My baptism’s attendance went up 80 from normal church attendance. My parents, who are unregenerite, came with my sister. This is sooo exciting. The day of my baptism we had communion and sadly my parents didn’t partake, which just proved to me that they are essentially not saved.

But they did get to hear my testimony for the Lord and how He can wash away any sins we have due to His grace and mercy.

If you would like to watch my video of my baptism feel free to email me!

Ephesians 4:5 “one Lord, one faith, one baptism;”

And you said “You see, the Spirit baptizes us into the body of Christ. And this is what Paul is referring to in Galatians.”

So my friend you are preaching another baptism? After all if you argue Paul meant in Galatians we were Baptized by the spirit and there is one baptism then that must be it right.

Yet now you say we also need water baptism so there must be two baptisms then but that cant be because Ephesians says there is only one.

The problem with faith only is that it does not really require anything of the person who says they have faith. Then new testament is clear that God asked for more than faith, he wanted believers who were obedient. I think that there is a clear case for baptism being the last step of faith. And I know we can argue that point until Christ comes.

Read 1 Peter 3:20-22
Peter states that baptism is the pledge of a good conscience toward God and that is what saves you.

it was great except one of my freind was there to see my bapitism and i kinda lied about something to my freind and she was my teachers of Middle school and she is christians herself. anyway she told me that pastor need to keep you under the water 3 mins to get all that bad side of mine out!!!

i was cracking up but it was my fault for lying!!!

A good friend of mine once put it this way in response to “he who believes AND is baptized shall be saved.”

He basically said this, “If I were to get on a plane, sit down, and fly to Florida. What got me to Florida? The getting on the plane? Or the sitting down? Of course it’s the getting on the plane. But any idiot knows, if you get on a plane, you better sit down or it’s gonna be a rough ride.”

It’s also possible that this verse speaks of the spiritual baptism that happens automatically and immediately upon belief in Christ as Savior and which the physical dunking is a symbol. Getting wet is simply a physical action done in obedience to God to match the spiritual one that has ALREADY happened at salvation.

This verse may not even be speaking of water baptism since it never even mentions it. Likewise the same could be said for Gal 3:27. The clothes of Christ are spiritual and not physical so why assume the baptism would also be the physical dunking rather than the spiritual washing?

Just things to think about before coming to a conclusion.

I am thankful that you desire to know the truth. This is obvious from your comment. However, on this subject you are “all wet.” Addressing Greg you said, “You water the Gospel down to Grace only and then wonder why folks don’t feel they need to be baptized.” Friend, Greg isn’t watering the gospel down to grace. The gospel IS all about grace and nothing more.

As you probably know the word gospel means “good news.” How good would the news be if it was also dependent upon my obedience, my baptism, my church membership, etc. It is only good news because it is all of grace. It is good news because the sinless Son of God did EVERYTHING for me. He lived the perfect and sinless life that we can’t live, he died the perfect death to take the penalty of our sin, and he rose again! And he did it all for me and you. And now everyone who trusts in him alone has their sins forgiven and possesses eternal life.

Let me address a few of the verses you mentioned above.

Mark 16:16 – we must be careful basing any doctrine upon this verse. The best scholarship agrees that everything after Mark 16:8 is probably not original to the text. Check the notes in the New International Version to quickly verify this. The New American Standard, English Standard Version and New Living Translation all concur. It is not a good idea using these verses to make such important doctrinal assertions.

Acts 2:38 – there is just too much to address here. For an excellent sermon explaining this passage go to this excellent and very comprehensive sermon at Bible.org: http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=3426

Galatians 3:26-27 – this verse does not speak about water baptism at all. It is a reference to our baptism into Christ by the Holy Spirit at the time of our conversion or justification. At the moment we trust in Christ alone we are baptized by the Spirit into Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” You see, the Spirit baptizes us into the body of Christ. And this is what Paul is refering to in Galatians.

If any passage is certainly NOT teaching that baptism is necessary for salvation it is the passage in Galatians. If you understand anything at all about Galatians it is Paul’s magnificient declaration of salvation through grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone. It has sometimes been called the “little Romans” because it possesses so many of the same themes as Paul’s letter to the Romans. It teaches nothing but grace. And indeed, this is good news.

Steve, I could go on and on with text after text that supports salvation by faith alone. John himself uses the word believe 98 times in his Gospel alone. Paul again makes it clear in Eph. 2:8-9. There are so many places to explain and demonstrate this that I don’t know where to start and this is already too long.

Friend, I would implore you to stop trusting in Jesus AND your baptism (works) and just trust in Christ alone. After all, the gospel is a message of grace.

“While water baptism doesn’t save you” I know you believe that and that is why “Christians who were [are] nonchalant about being water baptized”.

You are so worried about Grace only you forget Mark 16:16 where Jesus says he who believes AND is baptized shall be saved. Peter responds to the crowds comment about what they need to do in Acts 2:38 by telling the crowd to repent and be baptized. You water the Gospel down to Grace only and then wonder why folks don’t feel they need to be baptized. Why should they, IF it has nothing to do with salvation then why should they? You spend so much time teaching they don’t need to be baptized to be saved then why should they later after all you just got done explaining why they didn’t need it.

Galatians 3:26-27 (New International Version)
26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Paul identifies those of faith as those who have been baptized into Christ.