Water baptism is unnecessary. John the Baptist stated in Matthew 3:11 "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
One need only hear the Gospel: Romans 10:17 "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
Ephesians 2:8-9 "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Last statement from me because I don't think this is what the discussion was created for, so I'll respect your designs for it.
I think you need to look real hard at the works issue. Believing is a work. It something you have to choose to "do". Some have to work harder at it then others, and sometimes it is a fight (a fight of faith). At its purest and basic level, work is "force applied to produce movement". Conscious thought uses energy, and sends that energy to cause neurons to fire. "Work" does not have a minimum level of energy, force and movement required to qualify as work.
In a scriptural sense, anything we can choose to "do" is a work. When Paul instructed the jailor to "believe" he was telling him something he had to choose to do.
So pure belief in "no required works" can only believe extreme predestination, where someone who never heard of God, and lives their entire lives stealing, raping and murdering, and gets killed in the process of doing exactly that goes to heaven because Jesus determined that before he was born.
However, if obeying by believing, confessing, getting baptized, etc is simply obedience, and isn't "working to earn salvation", then grace still gets all the credit
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