Using Infant Baptism as One's Excuse to Remain in Roman Catholicism
As a former Roman Catholic, I was told that I didn't need to get baptized or that I was still a Roman Catholic because I wasn't baptized yet in a born-again Christian congregation. I was asked as to why did I desire to get baptized by immersion when I was already baptized as an infant? Some say that I'm a Roman Catholic by the virtue of infant baptism. Some Roman Catholics are too scared to leave their religion because they were baptized as infants. They say that they will remain Roman Catholics because they were baptized as infants. I just find the logic baffling as to how they declared themselves Roman Catholic because they were baptized as infants.
Acts 2:38 is frequently cited straight out-of-context to defend infant baptism. Yet, Acts 2:41 says that first, the people believed before they were baptized. Baptism always follows repentance from sin and unbelief to believing in Jesus Christ as one's personal Lord and Savior. Unfortunately, infant baptism ignores the fact that babies are not able to learn right from wrong. One has to at least enter the age of accountability before they can even know right and wrong. Moral conduct is taught to toddlers in pre-school. Toddlers can understand right and wrong so spanking a toddler who misbehaves is appropriate. However, spanking a baby is not appropriate in contrast to spanking a child for misbehaving. Babies are too young to enter pre-school where the difference between right and wrong is taught as early as possible. Children can be candidates for baptism because they can understand right and wrong. However, the same can't be said for infants. Infants don't have that moral compass yet so they don't go to Hell when they die. They don't go to Limbo if they weren't baptized in their infancy.
The big issue with Roman Catholicism is that it really fails to trust Christ alone for salvation. A typical novena for a deceased Roman Catholic always cites that the deceased became God's child by baptism. They trust in their baptism plus Christ alone for salvation. If baptism isn't enough then they trust in their confirmation ceremony when they reach their teenage years. Then baptism gets accompanied with confirmation, confession to a priest, and "receiving Jesus" in the celebration of the Mass. Infant baptism is just the beginning of that faulty foundation.
What Roman Catholics need is to really trust Christ alone for their salvation. They need to repent of their sins and receive Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior. The sequence of the Bible is to repent of one's sins, receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, and sanctification follows. Sanctification means a Christian's life is no longer bound to the world but continuously walking in good works (Ephesians 2:8-10, Titus 2:11-13). This salvation can't be lost and is evidenced by continuous good works. Yet, Rome still wants to condemn it as heretical even when the Bible says otherwise.