TLC209,
I'm going to mention a few things very quickly while I'm thinking of them.
I'm just pointing some things out, I'm not mad at you, and not out to get you.
1. In 1 Peter 3:19 we see that getting baptized is the act of someone with a clean conscience.... this creates some issues.
The act of baptism, in this verse, is the response of someone with a clean conscience.... someone who is answering with a clean conscience meaning he must HAVE a clean conscience with which to answer.
How did his conscious get clean?
Your conscience only gets clean when you're born again.
So, if this person has a clean conscience BEFORE being baptized (which he did) then he had to have been born again BEFORE being baptized.
This shows that conversion, being born again, must occur BEFORE baptism.
If you aren't already born again, then you don't have a clean conscience with which to answer God.
2. We have a logical fallacy of equivocation occurring here, regarding the word "saved."
Have YOU ever, ever in your life, used to word "saved" to refer to anything other than being born again?
Ever?
Surely, at some point in your life, you have used the word "saved" to refer to something other than spiritual conversion.
Perhaps you've said something like: "That medicine saved me from a terrible illness", or "My wife saved me from loneliness", or "The fireman saved a kid from a burning house" or "The lifeguard saved a girl from drowning."
Surely you've used the word "saved" to refer to things other than spiritual conversion.
So, armed with this insight, that a word can be used in different ways, and you even do this yourself.... we need to at least consider rethinking this verse.
Just because we see the word "saved" appear in a verse, it isn't logical to just immediately assume it can, and must, refer to nothing other than spiritual conversion. This kind of assumption can lead us into a logical fallacy called equivocation.
3. When Nehemiah posted that verse from 1 Corinthians 1:17-18, it was to show that baptism is not a condition for conversion.
1Co 1:17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel:
Here, Paul is making a clear distinction that baptism is not actually part of the gospel... baptism and the gospel are separate things.
Why does this matter?
So what if baptism is not part of the gospel... what does that mean?
The apostles had the mission of preaching the gospel, and scripture makes it clear that it's this message of the gospel that saves us.
But Paul clearly says baptism is NOT part of the gospel.
Therefore:
a. it is the gospel message that has the power to save our souls
b. baptism is not part of the gospel
c. then it follows... baptism does not save our souls.
I'm not mad at anyone, I'm just pointing some things out for consideration.
Everyone take care, sleep well, and have a good night.
..