Cornelius - The Point At Which He Was Saved

When those who hold to salvation by faith only (sola fide) are scrambling to rationalize their belief in light of all that the Bible has to say about baptism, invariably they will turn to several cases that they think gets them off the hook. One of these is the story of the conversion of Cornelius and his household in Acts 10-11. Acts 10 is the record of the event by Luke. Acts 11 is the record of Peter recounting the event to the church at Jerusalem.
== The Objection ==
The objection the faith only folks raise concerning Cornelius is that the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius and his household before they were immersed in water. They will then declare that this baptism in the Holy Spirit is what saved them and then baptism follows. Following that, they will declare that this is the normal occurrence today. 
However, there are two major flaws in this reasoning that make this objection utterly inconsistent with their own belief system of faith only and utterly invalid.
== The Miraculous Indwelling of the Holy Spirit Does Not Save ==
While that might seem to be a shocking claim to make, it is one easy to demonstrate.
=== Caiaphas ===
In John 11:49-52 Caiaphas prophesies as the Jewish High Priest that Jesus would die for the nation. Caiaphas is not only not saved, he was an enemy of Christ. Yet the Holy Spirit provided the miraculous ability to prophesy.
=== Acts 8 - Samaritans Saved ===
In Acts 8:5-17 we have the record of the time Philip the evangelist went to Samaria and preached the gospel. There was a man named Simon the Sorcerer there who also heard. Here is the record of the main part of the story in question, though I would encourage you to read the whole account:
12 But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Then Simon himself believed also: and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. 14 Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: 15 Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost: 16 (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.) 17 Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.
So here is the order of events.
# Philip preached the gospel (vs 5-12).
# The Samaritans believed the gospel (vs 12).
# The Samaritans were baptized, both men and women (vs 12).
# Simon believes and then is baptized (vs 13).
# Word reaches the Apostles at Jerusalem down south that Samaria had received the word of God (vs 14)
# The Apostles send Peter and John to Samaria (vs 14)
# Peter and John prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost (vs 15)
# Then the Apostles, Peter and John, laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost (vs 17)
Luke makes a big deal in verse 16 about the Samaritans being baptized but not receiving the Holy Ghost yet. So the question to ask the faith only person is at which point 1-8 above were the Samaritans saved. 
If they answer at the point of faith (vs 12), as they should to remain consistent with their faith-only belief, then they give up the objection of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as the event that saves. These people believed and had been baptized but had to wait days for the Holy Spirit. Thus the objection of Cornelius being saved when he was baptized in the Holy Spirit is negated.
However, if they answer at the point that the Holy Ghost is received (vs 15) in order to sustain their objection relating to Cornelius, then they have the larger problem of giving up the faith-only system of belief. 
=== Acts 19 - Men of Ephesus Saved ===
In similar fashion to Acts 8, we read the story of Paul traveling to Ephesus where he meets some folks who were disciples of Christ but were not saved as we shall see in the text:
1 And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, 2 He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. 3 And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. 4 Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. 5 When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
So Paul encounters these twelve men and realizes that they are disciples so, being an Apostle, he asks if they had received the Holy Ghost since they believed. They say "we haven't heard of any Holy Ghost" so Paul's next question is unto what were you baptized? They answered that they were baptized unto John's baptism. So Paul preaches the gospel more fully to them and we get the following order of events:
# Paul preaches the gospel to them (vs 4)
# They heard (believed and accepted) this preaching (vs 5).
# They were baptized into Christ (vs 5)
# Paul lays his hands on them (vs 6)
# The Holy Ghost comes upon them (vs 6)
Again you ask the faith-only person at which point in the order of events were they saved? 
If they say that they were already saved when Paul encounters them because of John's baptism OR point 2, the moment they believed (either of which is consistent with the faith-only doctrine), then they give up their objection that the Holy Ghost indwelling saves since that doesn't happen until after baptism and the laying on of hands.
If they say at point 5 when the Holy Ghost comes upon them to maintain their objection, then again they give up their faith-only doctrine AND the Baptist clinging to the idea that John's baptism was valid for salvation under the New Testament, which again, is a much bigger problem for them.
=== Conclusion 1 ===
So in these three examples, I have shown that it cannot be that the objection that a person is saved when the Holy Spirit miraculously indwells them is an invalid objection. One enemy was indwelt and two other examples have them saved clearly before the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in them. This is the first way to defeat the Cornelius Argument.
== Cornelius Did Not Believe Yet ==
This second point is harder for some to grasp. The point is that the Holy Spirit immersed Cornelius before he even had the opportunity to hear the gospel, much less believe it so if he was saved by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, then he was saved without the gospel and without faith.
Acts 10 is the event recorded, but it is to Acts 11, Peter's detailed recounting to the Apostles at Jerusalem that we will focus on. I encourage you to read both chapters in their fullness for context. Here are the verses that are important to the point:
13 And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter; 14 Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. 15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.
So Peter has his vision of the unclean animals being let down in the sheet. Meanwhile, Cornelius was told by a heavenly messenger to send to Joppa for Simon Peter who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. So Cornelius is supposed to hear words by which he would be saved. Keep that in mind as the events continue.
Peter then says "as I began to speak". That means Peter is opening his mouth and the first words are coming out so Cornelius and house had not heard the words whereby they would be saved. Peter had just begun speaking. As Peter begins to speak, Cornelius and house are immersed in the Holy Ghost as on us at the beginning. Then we can go back to chapter 10 for the rest of the details. Peter preaches the gospel, and then they are baptized in water in the name of the Lord Jesus.
So if Cornelius was saved when the Holy Ghost fell on him, then he was saved before he heard the gospel (because Peter had just started speaking, not finished speaking) and before he believed the gospel. That is, he was saved without faith, which the faith-only people have to deal with. By using Cornelius to try and get rid of baptism as necessary for salvation, they also get rid of faith as necessary for salvation by that same reasoning.
=== Unique Event ===
Furthermore, the faith-only crowd must deal with the issue of this being a very unique event. When Peter says in verse 15 that the Holy Ghost "fell on them as on us in the beginning" he is harkening all the way back to Pentecost when the Apostles experienced a similar event. So this is not a common occurrence that Cornelius and his house experienced or that the Christians there witnessed. If it was common, Peter would have said that the Holy Ghost "fell on them as on Bob yesterday back in Joppa" or something similar.
== The Reality ==
The reality of Cornelius conversion is that Peter came there, began speaking, and the Holy Ghost fell on Cornelius and his house. Then Peter preached the gospel and they obeyed it by being baptized into Christ. The reason the Holy Ghost fell on them as on the Apostles on Pentecost is told by Peter in 10:45,47 and 11:17 was to show that the Gentiles as well as the Jews were acceptable to Jehovah as candidates for baptism into Christ in order to wash away their sins and be added to the church/kingdom. They were not added until they were baptized into Christ just like everyone else after the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ that we are all baptized into (Romans 6:3-18).
== Final Conclusion ==
We have shown that being immersed or indwelt by the Holy Spirit does not save. We have shown that Cornelius was immersed in the Holy Ghost before even hearing the gospel or believing it.
Thus we have addressed the faith-only objection or the anti-baptism objection of Cornelius and shown that it is not a valid objection to water immersion as the point of salvation.
In Truth and Love.