a child had to grow in the life that was given to her, so the believer had to do the same.70 If that did not happen, there was no new birth at all. The fathers did not have to preach the gospel to a world in which many were outwardly baptized but inwardly far from God. To them, the rite was a sacred transition from the world to the church, and through the church to the kingdom of heaven. There are modern believers who still subscribe to that analogy, but the reality of everyday life forces us to