Acts 15:1-24 “And certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved." … (24) Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, "You must be circumcised and keep the law"--to whom we gave no such commandment.”
Scripture reveals to us that even in the early church that some false teachers had also tried to introduce another requirement for salvation. As we can see from the above quoted passage of scripture, those false teachers had gone around to the various churches trying to persuade the gentile believers that unless they were circumcised and kept the Law of Moses, that they couldn’t be saved. And so in effect, they were telling the gentile believers that they had to convert to Judaism in order to be saved. The early church quickly dealt with this false doctrine by exposing it for the lie that it was. And so in the same manner, the church today needs to expose the lie that unless one is baptized in water one cannot be saved, for scripture plainly teaches us that believers that are not baptized in water also go to be with the Lord Jesus when they die. None of the Old Testament saints were baptized in water and all are in heaven today, and you will recall that the criminal was saved while hanging on the cross alongside our Lord (Luke 23:43).
Michael E.B. Maher
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