Subject: Baptism

I know there's been a lot of fuss these days and years about baptism and its relation to salvation and church politics and sometimes its a trivial argument that has little to no ground but sometimes its very important because its a miscommunication to new believers. I respect Joe Belzer. I respect and agree with many of his views on Christianity. But theres a point where I will not budge an inch and that point is right now. Salvation how it is acquired is a black and white situation with no room for gray interpretation. I realize that Paul writes a lot about baptism and dying in Christ I believe they are not always the same thing. To die in Christ is to die from sin. How do we die from sin? Well sin cannot exist with God and when we accept the Holy Spirit into our hearts during whatever situation brings it then we are no longer spiritually dead but we are "born again." That born again was said on the rooftop with Jesus and Nicodemus, no where during this time did Jesus tell Nick that he had to go to the river and get baptized by John. To go off that John always said he baptized with water but Jesus would with fire. This is John saying himself that baptism wasn't the final solution to being saved, it was a symbol. Jesus i believe was showing everyone that he was committed the work that the Father had for Him. The main problem i have with baptism being a part of salvation is that there are too many what ifs? What about those on death row, what if there was no water close to the unich, what about that time between when i prayed the sinners prayer and when i was baptized. if i died or the unich died or any one died after they accept Jesus into their lives but weren't baptized then are they going to hell? No! I realize that i hold a lot of faith on this one verse but the verse that says if we accept in our hearts and pray with our lips that Jesus Christ is Lord then we will be saved. It doesnt say if we accept in our hearts and then get baptized. Now is baptism important, well yes i think it is. Baptism is a symbol of our commitment to live a life following Christ. Rick Warren uses the example of marriage saying that a ring is a symbol and if we dont have a ring, yes we are still married but its almost worthless because it seems like we are not committed. My final rant is that I studied this past week what Rick Warren and Tommy Nelson's views are on this subject. Both agree that it is not a form of salvation. And I respect them and agree with about all of their views including this one.