Buttercup said:
Squirt....did you read any of my posts?
Yes I did. I read most of what both you and Aqualung said, not at critically as either of you did, but enough to understand your position.
Dawny and I say almost exactly the same things. It's the belief in Christ and repentance of your sins that saves you. Can we all agree on that yet?
Well, I hate to say it, but I'm afraid not. Interestingly, you have mentioned the two things that we LDS would call the first two principles of the gospel -- faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and reptentence for one's sins. These two principles are absolutely essential for salvation. Unfortunately, that's as far as you took it.
Jesus said that we much be born of water
and of the spirit. Both of you have said that water baptism is not required. Dawny has said that as soon as you believe in Christ you are baptized by the Holy Ghost. This would make Jesus instruction to His Apostles to baptize His followers throughout the world meaningless. Neither of you have provided any scriptural evidence which support these beliefs.
You both appear to believe that water baptism is merely a step we
can take if we wish, and that its purpose is primarily as an outward show of a change in our hearts. My guess is that the real reason you don't believe that baptism is a required ordinance is that this would leave too many people in the position of not having been saved due to circumstances beyond their control. What kind of a God would deny salvation to millions of sincere believers simply because they had not received water baptism? The question is a good one. The answer, however,
does not lie in simply ignoring what Jesus said was a requirement for salvation. It lies instead in recognizing that God has provided a way for
all believers to receive baptism. Personally, I can't help but wonder what kind of a God would give mankind a commandment that didn't really matter to him in the first place.