Does baptism cause faith?
When in doubt, look at the original text — or in this case, the Strong’s number which is about as close as I can get to reading Greek. The equivalent of “because” apparently doesn’t exist in the original text. If memory serves me properly, when there is no connecting word between parts of speech in Greek, there is a direct correlation between the two things: for example, the subject “this” and the predicate “My Body” when Christ instituted the Eucharist. Because there is no verb between them, Jesus intended to show that the two things are identical. In this case, the implication is that the justification (“dikiaoo,” to be righteous) is a direct result or effect of the baptism. Even more interesting to me is the word that’s used to describe the Pharisees and Scribes’ refusal of John’s baptism: “me,” which in Greek is an absolute rejection of something. These folks didn’t just say, “No,” but “Hell, no!” As in, “No, we won’t be baptized by some desert whack job who thinks he knows more a
