In the beginning, man was with God in the Garden (Genesis 2). However, because of man's sin, he was sent out of the garden and no longer was together with God (Genesis 3). God promised to reunite again with His people (Genesis 3:15).

Through the flood, we see God cleanses the world of sin through water by flooding it and saving one family (Genesis 6). He gives the sign of the rainbow to never wipe out the earth again (Genesis 9).

Then, when His chosen people are enslaved, He again saves them through water, by way of the Red Sea (Exodus 14). This was led by Moses, whose name means “I drew him out of water” (Exodus 2:10). Pharaoh's army is killed by the water, and the Israelites are saved and find refuge on the other side of the water (Exodus 14:). They meet God and receive His commands at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19).

After this, God gives His people the promised land, even though they mess up time and time again. He keeps His covenant with His people (Judges 2:1). All the while they had to continually sacrifice to have their sins forgiven (Leviticus 1-7). And as a sign of the covenant with Abraham, the men had to be circumcised (Genesis 17).

Fast forward to when Israel has been conquered and under Roman rule, God has still not forgotten His people. He sends His one and only Son to earth to live a perfect life and be crucified (John 3:16). He did this while we were sinners (Romans 5:8). Jesus refers to this as his baptism (Luke 12:50). He died, was buried, and was resurrected in 3 days (Mark 8:31). This He also calls the sign of Jonah (Matthew 12:38-42). When He rises, He commands his followers to go out and make disciples and baptize every nation (Matthew 28:18-20). He says this is for salvation and the Holy Spirit (John 3). Later, on the day of Pentecost, just as at Mount Sinai, we receive God's command of how to obey the Gospel message. In this, we reenact Christ's death, burial, and resurrection (Acts 2). This is the new circumcision (Colossians 2:11-12). This is a transfer from old to new. Christ is the final sacrifice (Hebrews 10). He took our sins away once and for all (1 Peter 2:24). In our one baptism, we are one in Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). No longer are we in sin, but we are in him. Baptism is the way to be born again and have your life renewed into Jesus (John 3). Immersion in water seems to be an appropriate method of accepting salvation because of its allegory to previous times God has saved His people (1 Corinthians 10:1-2, Colossians 2:11-12, 1 Peter 3:18-21).

Because the Bible says to. Something often asked when baptizing someone is "Do you believe Jesus is the Son of God? And are you ready to make Him Lord of your life?" When we say we want to make Him our Lord, it means we are wanting to become slaves to Him (Romans 6:15-23). In our original state, we are slaves to sin, which is a bad master and after having all the pleasure you want in life, you will die a fiery death. But we can choose to deny ourselves and follow Him, taking up our cross daily (Matthew 16:24). When we choose Him, that means following Him unquestioningly. While marriage is a wonderful metaphor God gives us for our relationship with Him, not even the best wife follows her husband unquestioningly! So this is something even greater than the devotion you have to the one companion you love the most. If Jesus tells us to do something and it doesn't seem right in our own eyes, would we do it? Isaiah 55:8-9 reads, ""For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares Yahweh. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts." If Jesus said to baptize in His name, would you do it? If He said you must be born of water and the Spirit, would you believe Him (John 3:5)? If the Holy Spirit spoke through Peter and said to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and to receive the Holy Spirit, would you (Acts 2:38)? Or, would you read that and say it means something else? What does following Jesus unquestioningly look like?

Jesus asks us to be “born again” so that we are washed clean of our sinful state (John 3:3). In the Garden, Adam was walking with God. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve decided to not listen to God, because it seemed okay to them to eat of the tree. This separated all of man from God. God had a plan though, and He would spend the next millennia fulfilling that plan to bring you and me back to Him. When we are baptized, we are born again, our sin dies with Christ, and in the resurrection, we are brought out of the water a new being without sin!

In Isaiah, it is prophesied that the Messiah will be doing something new (Isaiah 43:19). Jesus says he is the one that fulfills the prophesy (Luke 4:21). This is something the Jews did not expect and especially were not hoping for. They were hoping for a military leader that would help fight against their Roman oppressors, even trying to make Jesus their king (John 6:15). This is not what Jesus did. He did something greater. Today, we still hope for the same thing that our political troubles will end and we will no longer be taxed to death, be thrown into the frontlines of war, or that our societies don't become ruined by whoever we don't like. Jesus cured a greater problem than our government affairs. He cured the heart - he cured us of our sin (Matthew 9:12-13). And just as they didn't expect Him to die on a cross (Mark 9:31-32), they certainly didn't expect baptism (Matthew 21:23-27). However, when the Jews gathered 50 days after Jesus' death to celebrate Pentecost, they heard of what they themselves did and realized that Jesus did indeed fulfill the Scripture (Acts 2). They asked what they were to do. Because when you realized you participated in killing the Son of God, you have quite the guilt and know you certainly will die and go to Hell. The answer Peter gave, speaking with the Holy Spirit, was quite simple. He said to repent, meaning to stop sinning and turn to Christ, and to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and to receive the Holy Spirit. Because they were so convinced that Jesus is the Messiah and they were ready to do anything they had to for Him, they were baptized, 3000 of them, starting the gathering (church) of Christ.

They came to the Pentecost celebration convinced that Jesus was not the Messiah, but then after a Holy Spirit inspired sermon from Peter, they completely turned around their views (repented) and believed in him. Many today already believe that Jesus is the Son of God. But there are still many who believe and have not done what the first Christians did and get baptized for the forgiveness of sins and to receive the holy spirit. If you claim to follow Christ and follow Him unquestioningly, why then have you not done this? Are you being argumentative with God? Do you doubt His Word? Why wouldn't you want to do anything He says? Even if we can't fully grasp what is happening in baptism, we can understand that He has asked us to be baptized! Ask yourself: “Is my life for my Lord if I am not doing everything He has asked of me?”

Would it not be better to blindly believe God's Word that baptism “is for the forgiveness of sins” and be wrong than to question God the Almighty and His Word?

Like the Ethiopian in Acts 8, ask yourself, "Why shouldn't I be baptized?" You've seen God's command in Scripture. Why do you delay? (Acts 22:16) Are you waiting for something else? Do you not believe the Bible? Trust in God and get baptized so that you no longer have to bear your sins. Do not let the false teachings hinder you, simply obey the Bible. Be baptized today.

Baptism is for everyone who desires to follow Christ and has repented of their sins. Repenting means taking a quality turn in the opposite direction of your sinful nature. As part of "The Great Commission" (Matthew 28:19) Jesus says to baptize "all the nations." Additionally, Peter says that this is for all after giving the command for the people gathered to be baptized in Acts 2:38-39: "And Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.""

The Bible tells us that when we are baptized, we are saved from death (Mark 16:16), our sins are washed away and forgiven (Acts 2:38; 22:16), and we receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). Romans 6:4 tells us that in baptism we die, are buried, and resurrected with Christ. Galatians 3:26-27 says that we are children of God and have put on Christ through baptism.

In the Bible, all accounts of baptism are immediate. There is no record of any delay or questioning of baptism as a step to salvation. We should follow this example and be baptized as soon as we believe in Jesus as the Messiah and repent of our sins.

When the Bible tells us Christians were studying Scripture, they were studying the Old Testament. They were verifying with the Old Testament that what the apostles said was true (Acts 17:11). The New Testament recorded that they were baptized, as does early church history (extra-biblical accounts about Christians). We can easily know that we should be baptized because we believe in the Old and New Testament, and the New Testament is explicit about it. The Christians before or during the time the New Testament was being written had to trust Jesus or the apostles along with the Old Testament. They studied the Old Testament and since they did get baptized, it must have made sense to them. There is never any delay in baptism, so it must have even been obvious to them. If they believed they needed to be baptized just because of the Old Testament and the teachings of the apostles, shouldn't we be more easily accepting of baptism since we have lots of writings of the apostles and other words from God recorded in the New Testament?

Now, if you are not interested in following Jesus the way the early church did, then you will be led astray. If you think it's okay to follow new forms of "Christianity" that do not completely agree with the Bible, it is not okay, and you are not walking on the narrow road (Matthew 7:14).

Many people are either not taught about baptism or are taught something besides what the Bible says. Perhaps most of these teachers are well-meaning but are flawed in their thinking. Unintentionally, they will take a belief, which may be true or not, and then negate baptism with it. For example, plenty of people will say that baptism is a work, so it cannot possibly be for salvation. This may seem logical, but the Bible plainly contradicts that idea when talking about works and baptism in the same passages (see Is baptism a work?).

It is these false beliefs that are passed on from generation to generation and repeated. Then, because of human nature and hard hearts, when people discuss baptism, they often will not hear it. No matter how right we think we are, we need to always keep an open heart to what God might be trying to tell us.

Possibly the worst thing about being wrong about something like salvation issues is teaching others the wrong way to salvation. When we teach people, we need to rely on the Bible to do the teaching. We need to encourage others to look at the Bible for the answers, not to man. And when we listen to teachers, we need to test what they say against the Bible.

It can be discouraging when we learn that those we love don't know or don't want to know about Biblical Truth. But do not despair, God can use you to teach them. Even if they do not listen, you will be strengthened and God will be glorified.

When studying a subject, it is important to look at the verses that discuss that topic, not verses that do not discuss that topic. Those against Biblical baptism will point to lots of Scripture that does not talk about baptism and say "see, no baptism." But with verses about baptism they say "well, it can't possibly mean what it says because elsewhere it doesn't talk about baptism." This logic is similar to if you were to get directions somewhere, but on the way there you get pulled over for not using a turn signal, you tell the officer "the guy who gave me directions didn't say anything about turn signals, so I thought it wasn't required."

These people will then say that baptism would be talked about more if it were important. How often something is mentioned is not necessarily a measure of its importance. Nevertheless, baptism (baptizó) is mentioned 81 times! Here is a non-exhaustive list of verses about baptism. Looking at how baptism is talked about, it seems that baptism was understood to be for salvation, so it wasn't always explicitly mentioned.

Ultimately, you must decide whether the Bible means what it says that "baptism now saves you" and baptism occurred with all salvation accounts (even if not explicitly mentioned); or that the Bible does not mean what it says and baptism means essentially nothing. If baptism means nothing or is simply symbolic, you will have a hard time explaining why people are getting baptized all through the New Testament. If baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, then it is easy to understand all salvation accounts.

A "work" is something that could be done to earn salvation. We are not saved by works. No matter how many homeless people you feed, you can never earn your salvation. Baptism is not a work. Baptism is simply receiving a gift. When we are baptized, it is not us doing the work, but God does the work of cleansing us of our sins. Whenever God commands something, He is not giving us something we can earn our salvation with. He is giving us The Way to salvation as a gift.

The Bible gives us clues to this. In two places where Paul is talking about being saved by faith and not by works, he concludes by referring to baptism as something that has saved them. This is evidence that baptism is part of the "faith" part of believing not the "works" part.

Galatians 3 is a long passage about being saved by faith and concludes with, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."

Romans 5 talks about being saved by faith. Romans 6 begins discussing baptism, "Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."

Some teach that Acts 15 says that nothing is required to be saved, including baptism or any other obedience. This is an interesting interpretation because the result of Acts 15 was that circumcision is not required, nor is following Mosaic Law (with the exception of fornication and eating some things). This does not say that we are not to obey the Gospel. Paul will later say in Colossians that baptism is what replaces circumcision.

Many people claim that we are saved the moment we say the "sinners prayer." Unfortunately, you won't find this way to salvation in the Bible. Jesus even warns us against this in Matthew 7:21-23, ""Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'"

If we truly are interested in being saved, we have to look at what the Bible says about how we can follow Jesus.

We can hope and pray that our loved ones do not end up in Hell. However, when we read God's word, we must follow what He says. God can do whatever He wants. He is God. If God wants to save someone who is not baptized, wonderful! But, the only way we can be sure we are saved is to follow God's word. If it is the case that your loved ones are in Hell, don't join them. Better yet, teach them what you have learned about baptism.

Some hold that baptism is simply a metaphor that symbolized the forgiveness of sins and isn't something that needs to be done at all. This idea falls short when taking a look at what the Bible says about baptism. First, we need to remember that when we see the word "baptism" it is saying "immersion" if it were translated rather than transliterated. Second, starting with John the baptizer, all through the New Testament people are being physically immersed in water. One clear example of a physical water baptism is in Acts 8:36 where the Ethiopian says "Here is water!" and asks Philip to baptize him.

Being legalistic is something we need to be careful about. Legalism, in general, is being strict about your beliefs in regard to forcing them upon others, especially in an unloving way. This really becomes a problem for unbiblical principles. For example, the Bible says nothing about how many songs you are supposed to sing on Sunday morning. It would be wrongfully legalistic to judge those who sing 3 songs instead of 4. The Bible does however say that we are supposed to sing (Colossians 3:16), so it is right to think those who don't are wrong.

In regards to baptism, the Bible does state that we need to be baptized (John 3, Matthew 28, Mark 16:16, Acts 2 are just a few places it is commanded; see Scripture), and gives plenty of examples of it happening. It is even listed by Paul as something that all believers have in common and are united in (1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4). Because of this clarity on the subject, we need to also be clear in our instruction. This is not in any way to keep people out of the church, but so that we can make others know how the Bible says to become part of the body. This must be done in a loving way, just as all things, so that God is glorified, for if we do not have love it doesn't matter what we teach (1 Corinthians 13). And if we do not tell people that the Bible says they should be baptized, then we are not showing love. It would be like putting a lamp under a bowl, but we must put the lamp on a lampstand so that all can see the light (Luke 10:16).

Often is posed the emotional question that "If a man died on his way to be baptized, would he be saved?" This question is meant to get you to second guess baptism and the teachings of Scripture. But if you think about this question, it could be asked of anything:
"If a man died halfway through the sinner's prayer, would he be saved?"
"If a man died right before the thought where He believed in Jesus, would he be saved?"
"If a man teaching another man about the Gospel died before he could convince him, would he be saved?"

The question isn't a good one to disprove Scriptural baptism. But surely God, who knows all things, will give everyone the opportunity to know Him, as He wants all to be saved (1 Timothy 2:4). Everyone is without excuse (Romans 1:20).

Furthermore, this argument is bad because it tries to justify nullifying a Biblical command. We could do this with other Biblical commands in the same manner. "Surely God would not..." fill in the blank. If it were up to us to write what is required, things would be certainly different. You can see this with most who call themselves "Christians." They look no different from the world. But following Christ looks like denying yourself and taking up your cross daily (Luke 9:23).

Acts 2:38 reads, "And Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

Some who do not believe baptism is for the forgiveness of sins will say "for" in this verse means "because of." This would change the meaning of the verse to say that baptism is just symbolic and not for any real purpose. This is where the false belief of baptism being "an outward sign of an inward faith" comes from. This is a modern invention and is not what the Bible is telling us. The Greek word here, eis, is a preposition that is typically translated elsewhere as "into" and never is causal, so it cannot mean "because of."

Even without looking at the Greek, we can tell this is the case by looking at other verses about baptism.

1 John 4:1 reads, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." We must believe in the Truth found in the Bible. What any man says, it must be backed by the Bible. If it contradicts the Bible, you must not trust it.

On the cross, Jesus declared that the thief crucified next to Him would join Him in Paradise. Some point to this to show that baptism isn't necessary. However, this is a false conclusion. At this point, Jesus had not died and risen. After Jesus defeated death on the third day, we began living under a new law. It was then that Judaism was no more, and Christianity began. So, the thief on the cross was under the old covenant. You cannot be saved like the thief on the cross.

One beneficial way to look at baptism is as a wedding. Throughout the Old and New Testaments, God's people are seen as His bride. When we are baptized, we become part of the bride of Christ. Having this physical moment where we devote our lives to Him, die with Him, and receive the blessings of forgiveness and the Holy Spirit, helps us look back and be sure that we are saved at that point. Because of this moment if we continue to follow Christ and do not leave (divorce) Him, then we can be sure of our salvation.

Romans 6 reads, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?" We are not to sin after we are baptized. Of course, we will, and our sins are forgiven because of baptism.

There a several examples in the Bible that talk about the possibility of going to Hell if you are a Christian who has fallen away. The writers of the New Testament, who write by the Holy Spirit, are rather concerned that Christians, including themselves, would fall away because then they would die. Some verses that explicitly talk about this: James 5:19-20; 1 Corinthians 9:27; 1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Corinthians 5:5; James 1:12-15

Something we know from the beginning, in Genesis, is that God gave man free will. Adam and Eve, though they were with God, had the choice to sin. They did and mankind was separated from God (cast out of the Garden). Through Jesus, we are reunited with God and are together as in the Garden. We still have the free will to leave God, just as a bad wife might leave a good husband. With God, we always have the chance to be with Him again and He wants all to be with Him. In our free will, we need to be careful to keep ourselves and others on the path of righteousness.

If you were baptized without knowing what baptism was for, or if you were baptized in a way that is not immersion, you have not been baptized for the forgiveness of sins and you need to be baptized. Like in Acts 19, where those in Ephesus were baptized with John's baptism, they had to be baptized in the name of Jesus to receive the Holy Spirit and forgiveness of sins.

Biblical ideas are not always easy to understand. This is because there is so much to God that we cannot understand Him completely with our mortal minds. Proverbs, the book of wisdom, tells us in Chapter 3 verses 5 and 6, "Trust in Yahweh with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight." We may not always understand why God is telling us to do something, but we can understand that He is telling us to do something for our own good. If we trust in Him and obey His Word, we will surely be better for it and will not be led astray.

Email me at baptismtruth@protonmail.com with any questions, comments, arguments, suggestions, or prayer requests.