25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. Ephesians 5:25-27 (LSB)
Read Titus 3:4-7 on the site.
Many false teachers in the past and currently have taken the word “washing” in the two passages above and taught that this refers to baptism. However, a careful reading of the text reveals that baptism is never mentioned nor is the Greek word for baptism used by Paul in either passage, therefore, we know that he, inspired by the Holy Spirit, was writing about something else entirely.
26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water in the Word Ephesians 5:26 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)
5 not by works which we did but according to His mercy He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, Titus 3:5 (translated from the NA28 Greek text)
I’ll be blunt. Those who teach or preach that our salvation is based upon “baptismal regeneration” are heretics. The word the writers of the New Testament used for Baptize is βαπτίζω (baptizō) which literally means “wash.” However, it had another spiritual meaning to the writers of the Bible that is completely different from λουτρόν (loutron), which is what Paul used in Ephesians 5:26 and Titus 3:5. It means “washing.” The usage of a different word is important. Instead of assuming that Paul was talking about baptism when he meant washing is poor exegesis. <Continue reading post>