It appears there are some bloggers who believe that water baptism is required for salvation. So, I have put up a poll to see how many believe this.

Do you actually believe that a person must be baptized to be saved? So do you believe that if a person is not baptized, they are not saved?

Or is water baptism an act a person does to show they are saved?

I just did a Bible Study on Salvation. Salvation is by faith alone. Not faith and works.

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Salvation and Water Baptism

As we mentioned in the previous lesson there are those who take the passage in Acts 2:38 as a formula for salvation and then come to the conclusion that a person needs to be water baptized and some even say speak in tongues. This is ignoring the other verses in the Bible regarding salvation.

John 3:1-16
Did Jesus tell Nicodemus in John 3 that he needed to be born again and baptized? No he did not. When he speaks about being born of water and born of the spirit, the context is very clear that born of water is being born of flesh, the water of the womb. Jesus did not give Nicodemus any other command that to believe in Jesus
John 3:15
¹⁵ so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.
In our previous lessons we made it clear that to believe means to trust, rely, depend upon, not just head knowledge.

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Salvation and Baptism

Acts 2:36-42 (NASB95) 
³⁶ "Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified."
³⁷ Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?"
³⁸ Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
³⁹ "For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself."
⁴⁰ And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!"
⁴¹ So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.
⁴² They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

There are those who read this passage of scripture and immediately jump to the conclusion that this is a formula for salvation. So they believe a person must be water baptized in Jesus name (not the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) before they are born again. (Some even believe speak in tongues since this passage is about the promise.) If this is the only passage a person reads and does not look at the context and other Bible verses, it would be easy to believe it is a formula for salvation.

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Is a person saved by faith alone (God's grace) or faith and works?

Romans 3:23-27
²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
²⁴ being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
²⁵ whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
²⁶ for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
²⁷ Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.

Romans 4:16
¹⁶ For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,

Romans 5:1-2
¹ Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
² through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 11:6
⁶ But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.

Ephesians 2:4-5 (NIV)
⁴ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions--it is by grace you have been saved.

Ephesians 2:8-10 (NIV)
⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--
⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast.
¹⁰ For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Notice we are saved by faith so that we can do good works. In fact we are created by God to do good works. But we are saved by faith in His grace, not by our works.

Titus 3:5-7
⁵ He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
⁶ whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
⁷ so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Summary
It is very clear that a person is saved (experiences salvation) by faith in God's grace, not by any works whatsoever. There is nothing required of me except to confess (be in agreement with God that I am a sinner in need of a savior), believe (to totally rely on and trust in), and repent (turn away from sin).

In our next lesson we will look at Acts 2:38-39 and explore the concept by some who profess to be Christians but require individuals to be baptized in water in Jesus name to be saved. Some even say that a person must also speak in tongues to be saved.

Jesus as Lord AND Savior
If a person is truly born again, Jesus will not only be their savior, but He will be their Lord. Take a look at these verses.

Philip 3:20
"For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;"

1 Tim. 1:1-2 
"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope; to Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord."

2 Peter 1:1-2
"Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord;"

2 Peter 1:11
"for in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you."

2 Peter 2:20
"For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first." 

2 Peter 3:2
"that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles."

2 Peter 3:18
"but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."

Jude 1:25
"to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen."

It is clear in Scripture that Jesus cannot be your savior unless He is also your lord.

In our next lesson we will see that salvation is by grace alone.

The way it would work is like what you see on the top of my personal blog. You would write your own question with various answers. The poll would appear at the top of your main page and on your post pages. Once a person votes, they will see the current poll results on your page.

If you choose to have a poll, the poll will show up on the top of the page. If you do not have an active poll, then your blog pages will look like they have before the poll feature was activated.

To create or edit a poll, you would go to the 'Manage' tab and will see 'Poll' option. At that time you can create your own poll, edit the poll, choose what poll you want to be live.

Directions in the User Guide or KnowledgeBase.

P.S. The poll feature does not work on both the main and poll page when using Falling Leaves template.

P.S.S. Do you know that we offer the option to customize your blog template by using your color scheme, your own header image, removing the CBS ad, etc.? We charge a very reasonable fee.

Did you know you can get your own domain name and have it forward to your blog. For only $15 a year.
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Salvation as an Essential Doctrine-Part 2

We seen in the last study that for a person to experience salvation they need to be born again and they must repent of their sin. A person must also believe in Jesus and confess He is Lord. We will be looking at the Greek definition of believe and confess.

John 3:16
16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Romans 10:9
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

Acts 16:31
³¹ They said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."

1 John 5:13
¹³ These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

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