Scripture References

Water baptism is an act of obedience that serves as a public witness and testimony of a believer’s new life in Christ. Baptism identifies believers with Jesus Christ, who died, was buried, and rose from the grave, having conquered sin and death through His shed blood. Therefore, it is an outward, visible sign that symbolizes the inward, invisible change that transpired when a believer “died to sin” and was “raised to life,” having trusted Jesus for their salvation and forgiveness.

There is no saving power in water baptism. Water cannot cleanse anyone from sin or justify individuals before God and is not required for salvation to take effect. Salvation and redemption are gifts of God’s grace imparted to individuals solely upon placing their faith in Jesus for what He accomplished on the cross. Hebrews 9:22 says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Therefore, if a person is water-baptized for forgiveness and redemption rather than trusting exclusively in God’s grace for salvation through Jesus Christ, they remain in their sins, and their baptism accomplishes nothing of value. For these reasons, baptizing infants is a futile practice.

The biblical model for water baptism is submersion since it represents one’s death and resurrection in Christ. When a believer goes down into the water, it signifies them dying to their life of sin, which had previously dominated them. When they come up out of the water, it symbolizes their new life in Jesus. Although submersion is the biblical model for baptism, the focus should be on what it signifies rather than its methodology. For some individuals, submersion is not possible. Therefore, alternate methods can be employed to accomplish the same goal.

Notes: The belief that God requires anything other than faith exclusively in Jesus Christ for salvation results from misunderstanding and combining discipleship passages with those on salvation—concluding that redemption mandates faith plus works. This practice is dangerous for several reasons: First, it removes passages from their surrounding framework and assigns different meanings than their context conveys. Next, it undermines the text's integrity, creating contradictions that alter Scripture’s consistent and reliable message. Finally, adding any condition to faith as a means for receiving God’s gift of salvation not only modifies the plain meaning of salvation-based passages but completely contradicts it. Therefore, any such methodology and its accompanying interpretations are false.
The Old and New Testaments are not a collection of fragmented verses where each one is understood and interpreted at face value apart from its context, chapter, book, and the rest of Scripture as a whole. Instead, the doctrines taught in the Bible are consistent and reliable and fit together within a logical framework. Therefore, correctly understood verses will never contradict correctly understood verses but harmonize with the rest of Scripture and its overall message.