I still don’t know for sure whether baptism is required for salvation or not. I’ve read a lot on this forum and internet. One says it’s required, the other one says not. Who is right?? I don’t know what to believe anymore and my backstory is a bit complex. I’ve already posted my story last year and you have to read it to understand my problem. Here’s the link:
For some time I have doubts whether I'm saved or not. I still don't know for certain if baptism is neccessary for salvation. I was in my late teens when I got baptised. But I didn't understood the gospel. I believe in Jesus and God and everything in the bible and I was raised as a christian...
www.christianforums.com
What am I supposed to do? I tend to believe the side who says it’s not required, but I’m not really sure.
And what if someone just cannot be baptise because of different reasons. Like if there is war in your country, be in jail/live in a country where Christianity is forbidden, people on their deathbed, stuck alone on an island, live in the desert, have a phobia for water, or in my case, have anxiety. If I think about al these reasons, it makes sense that, the side who says baptism isn’t required, is right. Or else it wouldn’t be fair for the people who don’t have the possibility to baptise.
If you can get baptized, hasten to the font and receive the living waters. I personally suggest a denomination such as the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Catholics, or the Assyrian Church of the East or the Ancient Church of East which administers Chrismation, also known as Confirmation, immediately following Baptism, and does not administer it as a didactic ritual that is mainly applied by Bishops and requires memorizing a catechism, such as Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism or most liturgical Protestant churches, because as much as I love and indeed actively identify with some of these denominations, I believe that Chrismation as it is done by the various Eastern denominations, whether Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Byzantine Catholic or one of the branches of the Church of the East, or indeed Western Rite Orthodoxy, is extremely beneficial.
All of these churches, which together with the Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Lutherans are the strictest in saying Baptism is a necessity while also admitting that there are scenarios where salvation can occur without liturgical baptism. For example, there is the Baptism of Desire, where one dies before being baptized having been unable due to illness or unavailable clergy to receive baptism. There is the Baptism of Blood, where someone is killed for confessing faith in Christ despite not having been baptized. And there is the potential for extraordinary acts of divine mercy, since our Lord declares “I will have mercy on who I will have mercy” and the Scriptures are replete with examples of Christ our God delivering people from an otherwise certain death, whether in this life or in the resurrection. Consider the Good Thief crucified with Jesus, who was saved according to the mercy of Christ despite all his merits.
However, baptism is the means by which we declare our love for God, and God declares His love for us, and we are grafted onto the Body of Christ, the Church, having been born anew of water and the spirit. Thus, if baptism is available to you, and you have not already been validly baptized (a valid baptism is one performed using water, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, administered by a Church that believes in the Christian faith as defined by the Nicene Creed, so, that excludes Mormons because while they baptize in the correct way, they do not adhere to the Nicene Christian faith or believe in the Trinity as taught in the Bible, one God in three persons, but are rather Tritheists. However most other churches which baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are doing it correctly.
Some Orthodox denominations will conditionally rebaptize when receiving converts from some other churches, but this baptism is conditional, and also the Roman Catholics and traditional Protestants will on occasion conditionally rebaptize. This is in cases where it is not known if the person is truly baptized or not. However, because the Nicene Creed says we believe one baptism for the remission of sins, most traditional churches are opposed to rebaptizing those who already were validly baptized whether in infancy or adulthood, which is why the concept of conditional rebaptism exists.
In contrast, regrettably, some Protestant denominations, among those who are of the credobaptist persuasion, reject infant baptism and in some cases rebaptize even adults, based on a misunderstanding of baptism as being purely about church membership and not the washing away of sin.
