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Footnote: In Vol. II ("Observance of the ceremonies which my church still uses in its worship is not approved by God or Jesus," p. 168) Luther writes, "Nothing is further from the truth than these doctrines for the baptism of infants, for they have no virtue to save one from his sins or to make him in at-onement with the Father, and the mere fact that water is sprinkled on an infant's head and some blessing pronounced by the preacher does not in any way bring that infant in unison with the Father. Baptism is of man's creation and to God it means nothing more than an outward ceremony that affects the infant merely as regards its connection with the established earthly church. It is not possible for this baptism to have any effect upon the soul of the infant and neither does it open up the soul faculties to the inflowing of the Divine Love." |