Saul of Tarsus was not saved on the road to Damascus.
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do you really believe everyone who has ever been baptized is a Christian?
you do know infant baptism exists, and false teachers exist, and emotional peer pressure exists, right?
in the early church they would not allow people to be baptized until they had been taught - perhaps even for two or three years. part of this was making sure they were truly believing and understanding what they were doing, not just responding in the spur of the moment to a charismatic speech, and part of it also was because spies were sent in during times the church was being persecuted and meeting in secret.
how many people today are baptized and don't really know the gospel at all? we have traveling 'revival meetings' where hordes of money is raked in and people who have never heard the Bible preached at all are baptized on the spot. but is the gospel even being preached accurately in these?
so if a person hears false teaching and responds to lies by being baptized, are they saved?
welcome to the bdf hahaha
and some will be back in two years with new usernames and the same arguments
Yes, my hubby was baptized in his teens. When we married he asked me about doing it again. He said he didn't feel he understood what he was doing at the time, he just followed a friend. I spoke to our pastor and he said he was absolutely in favor of it. And this time he understood and it meant so much more to him.
OK, what does prove a person is saved?
is it something people can observe or is it something only God can?
it was a widely held belief in the church at a certain time that baptism was the only way sins were forgiven - so much that people would not be baptized until they were about to die because they worried they may sin afterwards and then lose their salvation, because they could only be baptized once.
i am asking whether you believe this
This is clearly a descriptive passage.
When Peter sees what is happening to the gentiles he refers to his prescriptive statement:
Peter answered them, “All of you must turn to God and change the way you think and act, and each of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins will be forgiven. Then you will receive the Holy Spirit as a gift. (Acts 2:38)
Moses_Young, it's not that hard.
Have you answered the question? If someone accepts the Lord into their hearts, like a cancer patient, and dies before they can be baptized, were they saved?
it's certainly related to the subject; if water baptism proves salvation, then mankind can decide who belongs to God and who doesn't, because we can see that - and salvation therefore is an outward thing, not a thing pertaining to the inner man.
but remember God said that He tells mankind not to pull the tares out of the wheat field, because mankind will get it wrong, and pull out also wheat - that instead God will send His angels to do this at the end of the age when these things have grown to maturity.
and that in many places God declares Himself to be the One who sees the heart. if outward action is what matters pertaining to salvation, why does it matter that God knows hearts?
Human conjecture and human reasoning attempting to disprove the clear meaning of the Bible.
God gives validity to baptisms not the whims of man.
i should add, too, that it was at this time infant baptism began to be practiced. child mortality was high, and parents, wanting their children to enter the kingdom, would baptize them if they were sick and dying, even if they were not old enough to speak. what was being taught was that, independent of faith, water baptism removed sin - whether a person understood the gospel or not.
@Lamar do you believe this?
sorry, but you didn't answer the question.
does this mean you believe you can tell if someone is saved or not by whether they have been water baptized?
or does this mean you have no idea if baptism is valid or not, only God knows? so that baptism doesn't prove anything?
you do believe anyone who is not water baptized is going to hell, no matter whether they have faith in Christ or not, correct? that lack of water baptism proves eternal damnation?
Proving the validity of a persons salvation is most certainly a different subject.
I am sure there are forums here that are dealing with this issue.
