IS BAPTISM ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION?
This is a question of grave importance, because it involves me fate of every man and woman in the world. The minds of many have been troubled on this point, and none should rest satisfied until they have a perfect understanding in regard to it.
There is considerable discussion and diversity of opinions on this subject in the so-called Christian world; and it seems that all that has been said about it by uninspired men has only tended to bewilder the mind. But while they cling to their own opinions and wander from the truth, we much prefer believing the revealed word of God.
In Luke (vii. 29, 30) we read that John the Baptist, a servant of the Most High, taught baptism, and those who were baptized justified God, while some "rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him." No one will dare to say that men will be saved in rejecting the counsel of God against themselves. Then, as it is a counsel of God for men to be baptized, they cannot be saved without it; therefore, it is essential to salvation.
The Lord sent his angel to Cornelius, and told him to send for Peter, who would tell him words by which he and all his house should be saved (Acts x. 14). Cornelius did so, and when Peter came, "he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord" (Acts x. 48). If Cornelius had rejected baptism as non-essential, could he have been saved? No; for the angel told him that Peter would tell him how to be saved, and Peter "commanded them to be baptized." According to this, baptism must be essential to salvation.
Paul, speaking to the Galatians, says: "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. iii. 26, 27). If it is essential to "put on Christ" to obtain salvation, then it is essential to be baptized, for we put on Christ by baptism.
Jesus, in giving the apostles their commission, said: "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not," (and consequently is not baptized) "shall be damned" (Mark xvi. 15, 16). Here the Savior positively declares that it is the baptized believer who shall be saved. Then, of course, baptism is essential to salvation, and who will dare to say it is not.
Jesus said to Nicodemus: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water" (that is, baptized in water) "and of the spirit," (that is, baptized in the spirit) "he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John iii. 6). If entering the kingdom of God is essential to salvation, then being "born of water," or, in other words, being baptized, is essential also, for by one we enter the other.
The Apostle Peter, in the third chapter of his first epistle, says, that in the ark there were eight souls "saved by water, the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us." According to this, he taught that baptism was essential to salvation.
On the day of Pentecost, many persons were convinced that Jesus was the Christ, which caused them to inquire of God's servants what they should do, to which Peter replied: "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins" (Acts ii. 38). If baptism was not essential to salvation, why did Peter command them to be baptized?
When John was in the wilderness he preached "baptism of repentance for the remission of sins" (Mark i. 4). He preached the same doctrine in all the country about Jordan (Luke iii. 3). Peter commanded the people to be baptized "for the remission of sins" (Acts ii. 38). Ananias said to Paul, "why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins" (Acts xxii. 16). From these quotations we learn that baptism is "for the remission of sins." Is the remission of sins essential to salvation? If so, baptism must be, for one is obtained through the other.
It is repeatedly stated in the scriptures that it is they who do the will of God that will enter the kingdom of heaven. That it is the will of God for people to be baptized, no reasonable person will deny. Then, they who say "Lord, Lord," and reject baptism, will surely receive that woeful doom, "depart ye cursed! I never knew you."
The apostles spoke by the authority that God had given them. What they told the people, while in the line of their duty was as binding on them as though the Lord had done it himself. Their words were the words of God. And when they commanded the people to be baptized they must comply or lose salvation, for no one can be saved in disobeying God's commandments.
If baptism is not essential to salvation, why does the Lord require it? The fact that He requires it, is enough to prove that it is essential.
Some have supposed that the thief who was crucified beside the Savior went to heaven, and it is believed that he was not baptized; therefore, it is argued if one can be saved without baptism others can, and consequently it is not essential to salvation. But this supposition is not true, for Jesus said to the thief, "to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise," and three days afterwards said to Mary, "touch me not for I have not yet ascended unto my Father." According to this, Paradise and Heaven are two distinct places, and as Jesus did not go to Heaven, neither did the thief; for they were both together in Paradise.
"If it is necessary for every one to be baptized," asks one, "what will become of the good people who have died without having that privilege?"
To this we may reply that the dead who died without hearing the gospel will have it preached to them as it was anciently, (I Peter iv. 5, 6). They who obey it will be saved but they who reject it will be condemned, as though they were in the flesh.
"But," says one, "a dead person, cannot be baptized." Very true; but God in His infinite wisdom provided a way in which the dead can be baptized for, by proxy, as shown by Paul in the questions (I Cor. xv. 29): "Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?"
Paul was not speaking about baptism for the dead, but the resurrection of the dead, and brings up baptism for the dead as a proof of the resurrection, by asking why they were "baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all." But this plainly shows that "baptism for the dead" was both believed and practiced by the early Christians.
Enough has now been said to prove to any reasonable person that baptism is essential to salvation, and the arguments against such a doctrine have been sufficiently refuted. So, let all people prepare themselves and be baptized, under proper authority, for the remission of sins, that they may be saved in the kingdom of God; for what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul.