Baptism is Not Necessary for Salvation According to the Early Church

Let’s dive right in. The Bible says in Acts 2:37-41,

Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

The phrase in Acts 2:38 that reads, “for the forgiveness of your sins” modifies the word repentance, not the word baptism. See more about this Here.

What is interesting is that those who translate the above verse as meaning that baptism is a requirement for salvation are implying that the following is not true.

In Acts 10:44-48, we read,

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. And all the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also. For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?” And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to stay on for a few days.

Did you catch that? “The Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening…and all… who had come with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also.” THEN, Peter reasons, “’Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?’” And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.” Chronologically speaking, they were saved and then baptized. The whole idea about this is that Peter saw that they were saved. His response to seeing them become saved is that they should be baptized. Proof that they were Saved before being baptized is in the phrase, “For they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God.”

In Romans 8:9 we see that only Christians have the indwelling Holy Spirit: “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.” The opposite of this is also true… “Anyone who does have the spirit of Christ does belong to Him.” So then if the Holy Spirit dwells in a person, that means that they are saved and Christian. Peter, in the above Acts passage witnesses the Holy Spirit falling on those who were listening. So, if someone tries to argue that those in Acts 10 are not yet saved, this would be an impossible way to translate the text, because we know that only Christians have the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Furthermore, we find something interesting in Acts 11… The thing about this is that in Koine Greek, the language the entire New Testament was written in, there are no exclamation points! The way that they emphasized something in text was to repeat it (see Galatians 1:8-9 for an example). This is exactly what is happening in Acts. Luke (the author of Acts) knew that he could have condensed Acts 11 down to “he told them what happened,” but he repeats much of what took place in Acts Chapter 10 in 11:1-18.

When Luke was repeating himself in Acts 11:17-18, he does not even mention the baptism that took place, but only focused on their prior-to-baptism salvation experience: “If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?” When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

This information helps one understand and draw the conclusion that baptism is not a requirement for salvation, like many churches in America try to push today. The fact is, baptism is an act of obedience to Jesus after we are saved.

Written by Nace Howell through the grace of the Lord Jesus

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