This is a copy of my response to a dear friend who lives several states upward of me. We are currently undergoing a study of baptism, which she has been taught is not necessary to an eternal life in Heaven.
My Dear friend,
I know, a lot of denominations believe just because you are baptized you are saved..I don’t believe baptism alone saves, nor do my fellow believers in Christ.
Jesus Himself set the example for us along with His command to be born again,
of water and spirit. He said, “No one can enter the kingdom unless they are born of water and the spirit” John 3:3-5. John said, in Matthew 3:11, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance”.
Mark 16:16 says “He who believes and is baptized will be saved but he who not believe will
be condemned.” in other words, if you believe you will follow Gods commands/be obedient
to Him. And if you do not ......you will be condemned. Right there it shows that baptism saves you.
1 Peter 3:21 states baptism saves you. I hope you will read it in your bible.... I can type out every scripture I am sharing with you, but, if you read it for yourself it will prove I didn’t say it, the BIBLE says it.
However....you must make the proper changes...if you just get baptized and don’t make the
changes in your life/heart, and read /study scripture, and obey the commands God has
put it in...no, the baptism wont save you. You HAVE to live your life as best you can in
accordance to Gods will. He commanded obedience in the OT ....in fact, in fact, there are SO many
examples of those in the OT who did not obey Him...and they suffered severe consequences!! Even death.
Here again, the list of other scriptures of Baptism in the NT:
Acts 2:38
Acts 8:12, 13
Acts 8:36-38
Acts 10:48
Acts 22:16
Romans 6:4
1Corinthian 6:11
James 2:14–26 is sometimes taken out of context in an attempt to create a works-based system of righteousness, but that is contrary to many other Scriptures. James is not saying that our works make us righteous before God,but he is making it clear that real saving faith is demonstrated by good works. Works are not the cause of salvation; works are the evidence of salvation. The person who claims to be a Christian but lives in willful disobedience to Christ with a life that shows no works has a false or dead faith and is not saved.
James is clearly making a contrast between two different types of faith—truth faith that saves and false faith that is dead.
So that’s how baptism fits in...if one is truly repentful of their sinful life, and wants to live Gods way, and have eternity in heaven, then that person would want to do everything Christ said we must do. and the NT has all those scriptures that I shared with you before, of the importance of baptism....what it is for, why we should do it, and live our lives out in obedience with a pure heart.
Did you read all those scriptures I lined out for you in our last discussion? I hope so....because its what the bible teaches that we should be in adherence to. There is so much false teaching out there. Even those world famous figures such as Billy Graham and Joyce Meyer, are not teaching according to the Scriptures..but use smooth words and flattering speech to deceive the hearts of the simple!! (Romans 16:18b)
If you still have that last email I sent on this topic, just look all those up. The Bible does not mislead us. it is not written by gentiles who could not understand. (as you mentioned in your last letter)- it was written for ALL of us-our learning and instruction. And gentiles who did not understand could NOT possibly have written it to where it has the flow and connections that it has. NO MAN has ever had that kind of intelligence who could rewrite the entire bible without Gods help. 2 Timothy 3:16 "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness". And, Romans 15:4 "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope."
Baptism is NOT an outward show of inward change. it is OBEDIENCE to Christ.
He commanded it. He set the example for us by doing it Himself.
If Christ saw the need for baptism, how much more shouldn’t we?
Your friend always,
Lois
P.S. here are those scriptures again about being obedient to God/Christ---
Matthew 28:20
John 15:10, 14
Ephesians 5:6
1 John 3:22
I King 11:38
Joshua 22:5
Psalm 103:18
Psalm 119:1, 2, 127,136,167,168 and my favorite, vs 32
Rev 3:3
Im over n out for the day!!! Stay warm!! Enjoy looking these up. If you are like me, scripture study is a joy! I love to dig deep into Gods word, don’t you?
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