Someone anonymous commented. Despite being an anonymous comment, I will answer this in good faith.
"I am glad that I am not God and I am glad that I am not going to have to listen to everyone's excuses for not obeying what His word says.
Read I Peter 3:21 ...if baptism is not essential then please explain this verse to all of us......."
We share the same practice. We just do it for different reason. I still encourage people to be baptized. I even concede that it does play a role in salvation. It appears to be done throughout Acts at any conversion. However, it is not the moment of conversion in many of the stories in Acts that I cited. I think it is detrimental to emphasize baptism over the heart. Or for that matter and of the actions in Acts which brought about a change of the heart.
1 Peter 3:18-22 - 18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. 21 Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you--not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience--through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.
I actually find it amazing that a verse that actually seems to speak out that it isn't the water baptism that saves us is used frequently in defense of water baptism saving us.
All of the examples I cited in Acts yesterday, show that the Holy Spirit can come at any time. This verse says "baptism now saves you--not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience." It fits in with my proposed explanation yesterday. It is the state of one's heart that saves us. When our heart surrenders to God, that is when we are saved. It might happen at the point of laying on of hands, hearing the message, being baptized, or various other times. Salvation coming isn't limited to a formula or a recipe, it is only limited by hardened hearts. When our heart opens up, when we appeal to God for a good conscience, that is the baptism that matters. The water baptism is for the community of believers and for us to have a concrete point in our past to look at.
The baptism that is associated with an appeal to God for a good conscience is the one that saves us. It is the heart, and not the action, that saves us through the resurrection of Jesus.
Please, Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous, I request that you give me an explanation on how all of those verses I shared yesterday show that baptism is the moment of our salvation.
And I do believe that we can disagree on this and be brothers or sisters in Christ. I hope you believe the same. If not, we should probably stop having this conversation.
Watch out for the potholes.
