In these passages Peter reaffirms repeatedly that not only where these Gentiles saved not because they were baptized in water, but because they believed his message of the Gospel, but also makes it plain that he and the rest of the disciples were saved in the same way. How? How were they saved? ". . . after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. . . . cleansing their hearts by faith." When did Peter baptize them in Water? Note what Peter said in Acts 10:47-48,

"‘Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?’ And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ."

It was only when Peter saw the evidence of the saving faith they had that he would then baptize them in water, but not as the means of their salvation, but because of the salvation they already had. How did they receive the Holy Spirit? After they were baptized in water? No.  When they believed, God gave them the Holy Spirit automatically as a result, just as it was for Peter and the Apostles; but not as the means of their salvation, but because of the saving faith they already had. This is in total agreement with what Paul teaches in His Epistles. Paul wrote to the Ephesians,

"In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory." (Ephesians 1:13-14)

Here Paul explains to us the process of salvation:

1. First, the Person must hear the Gospel.

2. Second, the person must believe on the Gospel to be saved.

3. Third, when a person believes on the Gospel with saving faith, as a result of the salvation they already have, God automatically gives them and seals them in the Holy Spirit.

Salvation does not come through water baptism or through receiving the Holy Spirit or through speaking in tongues. Salvation is received through faith and through faith alone. When do we receive water baptism, before or after salvation? After we have believed. How does one receive the Holy Spirit? Automatically as a result of believing on the Gospel. Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 2:19, "Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, ‘The Lord knows those who are His.’" Only God knows those who have saving faith in His work of salvation for them through Jesus Christ. When God sees that we have saving faith in our hearts, Paul tells us that He then gives and seals us in His Holy Spirit automatically as a result, but not as the means of our salvation but as a result of the saving faith we already have. Paul tells us in Romans 10:9-10,

"That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

Paul tells us here that salvation takes place when a person believes in his heart. This again is in complete harmony with what took place in Acts Chapter 10: Peter shared the Gospel and before they had given verbal confession, they believed the Gospel in their hearts with saving faith. God knowing this gave them immediately His Holy Spirit as a result. Why then is it necessary for us to confess Jesus as Lord? Because even though God knows when a person has saving faith in the Gospel in their hearts, the only way we know if a person has believed is by what they confesses with their mouth. Salvation takes place in the heart before God, but the evidence of the salvation we already have before men is through our works: confessing with our mouth Jesus as Lord and obeying Jesus through water baptism, etcetera. These are our works, but not as the means of our salvation, but evidence and proof of the salvation we already have.

When did Peter, Philip and Paul baptize their converts in water? Before or after they were saved? After they were saved:

Peter: "‘Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did, can he?’ And he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ." (Acts 10:47-48)

Philip: Acts 8:36 "And as they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said ‘Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?’ And Philip said, ‘If you believe with all your heart, you may.’ And he answered and said, ‘I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.’ And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch; and he baptized him.’ (Acts 8:36)

Paul: ‘Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ And they said, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household.’ And they spoke the word of the Lord to him together with all who were in his house. And he took them that very hour of the night and washed their wounds and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household." (Acts 16:30-33)

In everyone of these cases saving faith came first and only when they gave evidence of saving faith would they then baptize them in water, but not as the means of their salvation, but as a result of the saving faith they already had. In these last two cases there was no physical manifestation of the fact that they had the Holy Spirit, no speaking in tongues, only confession of saving faith they already had. Only God knows those who are His, only God knows those who truly have His Holy Spirit. We can only go by what a man says and his works that follow, but salvation takes place through saving faith in the Gospel in the heart. Only God knows those who are His. God allowed the Gentiles to manifest speaking in tongues in Acts 10:46 to let Peter and the Apostles know beyond doubt that Jesus’ salvation was for the Gentiles as well as the Jews. But whether they spoke in tongues or not, they were not saved when they spoke in tongues or when they received the Holy Spirit, but when they believed in their hearts the message of the Gospel.

The reader at this point needs to understand that there is a difference between receiving the Holy Spirit at the moment when we have saving faith in the Gospel and being baptized in the Holy Spirit for ministry outreach and release which is accompanied with speaking in tongues. This was clearly demonstrated in Acts 8:12-17 and Acts 19:1-7. In verse 12 of Chapter 8 it says the following:

"But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike."

Again here, we see that only after they believed would Philip then baptize them in water. Verses 14-17 then go on to tell us the following:

"Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they began laying their hands on them, and they were receiving the Holy Spirit." (See also the case of the Ephesians in Acts 19:1-7)

We have already established clearly that Peter and Paul teach us that we receive the Holy Spirit automatically when we believe whether we feel it or not or whether we speak in tongues or not, but receiving the Holy Spirit and being Baptized in the Holy Spirit are not the same thing. One is a dwelling within and the other is an anointing upon for service. I received Jesus Christ in November of 1969. I saw the work of the Holy Spirit in my life immediately, but it was not until 1972 that I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues through two friends of mine laying there hands on me and praying for me to receive it.

The Lord had been dealing with me about my need to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit because of my work of Evangelism. When I became convinced Scripturally of its separate validity in my walk and service to the Lord, I allowed my friends who already had it to pray for me to receive it. This happened just before I went on a missionary trip. When they prayed for me I instantly began to speak in tongues. The increase of fruit that followed in my ministry work, people coming to Christ and being healed physically through prayer, proved to me its validity and how much I really did need it in my work of Evangelism to be as fully fruitful as God wanted me to be. This however is not the purpose of my discussion here or this Basic school of Evangelism. The purpose of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, its Scriptural validity and how it helps a believer in bringing men and women to saving faith in Jesus Christ are the discussion of this Advanced Textbook on Evangelism titled, Relationship With Jesus The Key to Effective Ministry. My only reason for making mention of it at this point is to let you the reader, who are baptized in the Holy Spirit, know that I believe in and teach this experience, but that receiving the Holy Spirit when we believe and being baptized in the Holy Spirit are usually two different events in a believers life. Whether a Christian speaks in tongues or not when he believes, he is not saved when he speaks in tongues, but only when he believes on the Gospel. God then automatically gives that person His Holy Spirit as a result whether the person is aware of it or not or whether he speaks in tongues or not. I am also mentioning it here at this point to explain that while, like in the case of the Gentiles in Acts Chapter 10, both receiving and being baptized in the Holy Spirit can come about simultaneously at the moment of salvation, for most of us, like in the case of the Samaritan believers in Acts Chapter 8 and the Ephesians in Acts Chapter 19, it has been two separate events. The Samaritans believed. As a result of their saving faith God gave them His Holy Spirit. When Philip saw their saving faith, probably through mouth confession, he baptized them in water. Later, then, the Apostles visited the Samaritan believers and prayed for them to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Both Paul and Peter clearly testify to us that Jesus’ salvation for our sins through His death and shed blood on the Cross is not received through repenting of our sins or through water baptism or through receiving the Holy Spirit or through speaking in tongues; Jesus’ salvation for our sins is received through faith and through faith alone! What then is Mark 16:16 and Acts 2:38? In the context of everything that Peter and Paul tell us about the process of salvation, they are general all inclusive statements about our salvation in Jesus. How do we know if a person has truly believed? By whether he obeys Jesus. John wrote in 1 John 2:3-4,

"By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." (1 John 2:3-4)

How do I know if a person is truly saved? It will be evidenced by His obedience to Jesus’ commands of which one is water baptism; but not as the means to his salvation, but in evidence of the salvation he already has. This is what James is talking about in James 2:14-22 when he states that faith without works is dead. He states, "You have faith, and I have works: show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works" (James 2:18).

What Mark 16:16 and Acts 2:38 are not is flat statements about what saves us that the rest of the New Testament must then be forced into submission to. When this is done, one must then say the New Testament contradicts itself, that Peter contradicts Himself in His own teachings throughout the rest of the book of Acts on Salvation, that Jesus’ contradicts Himself in His statements about salvation in the rest of the teachings of the Gospels and that Paul contradicts what these passages teach on salvation.

This past year I had an e-mail correspondence with a minister who came from this persuasion. He tried to tell me that everything written after Acts was not to be used for the purpose of establishing salvation theology, that these other books were only written and addressing the church, not the issue of Salvation. This man in order to live with the contradictions he found in the rest of the Bible just simply cut out and threw away what did not support the way he was interpreting Acts 2:38 and Mark 16:16. In light of that, I studied through and addressed him only with the book of Acts and showed him how Peter’s teachings in the book of Acts contradicted the way he was interpreting Peter’s statement in Acts 2:38 and Mark 16:16. He would never give me any response to these clear contradictory passages. He would instead resort to name calling, attacking Paul and saying I was of those camps, but he would not give me any explanation of how he could explain in Acts 10 their receiving the Holy Spirit before water baptism and then Peters further statements in Acts 11:15-17 and 15:8-11. This has pretty much been my experience with other ministers of this persuasion also. The man I was corresponding with through e-mail would then go on and attack Paul and his salvation theology. However, I never addressed anything Paul had to say except to point out that Peter’s teachings in Acts were in complete harmony with the teachings of Paul in His Epistles. What does Peter have to say about this? Peter stated in 2 Peter 3:15-16,

"And regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction."

First, Peter acknowledges Paul’s writings as the Word of God and does not attack Paul’s writings but defends them as not Paul’s ideas but the word of God; second, the context of this statement of Peter is in regard to salvation; and third, he makes plain that people like this man, because they do not take what Paul has to say about salvation into consideration in their teachings on salvation, actually end up distorting what the Bible has to say about salvation. Paul, Peter and John wrote their Epistles Primarily to address wrong teachings about salvation. One can-not understand fully the process of their salvation without reading the Epistles. That is why this man and his associates error, because they do not take into consideration the teachings of the Epistles on salvation in formulating their salvation theology, they do not take the full counsel of God into consideration.

The Bible does not contradict itself and to properly interpret any passage, it must be taken into consideration with everything else the Bible has to say on the subject. All cults based on the Bible are the result of taking verses out of the context of the Bible as a whole and building a theology on it. This is true of Jehovah witnesses, Mormons, Christian Science, etcetera. When you do not take into consideration everything the Bible has to say on the subject of salvation, you end up doing what this man and his associates do, you come up with all kinds of false teachings to explain away obvious contradictions to the way you are interpreting a verse that was meant to be interpreted in the context of the Bible as a whole. Remember, the Bible does not contradict itself, only our interpretations do. It is our interpretations which need modifying, not the Word of God. The truth of the matter is that when you take everything else Peter has to say about salvation in the book of Acts, you find it is in complete harmony with everything Paul teaches in the Epistles. There is no contradiction. The contradiction only comes when Acts 2:38 is made to stand alone without taking into consideration everything else Acts and the rest of the Bible teaches on the subject of salvation. Paul wrote Timothy:

"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the Word of Truth." (2 Tim 2:15)

"Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things; for as you do this you will insure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you." (1 Timothy 4:16)

Salvation through Faith Alone is dealt with on pages 9-10 of the salvation tract What Is Eternal Life? and in much greater detail and exclusively in my book titled Salvation Is Received Through Faith Alone. It is true that Jesus has died for the sins of the whole world, but his death is not applied to our sins until we receive this work of Jesus on our behalf by faith. Paul wrote in Romans 3:28, "For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law." We receive this work of Jesus’ salvation for us by faith by receiving Jesus Christ Himself into our hearts as Savior from our sins and as Lord of our lives.

What do we mean by faith? By Faith! we do not mean blind faith, meaning faith without proof or verification; we mean knowing that once we ask Jesus to come into our hearts as Savior from our sins and as Lord of our lives, that He does come in and save us, not as a feeling, but because He gave us absolute proof that He will do what He promised when He came back physically from the dead. What is Jesus’ promise? That He will come into our hearts when we ask Him to. Again the significance of all this is fully explained in Chapter 1 of Section 3.

The Apostle Paul in the book of Romans Chapter 4 tells us about Abraham that he was saved not as a result of being circumcised which represented the Law but because he believed God’s promises to him. Moses records in Genesis 15:6, "Then he believed in Yehovah; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness." Paul tells us that God made this declaration to Abraham not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.

"Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness. How then was it reckoned? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, that he might be the Father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be reckoned to them." (Rom 4:9-11)

The point of this being that he was saved by believing on God’s promises, not because of some religious act. Paul’s point is that once we have repented of our sins we are saved by believing on God’s promises through Jesus also, not because of some religious act like water Baptism or because we speak in tongues. This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 10:9-10 when he says if we believe God the Father raised Jesus from the dead we shall be saved. When we believe on the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are saying we believe God’s promise that He accepts Jesus’ death and shed blood for our sins and that He has proved this to us by bringing Jesus back from the dead.

Paul further explains to us that Abraham following Yehovah in obedience through circumcision did not save him but was simply evidence of the faith and salvation Abraham already had. When a person has truly repented of his sins and turned to God for His forgiveness of those sins by faith through Jesus’ death and shed blood on the cross, it will be evidenced in the future by his changed life and obedience to Christ’s commands; but not as the means to his salvation, but as a result of the saving faith he already has. This truth is covered clearly on page 17 of What Is Eternal Life? In the same way, water baptism does not save us either, but our following Jesus in obedience to Him through water baptism is simply evidence of the saving faith we already have.

When sharing the Gospel, how do we properly administer Salvation?

1. First, we are to Preach the Gospel, preach Jesus, share the Gospel with men (Acts 8:5, 35, Rom 10:14-15, Rev 19:10).

2. Second, the person must believe on the Gospel and then give evidence of his saving faith through confessing Jesus as Savior and Lord (Acts 8:13, 37, Rom 10:9-10, 13)

3. Third, when they give us evidence of the saving faith they already have through confessing Jesus as Savior and Lord, then and only then do we baptize them in water in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matt 28:19-20, Acts 8:12, 13, 38, 10:47-48).

4. Finally, we are to then lay our hands on them and pray for them to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit for ministry outreach and release (Acts 1:8, 8:12-17, 19:6-7).

In review the five Biblical foundational Christian doctrines which cannot be altered or played with if we are to succeed in Evangelism and in bringing men and women to saving faith in Jesus Christ, are the following:

See Illustration

1. One, that we must accept by faith, founded on the Physical Resurrection of Jesus Christ, that the Judeo-Christian Bible is ABSOLUTELY the Word of God in all that it affirms down to the letter, His ONLY Holy inspired written Word to Man ALONE.

2. Second, that we must take Moses’ teachings in the bible about the creation of the cosmos, the earth and the creation and constitution of man in six twenty-four hour days and fall of man literally.

3. Third, that what Jesus claimed about Himself is absolutely true: that He is fully God and fully Man.

4. Fourth, that God’s forgiveness for our sins repented of is based on Jesus’ death and shed blood on the cross ALONE, not on any works of ours.

5. Finally, fifth, that God’s forgiveness for our sins through Jesus’ death and shed blood on the cross is received by faith and THROUGH FAITH ALONE.

Chapter 1 of this Section titled, Evangelism Is Not A Spiritual Gift, is a foundation for Chapter 2 of this Section titled, The Three Ingredients of Christian Conversion. Chapter 2 talks about what is involved in Evangelism and why using a Salvation Tract like What Is Eternal Life? is most effective in this process.

Chapter 2 of Section 3 of this book titled Knowing Jesus Is Eternal Life is an expanded explanation of the content of the Salvation Tract titled What Is Eternal Life?  It is part of your training in how to share this Salvation Tract on the field.

Chapter 9 of this Section titled, A Field Presentation of What Is Eternal Life?, is a page by page explanation of how to present the tract What Is Eternal Life? and an explanation of the purpose of the content of each page in the tract and how it addresses all critical issues necessary for successful Evangelism in presenting the Gospel on the field.