Baptism & Salvation
How do you become a Christian according to the Bible? Trace the conversion pattern in Acts: hearing the gospel, believing in Jesus, repentance, confession, baptism, forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, and faithful discipleship.
Start With the Gospel
Conversion in the New Testament does not begin with a ritual detached from the gospel. It begins with hearing what God has done in Jesus Christ.
The apostles preach Jesus' death, resurrection, lordship, and messianic identity and then call hearers to respond.
That sequence matters because biblical conversion is neither mere information nor mere ceremony. It is faith responding to the gospel.
Paul says faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Believe in Jesus
No one becomes a Christian in the New Testament through baptism without faith or through mechanical observance of a ceremony.
Jesus and the apostles repeatedly call people to believe. The jailer in Acts 16 is told to believe in the Lord Jesus, and the word of the Lord is then spoken to him and his household.
Faith provides the trust and allegiance from which the rest of the gospel response flows.
Paul and Silas tell the jailer to believe in the Lord Jesus and then speak the word of the Lord to him and his household.
Repent
Peter's Pentecost sermon does not end with belief alone. When the crowd asks what to do, Peter begins with repentance.
Repentance is not simply feeling regret. It is a change of mind and direction that turns toward God.
Who Changed the Church? treats repentance as part of the original apostolic response rather than an optional later stage of discipleship.
Peter tells the convicted crowd to repent and be baptized.
Confess Christ
The New Testament connects saving faith with confession of Jesus as Lord.
Confession is not a work that earns grace. It is the public expression of allegiance already present in faith.
The Ethiopian's conversion in Acts 8 and Paul's teaching in Romans illustrate the importance of openly identifying with Christ.
Paul connects believing in the heart with confessing Jesus as Lord.
Be Baptized Into Christ
Acts repeatedly records new believers being baptized immediately after receiving the gospel.
Peter connects baptism with forgiveness in Acts 2:38. Ananias tells Saul to get up, be baptized, and wash away his sins while calling on the Lord's name. Paul later describes baptism as participation in Christ's death and resurrection.
Who Changed the Church? strongly rejects the idea that baptism is a meritorious human work. Its argument is that baptism is an act of faith in God's work and belongs to the response God himself commanded.
Ananias tells Saul to rise, be baptized, and wash away his sins while calling on the Lord's name.
Paul describes baptism as burial with Christ through faith in the working of God.
Forgiveness and the Spirit
Peter promises forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit to those who repent and are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.
Who Changed the Church? distinguishes the indwelling Spirit promised to believers from the miraculous gifts associated with apostles and the laying on of apostolic hands.
That distinction allows the book to affirm the Spirit's continuing indwelling presence while arguing that foundational miraculous gifts served a temporary role.
Peter connects repentance and baptism with forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Added to the Community
Acts does not describe converts as isolated believers who later decide whether church involvement is useful.
Those who receive the word are baptized and then devote themselves to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers.
The gospel therefore creates both a relationship with Christ and participation in the life of his people.
Those who received Peter's message were baptized and devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers.
Continue as a Disciple
The New Testament repeatedly calls believers to remain faithful, grow, endure, and continue walking in Christ.
Who Changed the Church? includes ongoing faithfulness in the apostolic gospel response rather than treating conversion as a disconnected one-time formula.
The same message that calls people into Christ also calls them to live under Christ's teaching.
Why It Matters
The New Testament pattern is remarkably consistent: hear the gospel, believe in Jesus, repent, confess him, be baptized into Christ, receive forgiveness and the Holy Spirit, and continue as a disciple. These are not competing ways of salvation but different dimensions of one obedient response to grace. Who Changed the Church? argues that removing parts of that response in the name of simplifying the gospel does not preserve the apostolic message—it edits it.