith into account...

You're Catholic? I was raised Anglican, and one of the very things that taught me that baptismal regeneration was untrue is the state of the Episcopal Church today. I was rebaptized as a believer in the ***embly of God. However, we are saved by faith, not by water baptism.

[alanmolstad]

Originally Posted by Apologette

You're Catholic? I was raised Anglican, .

I was baptised catholic, but also raised Anglican....and then the story goes on from there.

[alanmolstad]

Originally Posted by Apologette

.... baptismal regeneration was untrue is the state of the Episcopal Church today....

You are right on the money there....

[alanmolstad]

anything else?

[Apologette]

Originally Posted by alanmolstad

anything else?

Baptism is the outward and visible sign of the inward, invisible grace according to the BCP. However, it does not, of itself, save anybody. What better example do we have than what happened to the Episcopal Church which fell into total apostasy? Water did nothing for these guys - there never was any regeneration. So, in my mind at least, and according to the Bible I read, faith, by grace, must come prior to baptism, although I can understand why some baptized as infants and who come to saving faith do not necessarily believe that they need to be re-baptized. Have you read "Nine O'Clock in the Morning" by Fr. Bennett?

[James Banta]

Originally Posted by Apologette

Baptism is the outward and visible sign of the inward, invisible grace according to the BCP. However, it does not, of itself, save anybody. What better example do we have than what happened to the Episcopal Church which fell into total apostasy? Water did nothing for these guys - there never was any regeneration. So, in my mind at least, and according to the Bible I read, faith, by grace, must come prior to baptism, although I can understand why some baptized as infants and who come to saving faith do not necessarily believe that they need to be re-baptized. Have you read "Nine O'Clock in the Morning" by Fr. Bennett?

What is more important for this channel is the issue of authority to baptize.. Any believer male, female, rich, poor, ordained, or lay can in the name of Jesus baptize a new believer. To do so, Biblically, there is no special authority required.. Did the great commission include only the Apostles or does it extend to all believers? IHS jim

[James Banta]

Originally Posted by Snow Patrol

Then by the same token could we say that you were never really a Mormon?

Stop it, that makes me way too happy! IHS jim

[Apologette]

Originally Posted by James Banta

What is more important for this channel is the issue of authority to baptize.. Any believer male, female, rich, poor, ordained, or lay can in the name of Jesus baptize a new believer. To do so, Biblically, there is no special authority required.. Did the great commission include only the Apostles or does it extend to all believers? IHS jim

Yes, any true believer who is baptized in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost can actually baptize another person, although in sacramental churches this is usually done by an ordained minister. But, if need be, any baptized person has authority to baptize someone who has truly repented and accepted Christ as their Savior.

[James Banta]

Originally Posted by Apologette

Yes, any true believer who is baptized in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost can actually baptize another person, although in sacramental churches this is usually done by an ordained minister. But, if need be, any baptized person has authority to baptize someone who has truly repented and accepted Christ as their Savior.

If we look at the NT Apollos was baptizing even before he became aware of the Holy Spirit.. Paul didn't stop Apollos, he just corrected him.. Apollos became a great Christian missionary.. IHS jim

[dberrie2000]

Originally Posted by Fig-bearing Thistle

My step mother, (who was Baptist for 60-some years, but is now LDS), revealed to me the other day that while she was a Baptist, she always believed in her heart that God was a man, and not a spirit.

I wonder how common this belief is among mainstream Christian persons?

It seemed to be common among Biblical Christianity:

1 Timothy 2:5---King James Version (KJV)
5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

[Berean]

Originally Posted by Vlad III

God: "You lived a faithful life. Served your neighbors. Worshipped me. Tried to follow the Savior Jesus Christ in your thoughts words and deeds. Do you believe that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one substance in 3 beings, or aka. the Trinity?"

Man: "Yes."

God: "Well-done. You may enter into my rest."

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God: ""You lived a faithful life. Served your neighbors. Worshipped me. Tried to follow the Savior Jesus Christ in your thoughts words and deeds. Do you believe that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one substance in 3 beings, or aka. the Trinity?"

Man: "I believe in the Father, the Son and also the Holy Spirit. I believe that they are 3 distinct persons, one in purpose not in substance. They make up the one true Godhead."

God: "Infidel! Tou fool! Thou shalt be thrust down to the fiery lakes of Hell where tou wilt weep and wail and gnash thine teeth for eternity!!"

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This is the mainstream Christians God, according to JohnT and many others.

I would just as soon be the second man than to spend an eternity in the presence of such an evil, conspiring, bigoted, and narcissistic god as the one the mainstream Christians are trying to pawn off to the LDS.

Nonsense.

The Book of Mormon makes the same claims as Christianity:

• One God manifest in Three Persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit;
• God is Spirit;
• Faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation,
• no preexistence for man;
• Salvation without baptism;
• Heaven or hell, not three kingdoms;
• Polygamy is condemned; etc.

2 Nephi 26:12 And as I spake concerning the convincing of the Jews, that Jesus is the very Christ, it must needs be that the Gentiles be convinced also that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God;

Mosiah 3:5 For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.

Alma 7: 10 And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.

Discourses of Brigham Young, p.30
The Holy Ghost, we believe, is one of the characters that form the Trinity, or the Godhead.

Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, p.61
Now I repeat-the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit, he cons***utes the third person in the Trinity, the Godhead

Hugh B. Brown, The Abundant Life, p.312
In our Articles of Faith we declare our belief in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost-in other words, the Trinity. We accept the scriptural doctrine that they are separate and distinct personages. This is one distinguishing and, to some, disturbing doctrine of the Church.

Hugh B. Brown, The Abundant Life, p.313
Surely this was not ventriloquism where Christ was speaking to and of himself. It was the Father introducing His Son. In this case, the members of the Holy Trinity manifested themselves, each in a different way, and each was distinct from the others. A similar event occurred on the Mount of Transfiguration when members of the Godhead were distinguished in the presence of Moses and Elias, and Peter, James, and John.

James R. Clark, Messages of the First Presidency, Vol.4, p.264
From these statements, and from many others that might be quoted, it is clear that Adam and Christ are two persons-not the same Person. It is erroneous doctrine to consider them one and the same person, for Jesus is the Christ, a member of the Trinity, the God-head, and to whom Adam, the father of the human family upon this earth, is amenable. Adam will have to account for his stewardship to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, whose blood atones for the sins of those who have fallen by the transgression of Adam.
James R. Clark, Messages of the First Presidency, Vol.6, p.236

J. Reuben Clark Jr. Second Counselor to the LDS First Presidency speaking to diversified audience in the mid 1940s speaks of God in terms of the Trinity-God has revealed to us that he is the Father of all, and that he loves and cares forth righteous everywhere, and seeks ever to bring back the wayward to his ways. He has made known that Jesus is the Christ, the Only Begotten of the Father, the Redeemer of the World, the First Fruits of the Resurrection. He has shown to us that as Jesus died, lay in the tomb, and was resurrected, so shall it be with every son and daughter of God. He has manifested to us that he is a person, that Christ is another person, and that the Holy Ghost is a third person, and that these make
the Trinity of the Godhead

Another explanation is found in Answers to Gospel Questions Vol. 3 pp 98-99 under Counsel given by President Charles W. Penrose:

Now, some of our brethren have taken up quite a discussion as to the fulness of the everlasting gospel. We are told that the Book of Mormon contains the fulness of the gospel, that those who like to get up a dispute, say that the Book of Mormon does not contain any reference to the work of salvation for the dead, and that there are many other things pertaining to the gospel that are not developed in that book, and yet we are told that the book contains "the fulness of the everlasting gospel." well what is the fulnesspel? You read carefully the revelation in regard to the three glories, section 76, in the Doctrine and Covanants, and you find there defined what the gospel is, There God the Eternal Father, and Jesus Christ, his son, and the Holy Ghost, are held up as the three persons in the Trinity-the one God the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, all three being one God. When people believe in that doctrine and obey the ordinances which are spoken of in the same list of principals, you get the fulness of the gospel for this reason: General Conference Report, April 1922, pp 27-28.

Don't you read the Book of Mormon or attend Conference? You tell everyone else to.