liever, still less, we may add, with the anomaly of a baptized non-believer". With this support it is clear that only believers where baptized, and from that it is easily extrapolate that only adults who had made a personal commitment to live their lives for Jesus Christ were baptized by Paul. Paul makes it quite clear in the book of Romans that the believer is to be baptized, and that it is not the baptism that saves them but their faith in Jesus Christ and his redeeming work on Calvary. He also makes it clear who is to be baptized, under what conditions they are to be baptized, and how they are to be baptized. Paul's Gospel message can be condensed to eleven words "Believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ, and you will be saved"(White 1960). With this statement we can dispel the most common error about baptism, that being that it is required for salvation, and the second most common error, that being that an infant can be baptized. Neither of these two errors are supported by Paul or his epistles, in addition they are not supported by any scripture that I know of. In addition to the writings of Paul we have Peter both his elder and his contemporary. Peter was the apostle known as the "beloved of Christ" and therefore may have known the heart of Christ the man, better than anyone of his day. It has been suggested by some that the first epistle of Peters is an address to candidates for baptism, and that it is given at the close of their preparatory instruction. No where else in scripture is there so much written about baptism than in I Peter 1:3-4:11. This fact makes I Peter unique among New Testament writings. We find in I Peter two subthemes, according to White on page 257 of his book The Biblical Doctrine of Incitation: A Theology of Baptism and Evangelism(1960). The first of these being: "the joy of actualized redemption into which the believer enters at baptism and hope of coming glory." This is the theme that is overwhelming in the first...
