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Yes, of course. But trusting in Christ to save you, to be your Saviour, is no more a work than trusting in a surgeon to fix your heart-valve malfunction is a work. You trust, but the surgeon does all the work. Likewise, we trust in Christ but he does all the saving work.
Yes, right.
Nope. You are doing more than expressing faith, trust, in Christ when you are baptized, believing it contributes to your salvation. Now Christ alone is not your Saviour but Christ plus you getting baptized. Christ plus anything in order to be saved is not the Gospel.
I already addressed this verse and explained with Scripture that it in no way requires that one understand Ananias to be speaking of physical water baptism.
Yes!! This is exactly what you are doing - whatever denials you might offer.
Yes, it is. Which is why works play no part in one's salvation. Christ doesn't need your works to save you. Nothing you can do will ever make his atoning work at Calvary any more perfect, any more complete, than it already is. What Christ did on the cross needs no contribution of good works from us.
Yes, you should do such things for your neighbor but they are the natural result of being indwelt by God's Spirit and of loving those God loves, not the means of maintaining one's salvation.
No, the shed blood of Christ does that.
Matthew 26:28
28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
1 John 1:7
7 ...the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Revelation 1:5
5 And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,
No, it doesn't. Your excerpt from 1 Peter 3:21 is out context and does not make the case for you that you think it does.
As I've explained, you're not considering them carefully in coming to your conclusions.
And in many places in Scripture that describe how to be saved, baptism is not mentioned at all. An odd thing, if it is essential to salvation. We always read of faith, or belief in Christ in those passages that speak of how to be saved, but baptism in only a few. And then there's Paul remark:
1 Corinthians 1:17
17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel...
How is it possible to preach the Gospel which is, of course, for the purpose of saving souls, and yet neglect baptism if, as you say, it is vital to salvation? Paul seems to be making a distinction between the Gospel and baptism, separating them rather than uniting them, as you seem to think is necessary.
The whole counsel of Scripture. In particular those verses that rule out works as part of salvation.
You left out the part that excludes works as part of how one is saved. Convenient. Here's how the verse finishes: "...not of works, lest any man should boast."
Doing what God says results in works; you can't obey God and not end up doing good works. So separating obeying God and works as though they aren't inter-related is specious at best. You are essentially setting Scripture against itself and deflecting doing so by a facile "I'm not in a position to question the Almighty." No, you aren't in a position to question the Almighty. But you are in a position to better understand and handle His word than you are doing.
Yes, baptism is a work. You have to enact baptism, to do it - unlike simply receiving salvation by faith as Scripture says saves a person.
Ananias doesn't say which baptism he means. But other Scripture that I offered to you help us to understand that water baptism is just a symbol, a figure, of the spiritual baptism by the Spirit by which a person is actually saved.
Absolutely wrong. Spiritual regeneration happens as a consequence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, not by water baptism. I already gave you some verses that make this clear. Here are some more:
Romans 8:9-11
9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
10 If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Paul says not a single word in the entire eighth chapter about baptism having anything at all to do with spiritual regeneration. But he goes on at length about how the Spirit quickens, or makes alive spiritually, all those who are saved. Along with the verses I already gave you about the Spirit "baptizing" people into Christ, what Paul writes above makes it very clear that water baptism is merely a symbolic ritual, illustrating what the Holy Spirit has done in giving a second spiritual birth to a person. For more on this see also Romans 6.
I am not questioning God, I am questioning your understanding of His word which I've shown is faulty.
From the mouth of the Savior, the author of etermal life: And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. - Mark 16:15-16
It means what it says, sorry you are unable to accept it
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