Baptism Necessary For Salvation

~Brandon James Scott Scholl

Water Baptism. This is a topic that has always had debate and there is no absolute answer as of yet for this.

For those of you that don’t know what the huge debate is let me fill you in. Water Baptism, in the instance that I’m referring to, is that you will not go to heaven if you are not baptized with water before you die.

There are basically two sides to this whole argument. The ones that say you must be baptized and the ones that say it’s not a salvation issue. Both sides use the bible so let’s see what both sides have to say.

First, let’s start with the side that says it’s necessary for salvation. A scripture that’s used quite a bit is John 3:3-7, ”In reply Jesus declared, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” ”How can a man be born when he is old,” Nocodemus asked. ’Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.” Bottom line is they believe that to be truly saved and get into heaven you have to be bapized.

Now, for the second side. The other side is that it’s not necessary for salvation. This is the side that also says that you can be baptized if you want and it’s more a way of showing and expressing your love for God. However, it’s not to be confused with a work that you should or have to do to be saved. See, it’s explained with these scriptures: ”For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” ~Ephesians 2:8-9.

Now that we have the two sides I’m going to explain my take on it all. I’m the person that thinks that it is not something that is necessary for salvation and you aren’t going to hell because you weren’t baptized. Like it says in Ephesians, we aren’t saved by our works. In fact, the scripture used to say that it is necessary speaks about the spirit and not the flesh. So, bottom line in my book is that it is not required to be saved. What do you think?