Quick post

So what has been happening lately..... hmmmmm.


Well I talked to one of my friends online (on Facebook). We hadn't talked in years.... she was a good friend in high school and our parents were friends. It was a really good chat. She is now a preacher's wife and mother of a little girl. The crazy thing about her being a preacher's wife is that her husband was really into drug and other stuff in high school and now he has done a complete 180... it is always cool to see God at work.

So anyways we had a good conversation about life and then we transitioned into talking about salvation and if you need to be baptized to be saved. I said I didn't think so and she said she believes you have to be baptized to be saved. Then we continued to talk and she gave me some verses to look at (the verses that she believes points to baptism and faith in God as the way to salvation). I said I didn't have a bunch of verses to prove that you don't have to be baptized to be saved BUT I said let me do some research and find out.

So lately I have been reading her verses (Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38, Rom. 6:3-4, Col. 2:12,
Gal. 3:27, I Pet. 3:21). I have read most of them and the surrounding verses to try and put it into context.... and so far after talking with some people I respect a lot, doing my own research, and comparing notes... I still don't think you have to be baptized to be saved BUT I think it is true (and most people have said this) that baptism is a more important part of salvation and Christianity than we often make it.

My old pastor (Paul) told me that baptism is symbolic (which is all throughout scripture) and that not being baptized is like not having the wedding ceremony at a wedding....
Biblically you could (just you and you wife) go into the woods and make a commitment to each other and to God and then hop into the sleeping bag together BUT there is something about having the wedding publicly that is both essential and needed (and symbolic... 2 being made 1 and the symbolism of the wedding ring). The ceremony isn't biblically needed BUT at the same time there is something about expressing you commitment publicly.

So I have to go and do more research but right now I think I am leaning toward the reality that baptism is not needed to be saved.... I just don't think it works that way.