Questions regarding baptism

[Guojing]

Belief in Jesus the Christ would be asking a lot of someone who lived before the Incarnation, wouldn't you say? That isn't what was expected of people in OT times.

That was why, for example, Cain had to offer the correct sacrifice genesis 4:7, to be right with God.

God did not tell him to believe right but rather to do right.

 

[Albion]

That was why, for example, Cain had to offer the correct sacrifice genesis 4:7, to be right with God.

God did not tell him to believe right but rather to do right.

Yes, that was God. But the focus was not on the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity who took on a human nature as Jesus of Nazareth, taught, and died for the sins of mankind.

It is faith in Christ that leads to salvation for us, so it is not the case that people who never knew him or about him because they lived before the Incarnation could have accepted him as their personal Lord and Savior. Most of them lived at the time when the Law was in force.

 

[Guojing]

Yes, that was God. But the focus was not on the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity who took on a human nature as Jesus of Nazareth, taught, and died for the sins of mankind.

It is faith in Christ that leads to salvation for us, so it is not the case that people who never knew him or about him because they lived before the Incarnation could have accepted him as their personal Lord and Savior. Most of them lived at the time when the Law was in force.

Yes, we are blessed as David stated in romans 4. We have imputed righteousness thru Christ, something he never had.

 

[BCsenior]

Now That my issues may delayed my baptism, I’m worried.

No need to be worried ... water baptism is NOT required to be saved!
It is a physical statement of sincere faith to God and to other believers ... that is all.

 

[Albion]

I realize there may not be a simple answer to these questions.

1-if I have accepted Jesus as my savior, is baptism required?

Christ said to be baptized, and why pass up the grace and the affiliation with the Christian faith by NOT being baptized?

I’m 40, was never Baptized as a child. I’ve been a believer for a long time, I just never sought out church membership and baptism. Now That my issues may delayed my baptism, I’m worried.

Can you be saved if unbaptized? Technically, yes. But that usually applies to people for whom being baptized is an impossibility for one reason or other, not someone who simply chose not to.

 

[shakewell]

I realize there may not be a simple answer to these questions.

1-if I have accepted Jesus as my savior, is baptism required? I have not been baptized, and am in the process of joining a congregation and would be baptized after becoming a member. For reasons too complicated to bring up here (regarding my mental health) I may need to put membership on hold. Which would delay baptism. If I die would I go to Hell?

2-if due to my issues I cannot join and get baptized soon, and baptism is required for salvation, are there pastors who will baptize you without you having a relationship with their church? Is this a legitimate thing to do?

I’m 40, was never Baptized as a child. I’ve been a believer for a long time, I just never sought out church membership and baptism. Now That my issues may delayed my baptism, I’m worried.

Water baptism isn't required for salvation. Faith, alone, in Jesus as your personal Savior saves.

 

[Albion]

Water baptism isn't required for salvation. Faith, alone, in Jesus as your personal Savior saves.

Taking that thought further, would you also say that reception of the Lord's Supper is not worth doing? Or church attendance? Or a dozen other things that the Bible commends to the disciples of Jesus Christ but which are not, technically, required for salvation?

 

[shakewell]

Taking that thought further, would you also say that reception of the Lord's Supper is not worth doing? Or church attendance? Or a dozen other things that the Bible commends to the disciples of Jesus Christ but which are not, technically, required for salvation?

They're all worth doing; but none of them saves.

 

[Albion]

They're all worth doing; but none of them saves.

Fair enough. It's just that every time this subject comes up the posts flood in saying that faith is it, nothing more, and the poster thinks therefore -- or appears to think -- that churches, sermons, sacraments, and all the rest are not worth their bother or, worse, are some sort of scam.

 

[Guojing]

Fair enough. It's just that every time this subject comes up the posts flood in saying that faith is it, nothing more, and the poster thinks therefore -- or appears to think -- that churches, sermons, sacraments, and all the rest are not worth their bother or, worse, are some sort of scam.

The problem is that water baptism seems to take on a special significance in many churches, over and above those other things you have stated.

I have met Christian folks on their deathbeds, or at the last few years of their life, and when I asked them "How do you know you are saved", quite a number of them actually replied to me, "Because I have been water baptized!"

Its quite scary when you hear that.

 

[Albion]

The problem is that water baptism seems to take on a special significance in many churches, over and above those other things you have stated.

I'm not sure that I'd agree with that except that Baptism is the sacrament that makes one a member of Christ's church, so I suppose that makes some difference.

But it does not guarantee salvation or prevent sin or some of the other things that people who are disinterested in Baptism for some reason that I cannot quite appreciate say traditional Christians attribute to Baptism.

I have met Christian folks on their deathbeds, or at the last few years of their life, and when I asked them "How do you know you are saved", quite a number of them actually replied to me, "Because I have been water baptized!"

I doubt that. But if that's true, including that language which is normally only used by people who devalue Baptism ("water baptism") it must be very few. In any case, there are some people in every church who misunderstand what their churches have taught them.