P
panevino
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jesus says the following in john 3:3-7 (KJV)"There are some people who believe that baptism is necessary for salvation.
While the Bible clearly teaches that baptism in water is necessary for obedience, it is not a requirement for salvation. …
…Baptism is going public for God. It is telling the world that you’ve decided to follow Jesus."
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
early church interpretations
Shepard of hermas (~140AD) “It was necessary for them,” saith he, "to rise up through water, that they might be made alive; for otherwise they could not enter into the kingdom of God, … The seal then is the water: so they go down into the water dead, and they come up alive. “thus to them also this seal was preached, and they availed themselves of it that they might enter into the kingdom of God.”
For as we are lepers in sin, we are made clean, by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old transgressions; being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes, even as the Lord has declared: ‘Except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.’" Irenaeus, Fragment, 34 (A.D. 190).