You mentioned (Eph. 2).
Are you aware
the Ephesians were converted in (Acts 19:1-5)?
They were
baptized twice. (Mark 1:4)
Believe + Baptism = Saved (
Mark 16:16) (1Peter3:20,21) (Rom. 6:3-6,16-18) (Acts 8:5,12,13,26-40 ; 16:30-34 ; 22:16)
Ah. I see. You're looking for an argument. I thought you wanted to hear salvation testimonies.
You realize that the baptism of John the Baptist was not of the sort described by Paul in
Romans 6:1-6? John's baptism was one of repentance, not symbolic of spiritual conversion and regeneration, as was the second baptism.
The last half of
Mark 16, from about
verse 11 or so onward to the end of the chapter, is actually considered by some Bible scholars to be a later accretion rather than original to the Gospel. I wouldn't, then, argue from these verses with any kind of serious dogmatism.
1 Peter 3:20-21 describes baptism as the "answer of a good conscience toward God," not a salvific factor in a Christian's conversion. As Peter explained, just as the water of the Flood flowed about the Ark, doing nothing to save Noah and his family, the water of baptism flowing about a person does nothing to save them, either. Baptism is merely the response of a born-again person to the saving work of the "Ark" that is, the Holy Spirit, who washes by regeneration, renewing the believer spiritually. (
Titus 3:5; Romans 8:9-11)
Romans 6 describes a spiritual event: the believer's union with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. Baptism symbolizes this spiritual reality which was necessarily accomplished
before any believer was baptized. Inasmuch as Christ had to have died before any could be united with him in his death, baptism can only recognize
what has already been done.
The references from Acts you offer say nothing about baptism saving anyone. This you appear to assume, reading your assumption into the various accounts of baptism.
One may read in many places in Scripture that faith, belief, trust in Christ are what brings them into God's family (
John 3:16; John 3:36; John 11:25-26; John 12:36; John 20:31; Acts 16:31; Romans 3:22, etc.). Very few of those places say anything at all about baptism which is very strange if baptism is salvific. And then we have Paul's remarks to the Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 1:14-17
14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,
15 so that no one would say you were baptized in my name.
16 Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other.
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.
So Paul was baptizing some people but not others and was glad, even, that he had not baptized more! This is an astonishing thing for him to have written, if baptism is vital to a person's salvation! Paul is basically saying, then, that he was glad he hadn't helped some of the Corinthians to be saved! Why would Paul preach the Gospel
of salvation and then refuse to help some who wanted to be saved by refusing to baptize them? Why did Paul clearly separate preaching the Gospel from baptism as though baptism was not an integral part of salvation, as you seem to think it is? What Paul wrote above is bizarre (at the very least) if baptism is truly salvific.
And there's also the thief on the cross, saved by Christ without baptism.
And, too, Scripture denies salvation is by any good work (
Ephesians 2:8-9; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5), which baptism obviously would be.
You said - " I was bound in sin, blind and deaf to God, to His truth, unable to move toward Him,
You posted (Jn. 6:44) but have you read (Jn. 6:45)?
Yes. I've been a born-again believer for nearly fifty years.
We can understand Gods word according to (Eph. 3:3,4) (Jn. 7:17) (Eph. 5:17).
Eph 3:4 Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
Who is "we"? Believers understand, yes. But the lost, apart from God's illumination, cannot.
Ephesians 2:1-3
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4
3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
1 Corinthians 2:14
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
1 John 4:5-6
5 They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them.
6 We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
Romans 8:5-8
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
And so on.