Because Baptism of desire is not a sacrament, therefore there is no need for an outward sign, such as water. What saves you through BOD is grace.
But baptism of desire is a
baptism, or else it would not be called
Baptism of desire, now would it? That's the real issue here. That is the problem. Whether or not it's a sacrament isn't really even my main concern. My main concern is: if it is a baptism like the name implies, then should water not be necessary for it? The council of Trent says that water is necessary for baptism. If BoD is not baptism, then, quite frankly, I just don't know what the hell it is.
It is necessary in the sense that someone who refuses water Baptism cannot be saved, but not in the sense that God is chained to His Sacraments so that He needs water to save someone who, for example, is about to die, wants to be baptized, but has no access to water and dies without receiving the Sacrament. We do not know who is saved in this way. We can only know that someone is in Heaven if the Church canonizes him/her.
No one is saying that God is bound by His own sacraments. I am not saying God is bound by His sacraments. Asserting otherwise is a vicious lie against me. What I am really having trouble with is the idea that God would contradict Himself in saying that whoever is not born of water and the Holy Ghost cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. I'm having trouble believing God would contradict the teachings of His Church or allow His Church to contradict Him and say that someone can be baptised by desire even after saying that water is necessary for
baptism and having the Church define that water is a necessity of baptism.