Deathbed Salvation

[deacon blues]

Originally Posted by trialedbyfire

There is not one recorded count of someone converting without being baptized IMMEDIATELY.

Acts 4:4 Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand. NO MENTION OF BAPTISM IMMEDIATELY OR OTHERWISE


Acts 11:21
And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.
NO MENTION OF BAPTISM IMMEDIATELY OR OTHERWISE


Acts 13:12 Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.
NO MENTION OF BAPTISM IMMEDIATELY OR OTHERWISE


Acts 13:48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
NO MENTION OF BAPTISM IMMEDIATELY OR OTHERWISE


Acts 14:1 And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.
NO MENTION OF BAPTISM IMMEDIATELY OR OTHERWISE


Acts 16:1 Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek:
NO MENTION OF BAPTISM IMMEDIATELY OR OTHERWISE


Acts 17:4 And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
NO MENTION OF BAPTISM IMMEDIATELY OR OTHERWISE


Acts 17:12 Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few.
NO MENTION OF BAPTISM IMMEDIATELY OR OTHERWISE


Acts 17:34 Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
NO MENTION OF BAPTISM IMMEDIATELY OR OTHERWISE


This is a common misconception about Acts and what actually happened in the NT church. The pattern in Acts 2:38 is mentioned ONCE in the entire book explicitly. Acts 8 has the Samaritans believing and being baptized, receiving the HG later, but never mentioning tongues. Acts 10 has the house of Cornelius believing and being filled with the HG, speaking in tongues and THEN getting baptized. Acts 19 has the disciples of John being rebaptized and being filled with the HG, speaking in tongues. You can throw in the conversion of Saul on Acts 9 although it's not as specific about speaking in tongues when he received the HG (we know he later says he speaks in tongues in I Cor.).

There's a total of 19 conversions recorded in Acts. Out of 19, only 5 show any form or fashion of A238, while 100% of all 19 conversions include believing/faith/repentance.

So what are we to deduce from this? Two options:

1.) That A238 was absolutely the message that was always preached as the gospel and everyone ever converted in the Bible obeyed that pattern. In the 14 other cases where conversion takes place and either the HG and tongues is absent or both HG/tongues and baptism are absent, we ASSUME, SPECULATE, and GUESS that it took place in all the other times.

OR

2.) That faith/repentance/belief was the emphasis of the gospel and every time someone converted they did exercise faith, repented of their sins, believed the message of Christ's death, burial and resurrection---AND IT'S ACTUALLY RECORDED 100% OF THE TIME IN THE BIBLE IN THE BOOK OF ACTS THAT THEY DID!!!!! Sometimes they were baptized in addition to and/or received the gift of the HG where they either spoke in tongues with cloven tongues like as of fire sitting upon each of them, spoke in tongues and magnified God, spoke in tongues and prophesied, or they were simply "filled" with no mention of tongues.

Logic would say you would embrace what happened 100% of the time rather than 1/4 of the time. I'd rather build my doctrine on what is absolutely consistent, not only in the book of Acts but the ENTIRE BIBLE: faith/repentance/belief. This has ALWAYS been God's plan of salvation!

And if A238 was "always" preached, as you say, why did Paul say "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved?" in Acts 16?