“many do believe that being Baptized saves them...”
It’s in the bible that being saved requires baptism -
1 St. Peter Chapter 4 Verse 21
Whereunto baptism, being of the like form, now saveth you also:
There are other verses that make it clear baptism is necessary for salvation.
Anecdotal evidence is rather weak evidence of a position.
“...what one might ‘believe’ and what the ‘truth’ of the matter is can be very different than one desires it to be...”
So true - and without the bible to back up a position, the truth is merely an opinion. God’s Word:
Acts 22:16
Rise up and be baptized and wash away thy sins, invoking his name.
You can make the Bible say anything when you cherry pick verses, taking them out of context.
The entire sentence says.....
1 Peter 3:18-33 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
IOW, it is NOT water baptism.
Baptism never saves someone..water cannot wash away our sins nor change our hearts and minds. Only a commitment to Jesus and accepting His sacrifice ‘personally’ for your own sins can change our standing before a Holy God. .....Baptism 'follows' the Salvation Message given and received....it never IS Salvation
