Baptized

Must you be baptized in order to be saved? A highly debated topic. The answer in short is yes and no! Let me explain before you say you're contradicting yourself. I give two answers because we live in two worlds. One being physical and the other being spiritual. We are told not to be ignorant of the two worlds in which we live. So yes, we must be baptized spiritually with water which is a symbol of the Holy Word. We are to be washed clean by the water of the Word. Along with being washed by the water of the Word we are baptized by the Holy Spirit and fire. This means we are reborn again spiritually and become a new creation in Christ and no longer follow our own desires. We now put our trust in the Lord, not in man, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us in all of our ways. We trust, follow, obey, and apply His Holy Word into our lives. The Holy Spirit convicts you and that conviction feels like a fire burning inside you. I do not believe this is any coincidence. Sin separates you from the Lord and leads you to hell where you will be burned for your sins. Also, I find it enlightening that as long as you continue following the Holy Spirit then you will always have a burning inside you, due to conviction, which as a result sets you apart from this world causing you to be a light in it. Now if you stop following the Holy Spirit and continue to do so, you will quench the spirit, putting out the fire, and no longer be a light, causing you to have a seared conscience toward Holiness which then causes you to no longer be able to feel the burn anymore. So I ask would you rather feel a little burn now in a life that is temporal or burn much worse for eternity? Now moving on to a physical baptism. It is a good thing to do for we are not to be ashamed of the Lord or deny Him before men. If we deny Him before men then He will deny us before the Father. But can one who hasn't given his heart to the Lord put on a public display and try and make himself look holy? Absolutely he can. Anyone can go and physically be dunked under water. That is not what saves someone. Don't be ignorant concerning this. We can not save ourselves. We are not saved by works of our own hands. Physical baptism is a public display of what we've already chosen to do in our heart or spiritually. The picture of us going under water is the representation of us dying to our old selves and going into our graves. Then the picture of us coming up out of the water resembles our rebirth and becoming a new creation in Christ. The physical display is a public confession of our new found faith. But understand confession is not repentance. One can confess their sins but not repent of them. Same with physical baptism. You can confess that you're a new creation but not actually live it. Don't be fooled by wolves in sheep's clothing. Also if you're debating with a brother in Christ make sure you're both on the same page of which world you're speaking about so that you don't create division in the body of Christ because of miscommunication and misunderstanding. If one says yes and the other says no, both may be right depending on which world you speak of.