re the doctrine of original sin in article may athos rutgers edu eugene bigelow ebay sun com writes this all obviously applies equally well to infants or adults since both have souls infants must be baptized therefore or they cannot enter into heaven they too need this form of life in them or they cannot enter into heaven are you saying that baptism has nothing to do with asking jesus to come into your heart and accepting him as your savior but is just a ritual that we must go through to enable us to enter heaven i don t think joe was saying any such thing however your question on asking jesus to come into your heart seems to imply that infants are not allowed to have christ in theirs why must baptism always be viewed by some people as a sort of prodigal son type of thing i e a sudden change of heart going from not accepting christ to suddenly accepting christ why can t people start out with christ from shortly after birth and build their relationship from there after all does a man suddenly meet a woman and then marry her that same day from my experiences i ve learned that all relationships must be built including one s relationship with god also joe is speaking from the standpoint that baptism is not just a ritual but that through it god bestows sacramental grace upon the recipient certainly for those with the mental faculties to know christ it is necessary to believe in him however the sacrament itself bestows grace on the recipient and makes a permanent mark of adoption into god s family on the soul steve creps indiana university creps lateran ucs indiana edu
