If you guys have skipped Acts 2:38, you have skipped Acts. I can guarantee that very few of you guys have actually been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins.
Everybody, I’m talking to has told me they believed their way right past it.
By your reasoning, I could tell you the same thing. If you skipped Acts 4:12, Acts 11:14, Acts 15:11, and Acts 16:31, you have skipped Acts. But you have just revealed to us again your obsession with Acts 2:38. In your twisted opinion, Acts 2:38 is on some kind of high pedestal, far above and far more important than the rest of Acts, which is not the case.
Nobody here who disagrees with you, has some kind of bias against Acts 2:38. What we are against is your misinterpretation of the verse.
In the days of John the Baptist, people would confess and repent of their sins, then John would baptize them in the Jordan river. Later when Jesus began to make many disciples, we read that He had His twelve apostles baptize all the new believers. John 4:1 But this baptism was different than John's. Instead of only confessing and repenting of their sins, in addition Jesus told them to also believe in the gospel, which is the life and teachings of Jesus Himself. "Repent and believe in the gospel." Mark 1:15 Then, after they did that, Jesus directed His apostles to baptize them.
Later, after Jesus had returned to heaven, the early church obeyed Jesus, and as soon as people repented and believed in Jesus, they were baptized. Matthew 28:19; Acts 2:38,41; Acts 8:12,13,16,36; Acts 9:18; Acts 10:47,48; Acts 16:14-15; Acts 16:33; Acts 18:8; Acts 19:5; Acts 22:16.
So after repentance and faith in Jesus, they immediately baptized them in water. In the Bible, they didn't wait days or months or years to baptize new disciples in water. So when a person got saved, it was a "package deal", i.e. water baptism always followed their repentance and faith.
Technically, we should do the same today. As soon as a person is repentant and trusts in Jesus, they should be baptized immediately, if possible. But, for whatever reason, they don't often do that today, which is too bad, but that's the way it is. It may be due to lack of good teaching, no one stepping up to baptize them, lack of water to immerse them, bad weather, etc. So some don't get baptized until days, weeks, or months have passed by. Unfortunately, some just forget about it altogether, which is too bad, because I believe a true, growing Christian will want to be baptized, once he realizes that he should.
So for those early days of the church, it is easy to see how untaught people might easily think that water baptism means that the person got saved, which would be true, but they weren't saved because of the baptism, they were baptized because they were saved. Even today, when we see hundreds or more getting baptized in the ocean, we only see the physical baptism, we don't the person being born again which happened before that.
So when Peter says: "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.", he is not rewriting history, i.e. he is not changing the way they did it when they followed Jesus. How did they do it then? First, they confessed and repented of their sins, second, they put their faith in Jesus and their sins were forgiven and the Holy Spirit entered them (I should say He came to be with them - after Jesus rose from the dead, the Holy Spirit came into them), and third, they were baptized in water.
Peter is looking at the whole package: Repentance, faith, forgiveness, the Holy Spirit, and then baptism. He's not saying that baptism is the event that brings you forgiveness and the Holy Spirit - even though it may appear that way. How do we know this? Because that's not what the rest of scripture teaches, including other verses in Acts itself. I gave you a long list of other verses in #842, including some in Acts, where the requirements for salvation are clear, and water baptism is not one of them.
