Caller: I heard a Pastor say the other day - he was stressing - it sounded like he was saying it's mandatory to be baptized. In other words, he quoted the verse unless you're born of water and the spirit you can't be saved.
Pastor Doug: Yes.
Caller: I always took that verse to mean like unless you're born naturally opposite if you're born - of course you're born of water because you're human but the Spirit is being born again isn't it?
Pastor Doug: Well you've asked two questions. First of all, is it essential to be baptized to be saved? There will be obviously millions of people in Heaven who weren't baptized...
Caller: that's what I've felt -
Pastor Doug: ...because you have all the Old Testament characters. Notice what it says in Mark 16:16: 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned.' You notice he says he that believes and is baptized is saved, but he doesn't say he that believeth not and is not baptized shall be damned. The thief on the cross - we have no record he was baptized he was saved by Grace.
My question would be if a person believes in the Word of the Lord and they know the Bible commands baptism, why wouldn't they want to be?
Caller: Oh sure. Sure.
Pastor Doug: See? So a person who knows God's Will and refuses to do God's Will, that's dangerous! But I've been to hospitals where people have given their hearts to the Lord on their deathbeds. They can't be baptized because they're attached to all that apparatus. Jesus gives them credit for His baptism because, obviously, Christ wasn't baptized to wash away His sin. See what I'm saying?
Caller: Yes, right.
Pastor Doug: See we receive credit for Jesus' sinless life by virtue of faith. People like the thief on the cross and folks dying in hospitals or prisons on death row, they, I believe, are saved by virtue of getting credit for Jesus' baptism. You ever think about that?
Caller: No I haven't.
Pastor Doug: Christ said, 'Suffer it to be so now to fulfill all righteousness.' And John said you need to be baptizing me because you're sinless - why am I baptizing you? So Christ was baptized as an example for us and I believe He was baptized in behalf of those who could not be so they get credit for His baptism.
Now that's a doctrine I would not die on that mountain for that, but I've heard it and I think it's worth sharing, okay?
Caller: Okay.
Pastor Doug: Okay thanks a lot.