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> Baptism is necessary for salvation,

Prove it. scripture with scripture

> but God permits salvation to come to the unbaptized because

> because God is humble enough to allow mercy to triumph over justice.

God is humble?!? Are you nuts. His justice is His mercy, without Jesus paying (y)our price
(Heb 9:22* And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.)
on the Cross you'd have no access to God, let alone salvation. Not unless you converted to Judaism and observed the Law(including the sacrifices of animals-(refer to Heb 9:22 & Lev.)).

God is humble indeed. You have it backwards.

> The one thing the resurrected Christ emphasized was the importance of baptism.

To the Jewish converts. But after the stoning of Stephen Jesus took Paul aside, as you might recall, whereupon at a later date Paul had to take Peter aside and get him on the right track, AGAIN(lots of zeal but a tad bit fearful of the opinions of men that Peter).

> Two of the four Gospels explicitly state this emphasis (Matthew and Mark). Jesus emphasized the importance of baptism in John 3, so did John the Baptist. Indeed, the Baptist even gave Christ a new title in the context of water baptism, insisting that Christ's water baptism came from heaven while his own did not.

You sir(or Lady:) should consider allowing the spirit of God to lead you into all truth. Beginning with 'rightly dividing the word of truth'. God will reveal the truth to anyone who sincerely wants to know it, ANYONE!

> Acts insists that baptism washes away sins, while Peter's letters insist that baptism saves you now.

Prove it. Scripture with scripture!

I'm gonna tell you how it is and then you can return to kicking at the pricks.

God in his justice DEMANDS blood sacrifice of a spotless lamb. Prior to His Son taking on human flesh that was carried out to differing degrees utilizing various creatures prescribed by His Law. If you check, you'll find that blood sacrifice was required before the law that was given to Moses.

So...in order to satisfy His law for all time, for the sake of His creatures who were originally created in His image, His Son Jesus came, lived a sinless(spotless) life and at the behest of the Adversary with men as his facilitators, Jesus was crucified. Only his sinless(spotless) blood was/IS sufficient to cover any mans sins, let alone all of humanity for all time.

(BTW, who was Jesus preaching to for those 3 days, and were they baptized?)

Finally, we're told again and again 'ye must believe on' who. Don't you see the Almighty's mercy in the simplicity of 'believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou SHALT be saved'? Let me explain it then: except with with extreme torture or modern day drugs, another man cannot make up your mind for you, or change it. And long before they get to that point, IN THE QUIET OF ONES THOUGHTS, anyone can believe anything they like. And we certainly do. Mostly not pleasing to God but nonetheless within the confines of His justice(not honor) he made a way whereby any man could grasp onto salvation in the quiet of his heart where no other man could stop him from calling upon Jesus. Baptism is a duty after the fact of believing. Believing on Jesus is what we must do.

I take comfort too in the fact that after we repent and trust the Lord, no matter what is done to us, we will remain the Lord's forever.

You're wrong about the requirements of salvation, and please do pray about it as you are likely to be misleading souls in trusting in baptism instead of Jesus Christ. The One who died and rose again? That would entail eternal consequences added to your account and their discomfort. May Peace Be With You! Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.