Q:   You say that baptism is essential to salvation. What about the person who accepts the Lord, but does not have the opportunity to be baptized? Secondly, what about the person whose heart is touched by the Spirit of God, and they accept him as their Lord and saviour, however, they do not understand the meaning and significance of baptism? If they seek the scriptures to understand baptism in their desire to know the Lord, but die before they are actually baptized, are they saved? What about Acts 2:21 and Acts 16:30. I am asking more for personal understanding of the belief that true salvation only comes through baptism. I grew up in the church of Christ and was told at a very young age to get baptized, or I was going to hell. I was later re-baptized, because I then understood the significance of it. While I believe baptism is important and biblical, I do not see where it is the only means by which someone is saved.

A:   Thank you for your question. The subject of baptism is one that particularly separates us from mainstream denominational churches, so this is a very important question. We offer an answer as follows.

First, we would like to note that we strive only to teach that which the Bible teaches. It does not matter what we or anyone else says or thinks about a thing. We believe the Bible is the inspired word of God: it is God speaking to us. Our plea is to look to the Bible and simply read what God is saying to us. If we say baptism is essential, it is because we believe the Bible says so: 1 Peter 3:21, "Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you..." We will now try to address each point.

You ask about the person who does not have the opportunity to be baptized. The question is often asked with the example of someone in the middle of a desert miles from enough water for baptism. This is as hypothetical as it can get. People need water to live. This is why we don't see people living in deserts. In all my years, I have never known of anyone stranded in a desert the moment he decided he needed to be baptized. In most cases, people live only minutes away from a place where they can be baptized. Some will still argue that in the minutes it takes to get to water, people can die of a heart attack. What about them? That, frankly, is God's end of the stick. This we know: God is ready to give all who want to obey the opportunity to do so. Consider these verses:

Secondly, you ask about a person who accepts the Lord as their savior but does not understand their need to be baptized. An examination of the examples of conversion in the book of Acts will show that an understanding of baptism is associated with accepting Christ in every case. Not once do we read of anyone accepting Christ but coming to understand baptism at some later date. Let's look at some examples:

The list of examples can go on, but we will stop there. Baptism is really a quite simple concept, and the need for it is clear in scriptures. As respectfully and gently as can be stated, it is unimaginable how people today can read just a portion of the book of Acts and not know about the need for baptism. We need help to misunderstand this.

One of the clearest demonstrations of the connection between knowing Christ and understanding baptism is seen in the example of the Ethiopian eunuch. Notice Acts 8:35, "Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him." After Philip told him about Christ, in the next verse he says, "Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?" Apparently, when Philip preached Christ, the message must have included something about the need to be baptized. It is still true today; any preacher who would preach Christ but say nothing about baptism is obviously not fully preaching Christ.

You ask about Acts 2:21, "And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved." Just how are we to call on His name? What does this mean? This means to appeal to as a witness, not to cry out to. Remember that Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). Ananias explained to Saul that baptism is how one calls on the name of the Lord, "And now why do you delay? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name" (Acts 22:16). Besides, in Acts 2, Peter tells them to be baptized in verse 38.

You ask about Acts 16:30, 31, "And he brought them out and said, 'Sirs, what must I do to be saved?' So they said, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.'" Please note that Paul and Silas did not say "believe only." The word "only" has to be inserted in order to harmonize with denominational teaching. Please read on. The next verse says that they spoke the word of the Lord to him, and the verse after that says they were baptized the same hour of the night. Again, speaking the word of the Lord must have included the need for baptism. We cannot get around baptism in the book of Acts; it is mentioned in every example of conversion.

We will also address the idea that baptism is important and scriptural but not necessarily the only way to obtain salvation. A typical arguement in favor of this is that there is no power in the water; the power is in Christ's blood. This, we cannot deny:

That language is very clear. Nevertheless, opponents will introduce some textual distortions to make it say something else. Some would suggest:

• "He who believes will be saved and is baptized, but he who does not believe will be condemned."
• "He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who only believes will also be saved."
• "He who believes and is not baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned."

These statements are widely accepted, but they are clearly perversions of the words of Christ.

In closing, we would comment on the teaching that says, "Get baptized, or you're going to hell." Some may misunderstand our teaching. Though we do not teach "faith only", we do not teach "baptism only," either. The Bible states that salvation is for those who hear the word of God, believe that Jesus is the Son of God, repent of their sins, confess their faith, submit to the waters of baptism where the blood of Christ takes away their sin, and thereafter subject their lives to the will of God. By doing so, these have not earned their salvation; they have simply met the terms of the gift.

Again, we sincerely thank you for this question and hope this response helps. We are grateful for your interest in knowing God and pray that you continue your search for truth. Please feel free to reply. If you feel our response is inadequate or in error in any way, you'll be our friend if you'll kindly let us know.