Are you Saved if you have not been Baptised? (paradise, Gospels, hell)
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I have heard it both ways. I have heard that even if you give your heart to Jesus and profess His Name as The Messiah, if you have not been Baptised you still are not Saved
I have heard that Baptism is merely a public display of Faith and is not required for Salvation, because Jesus already took care of that on The Cross
I have heard it both ways. I have heard that even if you give your heart to Jesus and profess His Name as The Messiah, if you have not been Baptised you still are not Saved
I have heard that Baptism is merely a public display of Faith and is not required for Salvation, because Jesus already took care of that on The Cross
What are your views on this?
The Scriptures talk about "one baptism". This is referring to Baptism of the Holy Spirit. This comes upon an individual when they believe the gospel and repent which is a one-time, once-and-for-all event. Repentance is a daily, life-long commitment, but Justification comes at the moment one believes with them "passing from death to life". One must be "born again" to be saved.
Ultimately one is Saved from Eternal Hell by the presence of God's Holy Spirit which Justifies the believer as "in Christ" the passover lamb.
Wars have been fought over water baptism. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit unifies. It is an act of God not man. If it was up to man he'd mess it up as is demonstrated by the Wars.
Baptism is an important public testimony that one has come to Christ. The Thief on the Cross was not baptized by water, and the man is in Paradise according to the Lord. There is a lot of Scripture to support that the Holy Spirit comes upon an individual upon believing, and there are a lot of posts on here talking about this topic easily found through a search which I highly recommend looking into.
The issue is the identity not the water. Submersion, etc is not the issue.
1 Peter 3:20-21
In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It [refering to baptism] saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
Acts 2:38
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:11
But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Reformed theology errors by taking the means of grace out of baptism by restricting it to an act of man.
Baptism in water is being born of water. Baptism of the Spirit is being born of the spirit. We must experience these to enter the kingdom of God. John 3:5
If all you had was Mark 16, Acts 2, and 1 Peter 3, then it would be easy to say yes, you have to be baptized.
HOWEVER, in light of the entire NT, and the vast array of verses, context and themes that speak otherwise, I think it's clear you do NOT have to be baptized to be saved.
At that point you enter into a situation where one must perform a certain human, observable course of action that would then move them from "unsaved" to "saved" - you've crossed the line and it does not mesh with what the Bible teaches. The whole point is that we should not be having checklists (even of 1 item) that you've either done or haven't as the means of your salvation. (I'm talking about demonstrable actions). There is simply no way you can avoid calling baptism a "work" and try to spin it as some work-less component of faith.
Otherwise you introduce all sorts of hypotheticals like people who believed in Christ's death and resurrection and get killed before they're able to be baptized. Tough luck? Come on...
Getting water Baptized proves to Jesus of you intent of repentance and to resist sin , and to be willing to love the Lord ...... There are people who never was baptized and live the life of Christians , were the spouse is Christian , and they go to Church were the gospel is preached and there is evidence of Holy Spirit and they do pray and know Jesus in their prayers , but that is the rare exception of people who do live the life of Christian ......But people who are not exposed to Christians and do not have fruit of the spirit and have a foul mouth and faithlessness may be deceive in believing they Are Christians , And need to go out and prove to Jesus their faith , and Jesus will help cleans people who prove their intent and are obedient to the honor of Jesus Words and ways ....
Mark 16:16
Whoever believes andisbaptizedwill be saved, but whoever does not believewill be condemned.
What it does say is you will be saved if you believe and are babtized, but it doesn't say you won't be saved if your not babtized. But of coarse you should if you can but not all can such as the thief on the cross, the inferm, perhaps even some on death row in prison when time is almost over as it was for the thief or others under differant dire circumstances, only God knows.
Only God knows who can or not be babtized or when [many do it later when circumstances permit] but if you want to honor God and you can then just do what He says.
There really is no debate unless one is only seeking excusses which calls into question one's sincerity. Again, only God knows and the only one to whom we are dealing with.
If all you had was Mark 16, Acts 2, and 1 Peter 3, then it would be easy to say yes, you have to be baptized.
HOWEVER, in light of the entire NT, and the vast array of verses, context and themes that speak otherwise, I think it's clear you do NOT have to be baptized to be saved.
At that point you enter into a situation where one must perform a certain human, observable course of action that would then move them from "unsaved" to "saved" - you've crossed the line and it does not mesh with what the Bible teaches. The whole point is that we should not be having checklists (even of 1 item) that you've either done or haven't as the means of your salvation. (I'm talking about demonstrable actions). There is simply no way you can avoid calling baptism a "work" and try to spin it as some work-less component of faith.
Otherwise you introduce all sorts of hypotheticals like people who believed in Christ's death and resurrection and get killed before they're able to be baptized. Tough luck? Come on...
That was sort of the point (but probably didn't make it clear enough) that Jesus phrased it as to what saves and what does not.
What saves: (notice what is left out in John 3:16 ... "andisbaptized" )
Mark 16:16
Whoever believes andisbaptizedwill be saved
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
What does not save:
Mark 16:16
... but whoever does not believewill be condemned.
All the other passages listed only speak to what saves which includes Baptism, but no where do we read that not being baptized means we are not saved, which that is very important to accept though not to human reasoning.
But the fact is we do have Mark 16, Acts 2, and 1 Peter 3 ... and it is the truth. God makes every means possible in accordance to his will for people to be saved.
The problem Christians have is that they forget to rightly divide the word of God.
They look at the Circumcision writings (four gospels and Acts) and try to force them into the Uncircumcision writings of the apostle Paul to the nations. As Israel was set aside so was water baptism until finally just being baptized in spirit prevails for us. That is the only "one baptism" for us now.
When Israel is in the 1000 year kingdom then water baptism will be re-instituted and they will baptize the nations once again. Dig?
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