Index To Section 8B... Controversial Issues

Three Points

1) Essential to Salvation?   Baptism, like any validating behavior, is "essential to salvation" only in the sense that if you don't want to go through with it, and there is no barrier to understanding, then it is clear that you do not possess salvation. Thought and action are expected, under the Semitic Totality paradigm, to correspond. The conversion and the baptism are regarded as one process, not because the latter is required for salvation, but because it is expected in light of salvation (James Patrick Holding)

2) The Question is Out of Order: "Is baptism necessary for salvation?", is that the question is out of order. If there is any question that needs to be asked, it is this: "If you are saved, and you know what baptism means and that it was commanded by Christ, why would you not be baptized?"   To say that baptism is not ‘necessary’ for salvation is in no way subscribing to the idea that a Christian does not need to be baptized. Faith without obedience is useless and all Christians should be baptized.

3) Saved by Faith? The Bible clearly teaches that we are saved by faith. Many scriptural references teach this. The question is: Can we therefore conclude that we are saved by faith only? In reality, the Bible teaches that there are many things by which we are saved.
[See The Myth We Are Saved By Faith Only ]

What is Baptism
A look at 4 basic Questions: Can you go to heaven by being baptized? What is baptism?
When should someone be baptized? Why should someone be baptized

What is Baptism and Was This Dip Really Necessary
What, then, is baptism? It does not wash away the "filth" (sins) of the "flesh" (human weakness). Rather, it is "the pledge of a good conscience toward God," (not "for" as the NASB reads) a conscience knowing its duty to be baptized according to the command of Christ, that good conscience having been achieved by the moral cleansing that has already taken place through the forgiveness of sins.

Is Baptism Necessary For Salvation?
If baptismal regeneration is right, then we should see people baptized first, then saved later, or saved and baptized simultaneously. We never see this. We do see many times people being saved first, then being baptized. Notice the first Gentile convert in the Church age, Cornelius and his household in Acts 10:43-48.

Baptism and Mark 16:16
This verse is frequently used by baptismal regenerationists to show that baptism is necessary for salvation.  It says he who believes and is baptized will be saved.  Therefore, they conclude that baptism is a necessary part of becoming saved.  But, does this verse prove that baptism is necessary for salvation?  Not at all.  

Is “Re-Baptism” Scriptural?
What about the issue of “re-baptism”? Some say that “re-baptism” should never be practiced – no matter what the circumstances of one’s original baptism were. But what do the Scriptures say? Read this article and reflect upon the nature of your own baptism, in light of the biblical teaching regarding this divine ordinance.

Is Infant Baptism Scriptural?
 Infant baptism is the sprinkling or immersion of infants for the purpose of imparting to them spiritual blessing of some sort. Though the exact purpose of it differs from group to group, almost always it implies that the child thereby receives salvation in some sense.

Infant Baptism—Is It Christian?
On more than one occasion in my Christian life, I've encountered those who are part of Protestantism (Presbyterian, Lutheran, Wesleyan, Episcopal, etc.) and contend, just like Catholics do, for infant baptism. Though there are no Scriptures that show infants being baptized or a command suggesting this, such people have been very vehement at times in trying to force this interpretation out from the Scriptures.(A) This is done in two ways: 1) By trying to compare Old Testament circumcision to New Testament baptism and 2) By dogmatically insisting that the word household found in Scripture must include infants.

A Scriptural Critique of Infant Baptism
The result of infant baptism is that you have baptized non-Christians all over the world. They were baptized as infants with what they believe was a Christian baptism and an initiation into the church—and an initiation into salvation. Yet, they are not Christians; they have never come to personal confession of faith in Christ and so they were baptized but they’re non-Christians. On the other hand, you have the same group of people who are actually not baptized at all because that baptism is not New Testament baptism. So, they are baptized non-Christians who have never really been baptized at all, in the true sense

Martin Luther and Baptism
We are told today that the rallying cry of the Reformation was: Sola Scriptura! Sola Gratia! Sola Fide! (Scripture only, Grace only, Faith only). But is this what Luther actually believed and taught? In 1529, Luther published his most popular book, the Small Catechism. By commenting briefly in question and answer form on the Ten Commandments, the Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer, baptism, and the Lord's Supper, the Small Catechism explains the theology of the evangelical reformation. As Luther's theology is presented in the following excerpts from the Small Catechism, ask yourself this question: "If this theology was presented to you anonymously (i.e., without Luther's name on it), what would you think about the so-called saving faith of its author?":

Controversial Issues

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