[pro610]

This thread seems to have brought out the best and the worst regarding salvation.
Look at the story of the good thief on the cross next to Jesus.I don,t think he belonged to any religious organization. He was saved because he recognized that Jesus was the savior,He was spiritually Born again at that moment.
Of course we should not live our life like the thief did but no one should ever fight about Salvation.
The first will be last and the last will be first,Im sure Jesus said that for a reason.
Most important is that we are Spiritually Born Again in Christ Jesus.Then the Holy Spirit will work in our lives.

[adiaireton8]

I fail to see your point. The salvation of the thief on the cross does not mitigate Christ's explicit claim in John 3 that "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he can not enter into the Kingdom of God."

It was physically impossible for the thief to be baptized with water in the condition in which he came to faith. But we should not use this case as some kind of nullification of Christ's claim that baptism is necessary for salvation. (This is why the Fathers taught that baptism through blood and baptism through desire were possible when baptism with water was not possible.)

-A8