Is Baptism Required to be SAVED?

 

Baptism and us.
Our testimony.

More about Christian baptism. Do you need to be baptized to be saved?

My answer: No, you need to be baptized to obey the command of Christ and the apostles who also commanded believers to be baptized.

Baptism is being fully immersed <like a burial> into water and is into Christ.

What about the thief on the cross?

Ans. Jesus told him, "👉TODAY you will be WITH ME * in Paradise👈* ".

Paradise was in the "lower parts of the earth".

Ephesians 4:9

(Now the saying, “He ascended” — what does it mean but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

(This is where Jesus descended and preached to the souls held there until Jesus redeemed them, and brought them out after his three days "in the earth".

Luke 16 is not a parable, it is a place now occupied by lost souls, the saints having left when Jesus ascended to God.)

Baptism?

Well if they say it does not matter, Jesus said it did.

Mark 16:16 He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, he that does not believe shall be damned".

When Peter preached who Jesus really is to the Jews in Acts 2, they asked "...WHAT SHALL WE DO!!??"

Peter said they were to "REPENT" (they believed wrong who Jesus is because their leaders had lied to them, just like pastors do today)

AND 👉BE BAPTIZED INTO THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost".

Somebody wants to argue with Peter? "accept Christ" and boom, your saved?.......... hmmmm

But wait, they went on to baptize others in Acts to baptize Samaritans, Jews, and Italians in Acts.

A man testified.. You say you have 5 baptisms? Well we had a guy come to our old Pentecostal church and he had been baptized 101 times!
So we baptized him in Jesus' name and called him brother "102".

He was one of those oddball types we attracted to our Pentecostal church... and he wandered off to who knows where..

Humor aside, I have been baptized twice.
When I first started turning to God I went to church with my mother.
Her sleepy little Baptist church in our predominantly Catholic town.
I never heard about baptism in church there but I was reading the Bible on my own and the Lord moved on me and I felt the desire for God leading me to be baptized, so I asked about it to the pastor.

-they scheduled a Baptism in a neighboring city at a large Baptist church for a month later. Jan 1980.
I still have the certificate.

Kind of similar to you, FF to 9 months later when I encountered the oneness Pentecostals after I was asking Father about that "Holy Ghost baptism" thing which the Baptists taught against... I wanted to know the truth and I felt something was lacking in my spirit, but I remember praying "God, if there is a Holy Ghost, I want that too!"

The Pentecostals were all about Acts 2:38 and the name of JESUS at water baptism, and why "Father Son Holy Ghost in Matt. 28:19 was not what was said by the apostles. They emphasized Holy Spirit baptism evidenced with tongues also.

-I was still seeking with a willingness to repent of my Baptist views, and I was truly a baby Christian, beginning to encounter the church world conflicts.

So after a few discussions, and my own heart desire for more of Christ, I was ready to be re-baptized "IN JESUS NAME",
and so I went with the pastor and 7 or 8 members (it was a Home Mission tiny church group), out to the lake on a Friday night, and I was baptized in Jesus name. And began to really seek Spirit baptism with the expectation of tongues as evidence, like those in my new fellowship the Lord led me to.

That led me into the UPC Pentecostal church sect for the next 11 years, including meeting Linda and we had a very good fellowship with that small church. I was ordained as a minister, "Reverend", in 1990.

We were rather looked down upon by the local churches for various reasons, but we were passionate about prayer, worship, and church, 4 services a week and we rarely ever missed.
The power and Presence of God was very strong in our meetings and we saw miracles, healings, and moves of God's Spirit..

Visitors and even people walking down the street past our church would testify to it. It was some of the very best "church" we have ever experienced, despite the Pharisee leaven we partook of..

FF to 2019 and the revelation that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God.

I was at a small conference of what might be called "Unitarian" brethren, (I do not ascribe to any labels), and I had been invited because I was preaching the revelation of Jesus Christ, the man who died and was raised by God, according to what they preached in Acts.

One speaker, Dan Gill, an elderly man and I think may be a pastor who also came out of the UPC, gave a very good exposition on Jesus Christ, and as I listened, thought, "he is really making a case to be re-baptized to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ"..

-I have never acted upon that but I do think about now and then...

I would re-baptize and have, people who were baptized in the Titles "Father Son, Holy Ghost". To me, it is a matter of desire to follow Christ.

Thank you for your testimony, and ministry.