Saved by Baptism of Blood/Desire?

The Roman Catholic Church claims that sprinkling water on a baby or an adult while saying, "I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" does amazing things. It takes away the sin we are born with, original sin, and any other sins and grafts us on to Jesus making us his servants. It puts Jesus and God inside us to live in us and inspire us. The Church says that baptism heals the inclination towards sin that original sin causes. Baptism is a sacrament. It pictures cleansing from sin and the effects of sin and actually does what it pictures.
 
The Church agrees with the teaching of Jesus that there is no salvation unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit. It twists that around to make it seem to be about water baptism. And then it contradicts the warning of Jesus that there is no salvation without being born again.
 
The Church says that God gives many the benefits of baptism without the ritual of baptism to those who die for him or who die preparing for baptism. Baptism of blood or desire means the person gets some of the benefits of the sacrament but not the sacrament itself.  It is really then "baptism" not baptism.  It is enough to get one into Heaven but it is not regarded to be as good as baptism in water. That doctrine is really about pacifying those who are upset at the thought that their relatives and friends have been rejected at the gate of Heaven because they were not baptised. They say God understands that it is not the person's fault that they were not actually baptised and is able to work outside the sacraments if necessary.
 
The baptism of desire doctrine claims that as there is no salvation outside the Church, you are better off with this “baptism” than having a real but Protestant baptism.  The risk of being a Protestant is that you might suspect Catholicism is the true Church and out of wilful ignorance and prejudice and laziness not seek to become a member.

The baptism of desire doctrine insists that the unbaptised person must have at least a tiny bit of faith that there is a God who heals sin and forgives and punishes and love that God with perfect contrition.  Perfect contrition is hating and repenting your sins only because they offend God and is based on the pure love of God.  Perfect contrition is a farce because you would need to be willing to suffer forever as a saint for the sake of others or a justifiable reason but you are not.  You cannot suffer enough even in this life to have an idea that you could do it.
 
The baptism of desire doctrine shows more concern for getting a person into Heaven than anything else. There is no concern for decency and renewal of life.  What kind of God would refuse to connect with you unless you are baptised or unbaptised and wanting baptism as you die?  Why is the good pagan who loses limb and life for others barred from Heaven while the profligate pagan is saved just for wanting baptism?  So much for the doctrine that God being with us in life makes us holy and good.
 
If God really controls all things and sustains all things and takes ultimate responsibility for all that happens, then surely he has it set up that all who are really fit for Heaven get baptism? If he rejects anybody until they are baptised, then he might reject those preparing for baptism who die.
 
Let us see how the Church says we can be saved without physical water baptism,
 
The Catholic Church teaches that a person can be saved by gaining some of the effects of baptism through a baptism of desire or baptism of blood. If a man desires baptism and dies before managing to get baptised, he will go to Heaven. This is the baptism of desire. If a man gives his life for the faith though he is not baptised he is considered to get what is called the baptism of blood and he will go to Heaven. The Church stresses that these are not sacraments and are not equal to baptism but another way to get rid of the sin that baptism takes away. The Church says these fit the rule given by Christ that only water shall save for the waters of baptism still save these people in the sense that it is in deference to baptism that these saving effects are allowed to take place. The doctrine of baptism of blood and baptism of desire is wholly unscriptural. God would not like you to say that a sinner can be saved by getting rid of sin these ways when an innocent and helpless baby cannot be saved without literal baptism in water. And Jesus could baptise the people who desire baptism and who have the baptism of blood with water on entry into Heaven. That he does not do so is a testament to the doctrine of the blood baptism and the desire baptism being false. They are supposed to be allowed by God for water baptism is the only way to salvation but if Jesus does not baptise the recipients of the desire or blood baptism then water baptism cannot be the only way. If water baptism were the only way then the blessings of blood or desire baptism would arise not from blessings given without a view to water baptism but from blessings given in advance of water baptism in the same way you might get your wages before you earn them in view of the fact that you will earn them.
 
The Church teaches that baptism is absolutely necessary for salvation but that in extreme cases people get the grace of baptism in the baptism of blood and baptism of desire which are not technically baptisms. They distinguish between the grace of baptism and the form of the sacrament. In other words, desire for the sacrament gives you its effects when you are dying unbaptised.
 
The scenario when somebody runs to a baby with water to baptise it but it dies first leaving it too late does not fit the rules for baptism of desire. The baby didn’t desire the baptism but somebody else did but baptism of desire requires that the candidate of baptism desire the baptism. The baby is in original sin and so doesn’t like God and so nobody can assume that the baby has a desire to be with God. Some liberal clergy think that if a baby dies before its baptism because it was intended for it to be baptised the baby will be saved and given the powers of baptism without the water. The baby then is saved by baptism indirectly. But this can be said of any baby. Imagine a baby dies without baptism at the North Pole and there are no Christians within ten thousand miles what then? The Christians would baptise the baby if they could so the baby then will be treated by God as baptised though it is not for it is nobody’s fault the baby wasn’t baptised. This kindly and compassionate idea however is destroyed by the fact that they think Jesus said water baptism is necessary for salvation. If nobody was baptising anybody, babies would still be saved so how could it be true to say that water baptism saves? It denies the urgency and importance of water baptism.
 
A big objection to the view that any baby baptised or not will be saved by the effects that baptism brings if it dies is that it makes the baby’s death more important than the state of original sin, the state of being separate from God.
 
What is worse for the baby in the Christian view? Dying or having original sin? It is having original sin for that is the state of being born estranged from God and not liking him – it might not understand that it doesn’t like God but that makes no difference. If God saves a baby just because it dies then why doesn’t he save it just because he wants it to like him and to forgive its original sin? Furthermore, death, even in babies, is a punishment for original sin according to the apostle Paul in the Epistle to the Romans in the book God wrote, the Bible. A God then who saves a child because of death and not because the child is in a state of sin without baptism which is a worse state is perfectly capable of rejecting a child that died in original sin. And indeed he should for death is not the worst state and is in fact what the child deserves. 
 
WORKS CONSULTED
 
12 Church of Christ Doctrines Compared with the Holy Scriptures, Homer Duncan, Missionary Crusader, Texas, 1984
All One Body – Why Don’t We Agree? Erwin W Lutzer, Tyndale, Illinois, 1989
Baptism, Meaning, Mode & Subjects, Michael Kimmitt, K & M Books, Trelawnyd, 1997
But the Bible Does not Say So, Rev Roberto Nisbet, Church Book Room Press, London, 1966
But What About the Thief on the Cross? Cecil Willis, Guardian of Truth, Bowling Green, Kentucky
Christian Baptism, Philip Crowe, Mobray, Oxford, 1980
Covenant Reformed News, Volume 7, Number 13, Ballymena, Northern Ireland
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Handbook to the Controversy with Rome, Vol 1, Karl Von Hase, The Religious Tract Society, 4 Bouverie Street, 1906
Is it necessary for you to be baptised to be saved? Hoyt H Houchen, Guardian of Truth, Bowling Green, Kentucky
Is Water Baptism Essential to Salvation? Curtis Hutson, Sword of the Lord, 1988
Jesus and the Four Gospels, John Drane, Lion, Herts, 1984
Objections to Roman Catholicism, Edited by Michael de la Bedoyere, Constable, London, 1964
Radio Replies, Vol 3, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota 1942
Reason and Belief, Bland Blanschard, George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London, 1974
Regeneration or the New Birth, A W Pink, Evangelical Press, Welwyn, Herts, England, undated
The Documents of Vatican II, Edited by Walter M Abbott SJ, Geoffrey Chapman Ltd, London, 1967
The Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1986
The Only Way of Salvation, H. A. Twelves, Christadelphian ALS, Birmingham
Vicars of Christ, Peter de Rosa, Corgi, London, 1993
When Critics Ask, Norman Geisler and Thomas Howe, Victor Books, Scripture Press Publications, Illinois, 1992
Why Baptism Really Matters, Fred Pearce, Christadelphian Publishing Office, Birmingham
Why Does God? Domenico Grasso SJ, St Paul Publications, Bucks, England, 1970
Why you Should be Baptized, Herbert W Armstrong, Worldwide Church of God, Pasadena, California, 1991

The WWW

Doctrinal Summary by Br Thomas Mary MICM. This page informs us that Catholic teaching is that if you hear of the Catholic Church and don’t join it or study it your damnation is guaranteed. It affirms that babies that die without baptism will be banned from Heaven forever.

BIBLE QUOTATIONS FROM:
The Amplified Bible