Baptism unto the Ages of Ages

 I had someone query about being on the journey to join the Church but was afraid if she died before being Confirmed and receiving the Eucharist, she might go to hell. She was baptized in her current Protestant denomination, but still battles with the dread doubt that she might not be saved even when validly baptized. She asks if she is crazy for thinking this way. 

This is my response:

No, you are not crazy at all. In fact, this very topic is one of the major driving factors that fueled the early Reformation. One of the, I think, quite valid criticisms of the Medieval Church on the practical day-to-day ground level in normal parish life was a lack of catechism and understanding amongst the everyday laity about certain central topics like Salvation.

This was not true all over Christendom. Some places were better at catechizing and preaching everyday people better than others. But, it was a big enough problem that large groups of people were living in perpetual fear about whether or not they had done enough to have earned salvation to the point there was mass hysteria in some areas where good, Mass going folks where perpetually afraid of dying and ending up in hell despite all their best Sacramental efforts.

Unfortunately, most of the early Reformers took this valid criticism way to far and took it upon themselves to proverbially throw the baby out with the bath water and break from the Church in full blown schism entirely over this and other issues instead of trying to stay and reform the Church from in the inside. This certainly lead people like Luther to violently attack things like indulgences that he saw were fueling this perpetual fear in people that they were going to hell because they were no doing enough good works regardless of how much they loved Christ or were in the good graces of the Church. Luther did not fully understand the theology of indulgences and the treasury of merit, but likewise, the Church was not all that great at adequately responding to his criticisms and concerns in a pastoral manner until it was far too late and revolution was already inside the gates, so to speak.

This also explains why a generation later, reformers like (first Ulrich Zwingli who does not get enough historical credit) and John Calvin for coming up with the whole Predestination doctrine, which they had modified for their own political and theological ends from some of Saint Augustine's talk about Election and the Massa Damnata. While Calvinist type Predestination is not within the confines of Catholic theology, there was a method to Calvin's teachings. He was looking around and seeing life long Catholics living in fear about going to hell, and he basically said, "Well, I can fix this problem with a pastoral solution: Boom: Predestination!" He tried to short circuit this entire pastoral issue by saying, "You don't even have to worry about that because you are predestined to go to heaven. The very fact that you are worrying about it must mean you are part of the elect, and nothing you can do can possibly send you to hell because that decision has already been made before you were born."

As much of a jerk and a warlord as John Calvin was when he came to power in Switzerland, the whole Predestination doctrine was conjured up out of pastoral concern for people's souls. It's theologically wrong, but there is a perverse theological beauty in that he was trying to assuage people's deep seeded fear of going to hell despite everything in their life in Christ to the contrary. (And to be fair to Calvin, he only ever spoke about double-Predestination in one small passage in his Institutes of Religion, and he only basically says, "Well...it could be logically true that God could also predestine some people to go to hell, but I need to pray and study about that some more and get back to you..." (and he conveniently never does.) It was his theological successors that went bananas with the double Predestination thing in Calvinism.

So, all that being said, what does the Church have to say about this in your context? You are baptized, presumably in the Trinitarian formula. In that baptism you died with Christ, joined Christ in the tomb, in the hopes that you will be resurrected with Christ on the day of Resurrection. You may not have had that understanding explained to you in the Baptist church, but herein in the beauty of valid sacraments: Sacraments have power to change things in real time.

Sacraments are not merely theater for entertainment purposes. Many Protestants view baptism as merely an external act for something that has already been done. Like a graduation ceremony, you walk across the stage in your nice cap and gown and get handed a diploma by someone in an even nicer gown and hat. That act in itself has no real power other than theater. You have already done the work. You've passed all the tests. Tuition has been paid to the registrar. You have already graduated. You don't even have to go through the graduation ceremony if you don't want to because in the end, it's just feel good theater.

A true Sacrament however has power in itself. It is not magic like a magician's spell or a voodoo doll. It has power because Christ gave it the power. A Sacrament is more like a vaccine prepared by a great scientist. You take the vaccine and it physically changes you. It gives your blood the antibodies it needs to fight off a disease it otherwise had no power to fight. In some instances, if can even change your very RNA sequence. Sacraments have real power in real time to radically change and save your life.

Baptism, because it is done in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, has that power to change your soul. It wipes away original sin. It allows you to die with Christ so that you might be Resurrected with Christ. It gives you new life that can protect you against sin. But it is only a first step. There will be other medicines you will need along the way to live a long and healthy life in Christ like Confirmation, the Eucharist, and Confession, etc.

These other Sacraments can only get received from the Church. While Protestants can perform valid Baptisms, they are valid because they are imbued with the power of Christ himself. Someone can administer a vaccine and not believe it has any power to do anything, but the vaccine still has power. All the other Sacraments Christ entrusted to his Apostles and their successors. Anyone can give out placebo pills and call it medicine, but in the end, it's just sugar in a capsule. Only the Church has the recipe for the other Sacraments.

My point is that you have received the vaccine, and in that there is life. At this point you need further discussions with the Great Physician. He can be found in the person of His Church. That Great Physician understands the human condition because he once walked the earth as well. He understands life is messy. Things take time. But the beauty is that Jesus is also co-eternal with the Father, and the Father is apart from human time. As such, Christ is not tied to linear human time tables.

The Resurrection was not a linear event. It worked retroactively into the past. It can likewise work retroactively into the future. 

 

If for some reason you die (God forbid) before you get the chance to fully partake in the other Sacraments, God will take that into account. That Resurrection that you joined with Christ in baptism will work retroactively into the future. As such, Jesus in His great mercy will never forsake those who joined Him in his grave, nor will He forget you on the Day of Resurrection or into the future in the ages of ages.