“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” ([John x, 27, 28]).
“There is no condemnation for them that believe and are baptized.”—Confession of Faith, Art. IX.
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Is baptism essential to salvation?
“He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” ([Mark xvi, 16]).
“Except a man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God” ([John iii, 5]).
“Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them” ([Matthew xxviii, 19]).
Was the penitent thief baptized?
Paul says: “I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius.... For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel” ([1 Corinthians i, 14, 17]).