[LearsFool]

Thank you...Yes, I was only half-right - but half-wrong!:

Faith makes works into "living" works (James 2:26), while works make faith a "saving" faith (2:14).

Where?

In Hebrews 11, for instance:

"By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been compassed about for seven days."

The walls fell by faith, after the marching, not before. Did they fall by faith alone? No. Would they have fallen by faith if there hadn't been marching? No.

They fell by faith, not by marching...but only after marching. Would they have fallen without the marching? The marching was faith in action. Without the action, what good would their faith have been? It wouldn't have accomplished its purpose without action.

Consider Naaman: Was his leprosy cured before dipping in the Jordan? Would it have been cured without the dipping? Without the action, what would've been accomplished?

And one last example: By faith we have remission of our sins, after baptism. Baptism is faith in action. Without baptism, faith does not accomplish its purpose.

[metmom]

If baptism were that critical to salvation, there there would certainly have been more mention of its necessity in Scripture. The verses that people use as proof text are weak at best and contradict MANY other passages that state that it's through faith. Period.

Circumcision did not save either and that was not required for believers. The Council at Jerusalem addressed the works of the Law issue and made NO mention of the need for baptism.

Since they stated that the Holy Spirit directed them in their instructions to the early church, and baptism was not mentioned, then is is safe to conclude that it is not an issue.

This is the decision and the instructions by the Holy Spirit of what is required.....

Acts 15

Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter: “The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth. For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”