I repeat...show me anywhere that Jesus OR ANY OTHER place in Scripture that says a person must be water baptized in order to be saved. Show where the words "water baptism" is stated as necessary to be saved. Jesus, if you note, said in John 3:5 that "except a man be born of water and of the spirit", but in no place did he say that the being born of water was the same as being born of the spirit nor did he say that being born of the spirit was was the same as being born of water. What you must show is the definition of what "born of water" means and how it is distinct or the same as "born of the spirit". What I am trying to show is being born of water does not say water baptism. It is instead a pigeonhole reaction to associate water with water baptism. There are many other kinds of baptisms spoken of in Scripture.
I hope I have explained my question for you clearly enough so that you can answer more clearly.
Let's start from the very beginning. It's a very good place to start....
1 Pet 3:20 20Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
21The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 22Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
Now fast forward to the baptism of Jesus Christ, skipping over the crossing of the Red Sea --> how does Jesus Christ's ministry start? By being baptised through water by the Holy Spirit
Mt 3:13 13Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. -- now, John was not baptising with thin air but with water
Now, after HIS RESURRECTION, Christ gave the Apostles their mission:
Mt 28:19-20 19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
And He had given a prefix of this before that Jn 3:5 5Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
And at the time of His Crucifixion, this was Water and Spirit, the blood and water that flowed from the pierced side of the crucified Jesus are types of Baptism and the Eucharist, the sacraments of new life.
Jn 19:34
| 34But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water. |
1 Jn 5:6-8
| 6This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. 7For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. 8And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. |
From then on, it is possible "to be born of water and the Spirit"
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Now, look at what we see the Apostles doing -- the Ethiopian in Acts 8
| 36And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? |
This is emphasised in Eph 5:26
| 26That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, |
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And this is what has always been believed and followed as taught by Jesus Christ and passed down through the Apostles