Are you looking for new information or true information? My view aligns perfectly with scripture. Unfortunately, you just don't have eyes to see.
I have the True information. Of course your view aligns with scripture. Every sola scripturist view aligns with scripture which is why you are all different. However, your view does not align with what scripture has meant from the beginning.
Don't buy into that Roman Catholic sales pitch. Baptism is by immersion: "they went down both into the water and came up out of the water" (Acts:8:38-39). Why? Because baptism symbolizes the believer's identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection: "we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead...we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom:6:4).
there you have it, water baptism as it always has been.
Unfortunately, various innovations and heresies were gradually introduced regarding baptism: that one must be baptized to be saved; that baptism itself saves the soul even when administered to infants. These heresies became known as the doctrine of baptismal regeneration that originated with the Roman Catholic church, not with the apostles. The Council of Trent (1545-63) stated...the instrumental cause [of justification/regeneration] is the sacrament of baptism....If anyone says that baptism is...not necessary for salvation, let him be anathema." Vatican ll (1962-65) reconfirms all of Trent and reiterates the necessity of baptism for salvation, as does the universal Catechism of the Catholic Church released by the Vatican in 1993. "Baptism is necessary for salvation ... the Church does not know of any [other] means...that assures entry into eternal beatitude...."
fortunately for the RCC they retained the understanding of scriptual baptism. There was never a dispute or disagreement at to meaning, form or purpose until the Reformers. Now, for 500 years they have been arguing and probably will never come to a scriptural conclusion.
For centuries before the Reformation, baptismal regeneration was rejected by Bible-believing Christians, whom the Roman Catholic Church therefore persecuted, tortured and slaughtered by the millions. The Lord preserved His people before the Reformation. The early Catholic churches were neither Roman nor Greek; the division into the western and eastern churches was not complete until in the eleventh century. Yet Catholic apologists conveniently forget the Greek Orthodox Church. They too claim a succession of bishops going back to the apostolic era. Moreover, there were other Christian churches such as the Donatists, Novatians, Waldenses, the Lollards and the Hussites, who were bitterly persecuted by Roman Catholics.
The early Churches were all Greek. They also happened to be all in the Roman Empire except for Thomas who went to what is now India.
You do realize that all those what you call Christians the first two are heretical groups. The others are all western groups that come much later and located in what was RCC western territories.
You are correct the Lord has protected His Body here on earth. It has never ceased to exist. Which is why the Gospel has never changed from the beginning. Many men including those mentioned tried to impose their innovative ideas upon His Gospel, but all were rejected. It is the Body of Christ, over which Christ is head, and enlivened by the Holy Spirit that preserves that ONCE given gospel.
You mentioned that both Orthodox and the RCC make the same claim of Apostleship and Succession. It does not take long to figure out that the RCC after they split from the Church began to make wholesale changes to the meaning of scripture and added doctrines out of whole cloth thus changing Tradition to beome just another tradition.
Non-Catholics taught from Scripture that baptism was only for those who had believed the gospel: "teach all nations baptizing them [who have believed]" (Mt 28:19); "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized" (Acts 2: 41); "[W]hat doth hinder me to be baptized? ... If thou believest [in Christ] with all thine heart, thou mayest" (Acts 8:35-37). Infants can't believe in Christ.
Where does it say that one must believe before one is baptised. What is the purpose of baptism? Obviously, any revelation of God to man would be given to adults and not babies. But that does not exclude babies from participating and belonging to the Body of Christ. Babies have been baptised from the very beginning.
Consider Cornelius's household: they heard the gospel, believed it and were baptized. That there were no infants baptized is also clear, for they had all gathered "to hear all things that are commanded thee of God" (Acts 10:33). "The Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard [and, obviously, understood and believed] the word" (v 43,44); and they spoke with tongues (v 46), That they had "received the Holy Ghost" (v47) convinced Peter that they were saved. Therefore, he baptized them (v 48). You can believe the "2000 year sales pitch" if you like (I heard it in the RCC that I grew up in) but I will continue to believe the truth.
You do make huge assumptions, but always in the reverse of what actually happened and has happened for 2000 years. It is unfortunate that you left the RCC, but that was like going from bad to worse. The only difference is that instead of one man interpreting for a whole Church, you can interpret for yourself what scripture means and your opinions are infallible, just as every other sola scripturist assumes. Consequently we have thousands of interpretations placed upon scripture by individual men, men who were never taught the Gospel in the first place and assuming they can deduce from a text that is not a manual or even a textbook, what God's Revelation meant.
You have joined a world of chaos, confusion, division that is far worse than the RCC.
The Gospel of Christ is the "good news" of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) and is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes.. (Romans 1:16). The gospel is a message of grace to be received through faith. The gospel is not a set of rituals to perform, a code of laws to be obeyed or a check list of good works to accomplish as a prerequisite for salvation. The Gospel simply sets forth Christ crucified, buried and risen as the Savior of all who believe (trust) in His finished work of redemption as the all sufficient means of their salvation "apart from additions or modifications."
For an ex-RCC you really don't understand scripture very well. Your statement voids the whole purpose of Christ's death. What you stated here is nothing more than the same statement Satan can make because He surely believes that Christ defeated him and abolished his two tools, the enemy of man, death and sin.
I have noticed also that most on this forum do not understand the Incarnation and its salvific content.
As much as you state you are no longer RCC, you have retained or taken with you several of the man developed theories that the RCC has adopted, Originial Sin, the Satisfaction theory of atonement. By default most protestants have adopted the Zwinglian understanding of the sacraments including the number of them.
Sola scripturists? Are the scriptures insufficient for you? Yes, the Gospel of Christ (death, burial and resurrection of Christ) will remain the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes "apart from water, rituals, works" until Christ returns. Christ's finished work of redemption is sufficient and complete to save us. No supplements needed.
Which is a gift you got whether you believed or not. One of those gifts, is LIFE. You and every single human being will be raised in the last day. You are not being raised because you believed. You are being raised because Christ defeated death, the power of Satan for everyone. He raised our human nature to life. You have bypassed the Incarnation again, like it never existed. Your theology in effect, makes heaven and hell impossible. It negates the whole reason Christ came into the world, to defeat death and sin.
Your definition above does not save you anymore than it would an unbeliever. You misunderstand the Incarnation, and they void its purpose which was to enable man to have a relatioship with Christ and attain eternal life with Him. Christ DID NOT save you to a relationship. That relationship is ALL YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.