Resolved the Bible teaches: Salvation follows baptism and is for the remission of sins.

Greetings again, dear readers. My opponent, Ahijah, has resolved into outright lies against my position, as I will show you in this argument. I have successfully proven my proposition, and he has not successfully rebutted them. He has formed several strawman arguments against me. "I want to start by saying that the only argument my opponent has offered to defend his position is Romans 10:9." This is not true. I also used Ephesians 2:8-9, which clearly shows it's God's grace through our faith that saves us, *not of works* (e.g. baptism). Romans 10:9 also clearly shows the only things necessary for salvation are belief and confession. No baptism necessary, unless that verse is in error and should be stricken from our Bibles. Ahijah has not offered compelling evidence that any of those verses mean anything other than what they actually say, which I have shown. Also, I argued that Jesus did not need to be saved, and had not yet died, been buried, and resurrected. I have given at least three pieces of evidence (if not more), on top of refuting his arguments. I have argued quite strongly for my position, and he has not refuted it at all. If you take an honest look at our debate, I think you will see that my position is the stronger one. So please forgive me for extending my arguments, which have gone unchallenged. "He is agreeing with me! He says salvation follows baptism!" Hardly. One must now ask him or herself whether Ahijah has actually read my arguments! I said the order of the verse in Mark is that disciples are made first (i.e. they are saved), then they are baptized. I made no such assertion that salvation follows baptism, and my opponent continues his disingenuous arguing in a feeble attempt to prove his proposition. "But when the Bible says to be baptized. He says no." Again, Ahijah is misrepresenting my views, friends. I never said we are not to be baptized. All I said is that baptism is not required for salvation. I believe it's an ordinance and not being baptized is to be disobedient. I also said that it might possibly be seen as a prerequisite for the ministry. But for salvation? It is not required. He even goes so far as to claim I believe there are devils and fallen angels in Heaven. I believe my readers to be far more honest than my opponent, and you will realize I have never made such a claim. In fact, I even said that Hell was created for Satan and his angels. They will not be in Heaven. They have no chance at salvation like we do because they are already in the spiritual realm. Now he goes on to prove the weakness of his own argument by quoting from Wikipedia. Obviously he is not confident in his own argument. In the interest of space, I will respond to only a couple of points from the Wikipedia article. Regarding the words of James, he does say that faith without works is dead (James 2:14-26). This just goes further to prove that we must take Scripture in context, and not pull it out to make it fit our theology. This passage is not stating that works saves us, because that would clearly contradict Ephesians 2:8-9, which says that we are not saved by works. But an honest exegesis of James shows that works comes along with saving faith. We are saved unto good works, not by good works. Our Lord also said we will know Christians by their fruit (Matthew 7:15-20). A true, genuine saving faith is one in which the disciple will do good works. A "faith" that doesn't do good is a dead faith; it can't save. After all, there's nothing magical in the baptism water that suddenly makes someone want to do good. It must be a conscious decision, and no one who isn't saved will want to follow the teachings of Christ. This is what James means by "faith without works is dead." Also, James didn't say we are saved by our works because again, this would clearly contradict Ephesians 2:8-9. He says that we are *justified* by our works (big difference – James 2:22-26). James uses the examples of Abraham and Rahab the harlot. It was not their works that saved them, James attributes it to their faith. But they were justified (proven) by their works. "Jesus was asked, what is the greatest WORK a man can do? Jesus said faith was the greatest work done by man." This is ironic. I checked out the Bible Gateway link Ahijah posted, and it actually says the exact opposite of what he claimed. It says, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." Jesus is not saying "faith is a work of man." He's saying the work of God is to believe on Him whom He has sent. Faith is a work of God, and in order to "work the works of God" belief must first be present. "I have proved my argument and my opponent has not demonstrated any knowledge on the subject at hand. I only regret he accept the debate. Not having the ability to defend his position. He has offered 1 verse to defend what he says about faith, there are over 31,000 verses in the Bible. Sad, sad." Now here my opponent abandons the strawman argument for a clear ad hominem attack. Do you see, readers? Not only are his arguments unsound and taken out of context, he resorts to lying about my position (I made more arguments than simply one verse), clearly misrepresenting my views, and to attacking me, claiming I have no knowledge on the subject when I've just taken four rounds to discuss my position. I do not have to tell you how to vote, friends. I think you will see whose position is stronger. I will now answer his questions. 1) Do you believe ALL of the Bible? Yes, I do believe all of the Bible. It's all given by inspiration of God (2 Timothy 3:16). However, I take Scripture as a whole and do not pull verses out of context to "prove" my theology. 2) Is baptism a commanded [sic] in the Bible? Yes, baptism is commanded. It is not, however, required for salvation. Many things are commanded in the Scriptures, but failing to follow them will not keep us out of Heaven. 3) This is not actually a question. I believe this would mean he forfeits the debate. However, I believe I have argued my views strongly enough that I don't have to rely on calling him on his own rules for the debate. I will, however, respond: "Please put these acts in order of your most importance. Belief, baptism, grace, forgiveness" I'm not sure I can adequately order these. Grace, forgiveness, and belief kind of go hand-in-hand. When we belief, we repent and seek forgiveness for our sins, which God offers by His grace. All of these are necessary for our salvation and to be reconciled with God. Baptism would come next. Here are my questions: 1) Let's say, for the sake of argument, I only had one verse to back up my position. Would not one verse be enough? Or does God flip-flop in His teachings that even though it says something in one place, He could contradict it in 100 places to make it true? Is God a liar? 2) What is it about baptism that suddenly forgives us from our sins, since God doesn't forgive our sins when we ask (which, by the way, clearly contradicts 1 John 1:9). 3) Why was Jesus baptized by John the Baptist, when even John the Baptist though he should be baptized by Jesus, if baptism is supposed to wash away our sins? I thank you for reading, and look forward to our last round.