You can never become Christian without Baptism. That is a fact. Jesus Himself sets that as a pre-requisite.
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Kid you really need go find and crack open that dusty Bible...
The thief on the cross was not baptised...
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:43
For myself, I was born again at aged 8, sprinkled as an adult at 14, and had a full sumersion baptism in water when I was 32...
But I was a Christian...in full commune with God...
Now that baptism and infilling of the Holy Spirit shortly after I was saved and all my early speaking in tongues may have made the difference there...
What do you think ???
> The thief on the cross was not baptised...
He was indeed, in a very real way, such that none of us can experience.
Baptism is, as you will be aware, a symbolic death and resurrection into the saving name of Jesus Christ.
The Thief on the Cross experienced a literal death with Jesus, and died with the hope of his resurrection, guaranteed by the words of Jesus “you shall be with me in Paradise.”
(That said, he may well have been baptised by water — you do not know that. John the Baptist had been very busy in the time leading up to his death.)