Quote:
Originally Posted by coksiw
The burden of proof is on you. Go ahead, show historical conclusive evidences.
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Actually it's not. This is so thoroughly established historically that the burden would be on you to show they did not believe the Spirit was given in baptism.
But, we could start with one of your own quotes: "
With respect to baptism in the first and second centuries the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics states, “
The dominant ideas were those of forgiveness of sin,
regeneration, and the gift of the Holy Spirit . . ."
Baptism was thought to save because it was there that the Holy Spirit was conferred. You do not believe that. The common Oneness Pentecostal view is that you can be baptized and have all your sins forgiven and removed from your record but still be lost and going to hell if you haven't spoken tongues yet. You don't believe that you rise up from the water forgiven, regenerated by the Spirit, and thus saved. These early writers did.
Hermas: "Explain to me a little further, sir, I said. What is it that you desire? he asked. Why, sir, I said, did these stones ascend out of the pit, and be applied to the building of the tower, after having borne these spirits?
They were obliged, he answered, to ascend through water in order that they might be made alive; for, unless they laid aside the deadness of their life, they could not in any other way enter into the kingdom of God. Accordingly, those also who fell asleep received the seal of the Son of God. For, he continued,
before a man bears the name of the Son of God he is dead; but when he receives the seal he lays aside his deadness, and obtains life. The seal, then, is the water: they descend into the water dead, and they arise alive. And to them, accordingly, was this seal preached, and they made use of it that they might enter into the kingdom of God."
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/02013.htm
Justin Martyr: "I will also relate the manner in which we dedicated ourselves to God
when we had been made new through Christ; lest, if we omit this, we seem to be unfair in the explanation we are making. As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their sins that are past, we praying and fasting with them.
Then they are brought by us where there is water, and are regenerated in the same manner in which we were ourselves regenerated. For, in the name of God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water.
For Christ also said, “Except ye be born again, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0126.htm
Irenaeus: "And when we come to refute them, we shall show in its fitting-place, that this class of men have been instigated by Satan to a denial
of that baptism which is regeneration to God."
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103121.htm
Irenaeus: "For as we are lepers in sin,
we are made clean, by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old transgressions;
being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes, even as the Lord has declared: “Except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0134.htm
Theophilus of Antioch: "Moreover, the things proceeding from the waters were blessed by God, that this also might be a sign of men's being destined to receive repentance and remission of sins,
through the water and laver of regeneration — as many as come to the truth, and are born again, and receive blessing from God."
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/02042.htm
Cyprian of Carthage: "While I was still lying in darkness and gloomy night, wavering hither and there, tossed about on the foam of this boastful age, and uncertain of my wandering steps, knowing nothing of my real life, and remote from truth and light, I used to regard it as a difficult matter, and especially as difficult in respect of my character at that time, that a man should be capable of being born again — a truth which the divine mercy had announced for my salvation —
and that a man quickened to a new life in the laver of saving water should be able to put off what he had previously been; and, although retaining all his bodily structure, should be himself changed in heart and soul."
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/050601.htm
Aphrahat: "Remember the warning that the Apostle gives us:—
Grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby you have been sealed unto the day of redemption. For from baptism do we receive the Spirit of Christ. For in that hour in which the priests invoke the Spirit, the heavens open and it descends and moves upon the waters.
Genesis 1:2 And those that are baptized are clothed in it; for the Spirit stays aloof from all that are born of the flesh,
until they come to the new birth by water, and then they receive the Holy Spirit. For in the first birth they are born with an animal souls which is created within man and is not thereafter subject to death, as he said:— Adam became a living soul.
Genesis 2:7 But in the second birth, that through baptism, they received the Holy Spirit from a particle of the Godhead, and it is not again subject to death."
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/370106.htm
Cyril of Jerusalem: " This is in truth a serious matter, brethren, and you must approach it with good heed. Each one of you is about to be presented to God before tens of thousands of the Angelic Hosts:
the Holy Ghost is about to seal your souls: you are to be enrolled in the army of the Great King. Therefore make you ready, and equip yourselves, by putting on I mean, not bright apparel , but piety of soul with a good conscience.
Regard not the Laver as simple water, but rather regard the spiritual grace that is given with the water. . . .
" For since man is of twofold nature, soul and body, the purification also is twofold, the one incorporeal for the incorporeal part, and the other bodily for the body:
the water cleanses the body, and the Spirit seals the soul; that we may draw near unto God, having our heart sprinkled by the Spirit, and our body washed with pure water. Hebrews 10:22 When going down, therefore, into the water, think not of the bare element, but look for salvation by the power of the Holy Ghost: for without both you can not possibly be made perfect. . . .
"
For you go down into the water, bearing your sins, but the invocation of grace , having sealed your soul, suffers you not afterwards to be swallowed up by the terrible dragon.
Having gone down dead in sins, you come up quickened in righteousness. For if you have been united with the likeness of the Saviour's death Romans 6:5, you shall also be deemed worthy of His Resurrection. For as Jesus took upon Him the sins of the world, and died, that by putting sin to death He might rise again in righteousness;
so thou by going down into the water, and being in a manner buried in the waters, as He was in the rock, art raised again walking in newness of life."
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/310103.htm
Augustine: "And this is the meaning of the great sacrament of baptism which is solemnized among us, that all who attain to this grace should die to sin, as He is said to have died to sin, because He died in the flesh, which is the likeness of sin;
and rising from the font regenerate, as He arose alive from the grave, should begin a new life in the Spirit, whatever may be the age of the body?"
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1302.htm
Your challenge will be to produce evidence before the rise of the modern Oneness Pentecostal movement of people dividing forgiveness from the regeneration of the Spirit into two separate experiences occurring at different times with the regeneration of the Spirit occurring only when someone speaks in tongues. I'm pretty sure you will not find any. I don't mean finding evidence of people speaking in tongues but who explicitly say this is the new birth of the Spirit.