Page 93 - SoulWinning Crash Course

What occurred at those odd times in Acts was NOT "baptismal
regeneration." It was "delayed regeneration."

The water-baptism in Acts 2:38 was just a means of expressing faith, as
"calling upon the name of the Lord" is today. (Romans 10:13) If Jesus
meant what He said in John 20:23, then the method of acknowledging
acceptance of Christ was up to the apostles. They didn't have to ask for
water-baptism. In Acts 2:38, Peter could have said "Repent, and squeeze my
hand in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" and it probably would've worked. Water-
baptism was just a good and logical choice at the time because of its

symbolism and its historically approved use by John the Baptist and Jesus
Himself.

Notice the word "NOW" in Romans 8:9 "...Now if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." The word "Now" implies that before
Romans was written, Jesus in some sense claimed a "convert" as His before
the convert was actually "converted" (i.e. regenerated by the Holy Spirit).

Long before Jesus died, after Martha's sister Mary wiped Jesus' feet with her
tears, Jesus forgave her sins and preemptively declared her "saved." (Luke
7:48-50 "And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven... Thy faith hath
saved thee; go in peace.") Jesus could do that because He knew that Mary
would live long enough to receive His blood atonement and be baptized with
the Holy Ghost.

In light of that, in Acts 2:38, water-baptism was indicative of salvation, NOT

causative. Water-baptism marked the TIME of getting the Holy Spirit,
not the CAUSE of getting the Holy Spirit. Their faith was the cause. For all
intents and purposes, they were "saved" the moment they believed.

So rather than "baptismal regeneration," Acts 2:38 was "baptismal
declaration." Acts 2:38 had "delayed regeneration" via "baptismal
declaration."

Today, we get immediate regeneration and then we're supposed to make a
hindsight baptismal declaration of it, as in Acts 10.