What if I already accepted Christ in my heart as my personal savior today, and my baptism is tomorrow, due to conflict schedule, and suddenly the night before my baptism I would die. Do you think I will be saved?<\/p>\n\t
I cannot answer for each individual. That is the realm of God’s judgment. But I can tell you want God has said. “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen<\/em>” (I Peter 4:11).<\/p>\n Nowhere in your Bible will you find anyone being told: “Accept Christ in your heart as your personal Savior and you will be saved.” The concept can actually be traced back to the early 1900s when so-called street preachers were in a rush to claim to have saved as many people as they can. So they stripped down the actual gospel and told people they could be saved by a simple declaration. Much faster and took less time. The problem is that it isn’t what God said. “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed<\/em>” (Galatians 1:6-9).<\/p>\n What you see in the Bible are people in a rush to be baptized. “And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized<\/em>” (Acts 16:33). “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord<\/em>” (Acts 22:16). Take a look at “What Saves a Person?<\/a>” and\u00a0a table I created of the things connected with salvation<\/a> and see that it takes much more than saying you accept Jesus as your personal Savior in order to be saved.<\/p>\n Now, let’s examine your example. If you couldn’t be baptized the same day because of a scheduling conflict, what does that tell everyone? Something was more important to you than having your sins washed away. If you died that night, what are you going to tell the Lord in Judgment? Would it sound like a flimsy excuse?<\/p>\n Rather than trying to find excuses for not doing as the Lord plainly commanded, why don’t you do everything you can to be obedient to the Lord, after all, Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments<\/em>” (John 14:15). Then you really could say you accepted Jesus as your Lord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: What if I already accepted Christ in my heart as my personal savior today, and my baptism is tomorrow, due to conflict schedule, and suddenly the night before my baptism I would die. Do you think I will be saved? Answer: I cannot answer for each individual. That is the realm of God’s judgment.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[52,47],"class_list":["post-16072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-baptism","tag-salvation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15189,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-if-a-person-dies-after-accepting-god-but-before-he-can-be-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":16072,"position":0},"title":"What if a person dies after accepting God but before he can be baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 27, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about baptism. People always ask what if a person is about to die and accepts God into his heart, does he go to heaven or hell? My response is two things: I tell them the guy had chances before, so God would be just in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18676,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-saying-yes-enough-to-confess-christ-before-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":16072,"position":1},"title":"Is saying “yes” enough to confess Christ before baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 14, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I enjoy reading your articles on your web site. I find your answers to questions biblically sound and with justification. I'm having trouble with confession, perhaps you can expound on it for me. Is simply answering \"yes\" when one is asked to confess Christ (before baptism) enough? Should the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22956,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-shouldnt-condemn-those-who-believe-baptism-is-unnecessary-for-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":16072,"position":2},"title":"You shouldn’t condemn those who believe baptism is unnecessary for salvation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a Christian, a part of the Church of the Nazarene. I myself have been baptized, but it becomes a concern to me when many others find it absolutely necessary to be baptized with water to be saved. I am very open to the consideration of the doctrines\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23787,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-believe-you-can-only-be-saved-by-immersion-in-water-what-about-someone-who-cant-be-immersed\/","url_meta":{"origin":16072,"position":3},"title":"Do you believe you can only be saved by immersion in water? What about someone who can’t be immersed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: How does one get saved who cannot physically be submerged?\u00a0 I didn\u2019t look up your references, but is seems to me (by skimming through your article of why you left the Church of the Nazarene) that the main reason you left is you believe you are saved by baptism\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5246,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/were-any-saved-without-baptism-in-the-christian-age\/","url_meta":{"origin":16072,"position":4},"title":"Were any saved without baptism in the Christian age?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Was there anyone saved after the dispensation of Christ in the New Testament that was not baptized? Answer: \"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me'\" (John 14:6). Children are born without sin (Ecclesiastes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":787,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-man-be-saved-without-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":16072,"position":5},"title":"Can a man be saved without baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 12, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Brother Lipscomb: Do the Scriptures say that no one can be saved without baptism, or is it only an inference? If an inference, are not all creeds founded on inferences? I have been reading your paper [The Gospel Advocate] for some time, and I like it very well. Lipscomb's Answer:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16072\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}