“All Requirements Fulfilled”

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Does Acts 16:30-31 mean baptism is not required for salvation?  Paul said, “Believe and you will be saved”… not believe and be baptized.

Sincerely,
Without Water

Dear Without Water,

Baptism is a requirement for salvation and Paul never taught that it wasn’t required.  It is important to remember to keep all verses that we read in context and to compare those verses to the rest of the Bible.

For example, Paul told the Philippian jailer that he needed to believe in Jesus in order to be saved… but then what did the jailer do? In the very next verse (Acts 16:32) it says Paul preached to them about Jesus, and then (Acts 16:33), the jailer was baptized.  So what does it look like to believe in Jesus?  You get baptized.

Also, the Bible says that we have to take the sum of God’s Word if we want to understand a subject (Ps 119:160).  A single verse can be abused to say just about anything we want it to, but when we take the whole Book we get God’s wisdom.  Rev 22:18-19 says to never add or subtract from God’s Word.  When we look at other verses about salvation, we see that many things are required to be saved.  We must have faith (Eph 2:8), repent (Acts 3:19), confess Christ (Matt 10:32), and be baptized (1 Pet 3:21, Mk 16:16).  In short, if we want to know the truth, we need to take the whole Bible to get it.

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