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: "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 Chuch & Elain Davidson, 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. 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 my 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 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 8 and the Ephesians in Acts 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 Baptizm 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.

In the past 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 cannot 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)