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Baptism, by the very word indicates immersing something; dipping or plunging something into something else (e.g. a solid object into a liguid medium. It also can refer to the operation of God (Colossians 2:11,12) placing (immersing) the believer into (the body of) Christ. Again, there is no reference or connection in any such verses to one particular human agency; not one particular church organization.

What about the millions of Roman Catholics who have never been immersed, dipped or plunged, which is what took place in the baptism in 2 Peter. (And, by the way, those who were immersed, dipped and plunged there, were those who refused to believe Noah's prophesy -- refused to repent, and were drowned. Noah and the other seven on the ark were never in the water.)

Not all references to "saved" and "salvation" in the Scriptures are to the soul, but some are to deliverance of God's people from cataclysmic judgments on this earth. And not all references to "baptism" are to an event that can be seen and felt with mortal senses (solid object into liquid medium, remember, is only one example of the use of the word).

Noah and his family, and their posterity (in the seed line of Jesus Christ) were saved (from that wicked, demon intermingled generation) by the baptism of the wicked into the judgment of the flood. God dipped, immersed, plunged, baptized -- DROWNED -- the entire population of the world in order to save or preserve the "seed of the woman" (see Genesis 3:15) through Noah, being described in Genesis 6 as being "perfect in his GENERATIONS." This has to do with the fact that the seed of Noah's family had not been intermixed with the "sons of God" (i.e. indivdual creations of God; fallen angelic beings that co-habitated with the daughters of men to bring about a race of God-hating demonic giants -- Gen. 6:1-7; see these "sons of God associated with Satan in Job chs. 1 and 2 and other passages), like those still seen "and also after that"(6:4) in the sons of Anak (Numbers) and in Goliath, who fought David, and his brothers, etc. etc.

Baptism in the 2 Peter reference has nothing to do with the sprinkling or dampening of infants' foreheads with water, examples of which are nowhere found in Scripture.

But then, as a God-called preacher of the Goespel, I have baptized (by immersion, plunging, dipping in water) scores of believers, who with knowledge and forethought, deliberately repented of any hope outside of the Person and Redemptive Sufferings and Resuurection of Jesus Christ our Savior, and resting the safety of thier eternal soul in Christ, wanted to give a public testimony of that faith by water baptism. They were making the public position and giving open witness that the Death (in payment for sin and sins), Burial and Resurrection (for the believer's justification - a dead savior, obviously, would be no savior at all) of Jesus Christ provided the only means of their soul's redemption, and that they have accepted this fully by faith.

The Roman Catholic Church cannot admit that God has called me or any other non-Catholic to preach Christ. The RCC cannot admit that God would use anything except the Vatican's liturgical and sacramental religious system. The RCC could not admit that those who came to Jesus Christ as we preached the Gospel were admitted to Christ and His salvation by faith without the RCC, and the RCC cannot admit that our immersion baptism of self-professing believers (as opposed to infants) is legitimate by the very same Scripture references: Matt. 28; Mark 16; Acts 8, 10, 16; etc.

All Vatican Counsels, especially since Trent have cursed all Christians outside of the liturgy and sacraments of the RCC. It is in writing, "Let them (us) be anathema."

Further, There are tares in every church or religious organization, but those who profess to be ministers set themselves up as targets when their public demeanor is questionable; they should expect to be challenged.

Furthermore, There is no such thing as "THE Baptist Church," unless you are speaking about (1.) one local congregation within a specified, say, acre or less where they assemble; or about (2.) a voluntary association or convention of multiple local assemblies into one organiztion. One historical distinctive of Baptist peoples is the absolute autonomy and independence of the local congregation. A Baptist "bishop" (overseer) or "elder"(1 Timothy ch. 3; Titus ch. 1) is the pastor (say, presiding elder)within a single local congregation. He is never the overseer of multiple, involuntarily affiliated congregations. There are rare cases where one Baptist preacher is indeed the pastor of more than one congregation (I've never heard of it being more than two assemblies), but those local congregations are not involuntarily affiliated, and either may dismiss the man as pastor if need be, without him being dismissed from the other one. It is a congregational decision.

Then, there are Baptist (say, church-planting)missionaries, who, similarly to the apostles of old, may have the care of several new, fledgling congregations until pastors can be taught/trained and ordained for those local assemblies. This is sometimes the case in remote (domestic or foreign) locales where few if any churches had hitherto existed.

And before Constantine's day, there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of Gospel preachers (No, not called "Baptists") who were doing just as I've described above, without any connection with either Constantinople or Rome. The RCC wants to deny and bury all such history, but that history is truly out there.

As the Jews, the Israelies (in general) continued to reject Christ, and as God scattered the believers from Palestine, Jerusalem waned in its usefulness to New Testament Christianity. Our faith is in NO earthly city, not even in Jerusalem by the Med, but our faith is in Christ, Himself, and "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all." (Galatians 4:26; and see Hebrews 13:12-14). This is why Rome and the RCC cannot be our mother. The RCC believes that it should be the mother of everyone who calls themselves "Christian." At times in history, she has taken up sword to enforce that as a goal, too.

People, even ministers, may leave Baptist and other Christian churches without being labeled heretics, notrious liars, enemies of the Church, etc. But, seemingly, no priest may leave Romes's clutches and become an independent minister of the Gospel without being labeled "heretic," "liar," "enemy," etc, or without is being declared that they were "thrown out." So Brewer, Chiniquay, and all such, must be presented by the RCC's top end as the very worst of all creatures.
It is why We recommend the reading of THEIR books and papers, along with those of Rome.

That's what the FREE REPUBLIC is all about, in't it?

I have here dozens of pages of quotes from John Wycliffe, and personal journal accounts from his hand that give the reasons that his bones were later on dug up and his ashes scattered on a river by the RCC. Some claim he was merely on the fringes of heresy, but to the RCC he was an outright heretic. He did have a definite personal connection with the Lollards of England, my friend. And his doctrinal tenets militated against Romes sacraments and liturgy in a substantial way.

Perhaps more soon.