Is God A Moral Monster?

[Mark of the Cross]

[quote name='reyb' timestamp='1320195193' post='2330020']


Let me make my statement clearer. There are Muslims who are good and religious people. Now, can you consider them having this ‘baptism of desire’ considering they totally rejected your sacrament of baptism?
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Now he wants me to play God and make up some rules by which God will make a judgement!
Of course I can't do that, but anyway to study this more closely I went to a Muslim forum and asked some questions. They reminded me of the fact that baptism was originally taught as a practice for adults who accepted the faith. Essentially baptism was a declaration of the belief of the one true God and the teachings. It was this acceptance of faith that was the importance of baptism. The dunking in the river was a symbolic cleansing of sin, original if you like, but it essentially was the acceptance of faith that brought about the metaphysical change not the water which was just plain ol' water. The baptism of infants was brought in by fear instilled by misinformed people who taught that baptism was essential for salvation. What they didn't know was that it was the acceptance of faith in preference to denial that is essentially the importance of baptism, but since infants and others cannot do either we have a baptism of desire where the child or person would have chosen this declaration of faith (baptism) if they had had the opportunity to learn about it. The Muslims have Azaan for infants where they say the call to prayer into the infants ear as the first thing that it hears. This would be similar to our infant baptism. Neither is essential for salvation! The Muslims believe that acceptance of the Islamic teaching of one true God and the prophet is essential for salvation if it is revealed. This is pretty similar to Christian baptism as I've just described.
To answer your question the Muslims I would think deny our method ie ceremony of baptism which is dunking in the water. To know if this excludes them from salvation it would be necessary for you to confer with God. I do not know!

[Mark of the Cross]

Just need to add something to clarify that the preceding may infer a disagreement with Catholic teaching. The above statement was based on the imperativeness of baptism not desirability. The Catholic Church denies teaching Limbo of the infants and postulates that they are left to the mercy of God. This logically negates the imperativeness of infant baptism because there is baptism of desire where applicable as an alternative. However it does not negate the desirability of infant baptism since this is essentially the equivalent to praying that the child will come to desire baptism when it has reached the age of reason. Therefore baptism of infants is highly desirable where possible!