Since Calvin was not an advocate of believers baptism it seems to me that what you are talking about is dumb.  Baptism is a sign and seal that you are a covenant child.  It in no way says that you are going to be part of the church triumphant. 

In addition to this I would challenge you to read everything in context.  They are called books because they are supposed to be read together. 

And again, why not just become a universalist?  We share the baptism of Christ.  If you want to deny that baptism then you may as well just go up and slap Jesus in the face and say that he is not enough for you. 

Hey bud, I saw that you subscribed to my xanga. I didn’t know if I would happen to know you, so I clicked the link over here. You seem to have aroused some…intense responses looking at the comments. People do that with a post itself is intensely portrayed. I personally am not knowledgable of history and cannot nor care to speak of Calvin beyond your quote. I, like you seem to be, am interested in ideas and concepts as opposed to people who give them. I agree that nothing saves a man except God, and that that is by faith in God.

Rom. 3:23-26
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Clearly we see that not even man’s faith places God in position to save that man; we only know that it is God’s choice in and of Himself to save (in the sense of justification) the one who has faith in Jesus. “So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.” We also know that God saves only because of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice that allows God to be a “just justifier”. We further know from passages in Galations and Romans that it is not works of law or conscience that can save a man because only Jesus can impart righteousness through faith as was done to Abraham Himself.

We, however, know nothing from these verses as to the evidence of salvation. You may say that belief is the only evidence of salvaion, and I’m not going to argue with that. However, what is the evidence of belief? This is the main principle of the epistle of James among others. It is not surprising that Jesus, Jews, and Apostles took to this view of semitic totality such that one’s overall actions manifest one’s true beliefs which are one. We see in scripture that James even says that: ” You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.”. Clearly, we know from Apostolic context that James speaks of the works that manifest the already existent faith. Our faith is shown in works and works make it perfect in the sense that we need not doubt our faith if genuine works come out of it such that we obey His commandments and are not burdened by them (which 1 John calls the love of God). Therefore, clearly, genuine works manifest the inner saving faith, and without those works, one must conclude that their inner faith is false, dead, and deceitful. From this, we can only conclude that works are evidence of faith; Jesus Himself said we would know a tree by it’s fruits. Baptism does not save, but how can one who refuses baptism (a command of the Lord they claim now to follow) if they are indeed saved? Baptism makes faith manifest in a work of obedience to the Lord out of the heart.

Calvin says nothing directly in this quote of baptism saving a man, he only speaks of the correlation between salvation and baptism, the identification consecrated by Christ Himself (which is biblical), and the benefit to our faith. If you doubt the biblical validity of works benefiting one’s faith, read 2 Peter 1 where he quite clearly says that we’ve been given promises, so we should abide in them and practice them often in order to make our calling and election sure.

Also, the quote, “But let him who glories glory in this, THAT HE UNDERSTANDS and knows Me”. This speaks to what a person should boast in; it does not speak in regard to the restriction of salvation only being evidenced by belief. Clearly salvation is only obtained from Christ by means of belief; however, there is no restriction I have found that says this belief cannot be made manifest by works. In fact, I find an abundance of passages that contextually and intentionally tell us not only that genuine works are evidence of inner faith, but that we should judge ourselves by that fruit and learn to identify one another by those fruits.

I’m not looking to bash anything here or to be prideful. I’ve had my prideful days of theology and I’m now embarrased by it and by my continuing tendancies to be prideful in theology. We are all seeking truth through scripture; let us work together and be iron on iron for each other rather than tearing down one another. If there’s something in error here, I’ll certainly take the correction. Happy seeking bro!

Nah, I’m not a Calvanist. A quick look at my xanga shows that I don’t really hold to any non-biblical patriarch’s teachings probably because I haven’t and probably won’t in the near future study any of them (Luther, Calvin, ect.) in great depth. I have wanted to read some Edwards at some point though; I’ve heard good things about it. Maybe I’ll become an Edwardian . Sorry, pardon my dumb humor; haha, I wonder if that’s a real denomination though. Anyway, whatever his pattern, I doubt it was bringing Calvanists to his xanga…unless he didn’t read mine in detail and thought I was anyway. Also, he mentioned belief, not prayer.