Baptismal Regeneration?

[Sam]

Originally Posted by TRFrance

Well, let's not miss the Bro. Shaw's point here.

The issue that the brother is getting at is not whether the Didache or these other writings were divinely inspired. The issue is whether the belief of baptism for remission of sins was widely held in the church of the first few centuries.

Without getting into a debate on the merits of the doctrine, the fact is...whether one agrees with the doctrine or not, one can not make an informed argument that the concept of baptism for the remission of sins wasn't a widely held doctrine in the church of the first few centuries.

I may be wrong here. Perhaps someone can correct me if I am. I seem to remember hearing or reading that Emperor Constantine waited until just before his death to be baptized because he believed that baptism would wash away sins and he wanted to be clean when he died. I don't have any historic writing to cite for that but it seems I heard or read it somewhere.