Much ink was spilled around 1900 arguing that the rituals of baptism and of the Last Supper derived from the ancient Mysteries, but Nock and others after him have easily shown that these attempts grossly misinterpreted the sources.
Sanctifying grace, the grace of justification, given by God by baptism, erases the original sin and personal actual sins. A valid baptism in the eyes of the Catholic Church, according to Canon 758 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, are those done by water, by immersion, affusion (pouring), or aspersion (sprinkling), in the name (singular) of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—not three gods, but one God subsisting in three Persons.
Individuals who had been baptized in the 1930s and 1940s by female Witnesses due to extenuating circumstances, such as in concentration camps, were later re-baptized but still recognized their original baptism dates. ===Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints=== In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), baptism is recognized as the first of several ordinances (rituals) of the gospel.
Individuals who had been baptized in the 1930s and 1940s by female Witnesses due to extenuating circumstances, such as in concentration camps, were later re-baptized but still recognized their original baptism dates. ===Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints=== In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), baptism is recognized as the first of several ordinances (rituals) of the gospel.
In his encyclical Mystici corporis Christi of June 29, 1943, Pope Pius XII spoke of baptism and profession of the true faith as what makes members of the one true Church, which is the body of Jesus Christ himself, as God the Holy Spirit has taught through the Apostle Paul: By contrast, Anabaptist and Evangelical Protestants recognize baptism as an outward sign of an inward reality following on an individual believer's experience of forgiving grace.
The water-less initiations of Lucius, the character in Apuleius's story who had been turned into an ass and changed back by Isis into human form, into the successive degrees of the rites of the goddess was accomplished only after a significant period of study to demonstrate his loyalty and trustworthiness, akin to catechumenal practices preceding baptism in Christianity. Since the 1950s, scholars have dismissed the alleged connection between mystery rites and baptism.
However, they do not believe that baptism is necessary for salvation; but rather that it is an act of Christian obedience. Some "Full Gospel" charismatic churches such as Oneness Pentecostals baptize only in the name of Jesus Christ, citing Peter's preaching baptism in the name of Jesus as their authority. ===Ecumenical statements=== In 1982 the World Council of Churches published the ecumenical paper Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry.
The preface of the document states: A 1997 document, Becoming a Christian: The Ecumenical Implications of Our Common Baptism, gave the views of a commission of experts brought together under the aegis of the World Council of Churches.
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