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QUESTION 148
Can you be saved and not be baptized, and still go to heaven? I always thought we were saved, only after we were baptized. Now I'm being told we can be saved without being baptized. Is this true? I'm sort of confused on this issue, I hope you can help me.

ANSWER:
God has never had two ways of salvation, never, ever. In the Old Testament they offered blood sacrifices for their sins. This was a conditional salvation, yet it was certain. It was dependent on the Son of God coming into the world and dying for those very sins.

"Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; Romans 3:25. These were the sins under the old covenant. "And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance." Hebrews 9:15.

Salvation has always been by blood and not water. None of the Old Testaments saints were baptized. "And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 8:11. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were never baptized.

Baptism is a work we do, and salvation is not by works. "Not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:9. "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Romans 4:5.

Dear Reader, when say that you trust in Christ, and then add anything to it, you are not trusting in Christ. The only people in heaven will be those who are washed in the blood of Christ. "And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Revelation 7:14.

All comments and questions to: Harold Smith

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Updated July 2009, by Shelly Allen