Reader..
What if you are born again, and yet you die before you are water baptized...........
Different Christians have different ways of talking about scenarios such as this. But in essence it boils down to something incredibly simple: God's grace. God is pro-saving people, and we don't gatekeep salvation. Thus the person who has faith, and dies in faith, even if they were yet unable to receive Baptism, is no less saved than the baptized.
The analogy I have often used is this: There is the ordinary way a person is born, a woman gives birth as the child passes through the birth canal, this is an ordinary vaginal birth. However sometimes complications arise, and a doctor will perform a caesarean section, and the child is removed from the mother surgically. The end result is the same: a child is born. Whether through the ordinary means of a vaginal birth, or through the extraordinary means of a caesarean section, it results in the same outcome. The ordinary means does not negate the extraordinary, neither does the extraordinary invalidate ordinary means. A c-section baby is not less than a baby; and neither does a c-section invalidate that most people are, and always have been born, through the ordinary means of a vaginal birth.
In the same way the ordinary means given to us in Scripture by which a person enters into God's household of faith is Baptism, by which a person is born again, united with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, clothed with Christ, etc. That does not mean that a person cannot receive these gifts and promises apart from Baptism, God's hands aren't tied, He can save whomever He wants however He wants. We put our faith in God, and in the perfect work of Jesus Christ who having suffered and died and risen has made Atonement between God and man, and through the power of God's grace in the Gospel God takes hold of us and makes us His own, because He loves us.
Baptism is not, and never has been, some kind of work we do in order to earn salvation. Baptism is about God coming down, in His love and grace, to accomplish what He Himself has promised. In the same way that a physician or paramedic enters a home to save a sick or dying person. Baptism is God's gracious intervention.
What if you are the dying Thief on the Cross who was saved, went with Jesus, but was never water baptized...........
See above.
The Son of God said to the dying brigand, "Today you will be with Me in Paradise". What more needs to be said?
We can, of course, point out obvious things such as how the Sacrament of Baptism wasn't given and instituted until after the Lord's resurrection, so it'd be silly to expect anyone to receive Christian Baptism before Christian Baptism even existed. It's not as though John's baptism could save a person, what John was doing in the desert was calling people to repentance in anticipation for Jesus--so John said, "I must decrease that He may increase". It's not as though Jewish ritual washings--tevilah--could save, that's not what they were for. It's not as though taking a dip in a river, going for a swim, or having a bath can save anyone. Water can't save anyone. The reason why Baptism--Christian Baptism--is significant is because Christ Himself instituted it as the ordinary means by which His Church would make disciples, because here in and with ordinary water is the powerful, living word of God. This is what St. Paul means when he, writing to the Ephesians, speaks of Christ washing His Church with the "washing of water with the word" (Ephesians 5:26 if you would like to read it for yourself). It's a reference to Baptism, where both water and word are connected.
The life-giving word of God is, writes the author of Hebrews, "living and active". St. Paul says that this very word creates faith (see Romans 10:17). So it's not water that does anything, but God's word--what God promises to do, and because God doesn't renege on His promises but keeps His word (see Isaiah 55:11 for example) well God does what He says He will do, and gives what He says He will give. And what happens happens because God is
Faithful.
So when Jesus turns to the sorrowful brigand dying next to Him and says, "Amen Amen, I say to you, today you will be with Me" that's really all that matters. Jesus makes a promise. And that's all that needs to be said. That same promise is also made in Baptism, which is why we can trust God when He says He will save us, and cleanse us, in the waters of Baptism. Not because of the water, but because of God's promise, His word, His own Faithfulness.
What if you are on "death row", and they are walking you to the Electric Chair at 5am...., and i stop you on your way there, and ask you if you are ready to receive Christ as you Savior, and you tell me that you do now trust in Christ with all your heart.... and want to publicly confess this before they put you to death...........and you do, and then they kill you.
See above. The promise of God is that all who trust in Christ shall not be put to shame (see Romans 10:11). God is not going to renege on that promise.
What if you are 88 yrs old, and you are in the Hospital, in the Oncology (Cancer) ward, and you are dying... and will be dead in the next 4 mins.
You are all by yourself, in the dark at 3am...., and you "believe on Jesus with all your heart... and accept Him into your heart by faith".
See above.
What if you are in a Communist Country that does not allow Bibles or Christians, and you are in a jail there, and you "trust in Christ with all your heart" while you are in THEIR Jail......
See above.
Now, none of those BELIEVERS can be "sprinkled" "immersed", "dunked" or otherwise water baptized.
Are they Saved, ?
Yes. Just as those whom God has brought to Himself through the precious waters of Holy Baptism.
It's not those of us who believe what the Bible has to say about Baptism who are gate-keeping salvation. We believe God is pro-saving people.
But let's flip the script:
Is a person who is baptized, before they can make a public confession of faith, saved?
Of course they are, and no water baptism was found for them.
So, Reader, if you are under the mind control of a Water Cult, that has you believing that WATER is required for SALVATiON< then i just showed you REAL LIFE CASES where this water cult theology, is proven to be a LIE.
Final answer?
Do not believe a lie., and do not teach a Lie.
I don't know what a water cult is. But as a Bible-believing follower of Jesus Christ I believe that Holy Baptism is the ordinary and precious means of grace which Scripture says it is. And I believe what God says concerning it.
Again, I'm curious, can a person be saved through God's gift and work of Baptism? What say you?
-CryptoLutheran
