There are many passages that do link belief (faith) and salvation. None of these have been denied. We would affirm that in fact 'without faith it is impossible to please God' (Hebrews 11:6) and the "unless you believe that I am he, ye shall die in your sins" (John 8:24) and that "he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark 16:16b).

We would only point out that such passages do not teach us about the relationship of baptism to salvation - or the relationship of confession to salvation - or the relationship of repentance to salvation. If baptism is EXCLUDED by these passages because it isn't taught therein, then it would logically follow that repentance and confession would ALSO be excluded by the same reasoning.

While such passages do in deed teach us the absolute importance of faith in order to be saved, they don't teach us EVERYTHING about being saved, and they in fact teach us NOTHING about the relationship of repentance (or confession or baptism) and salvation. To learn about the relationship of BAPTISM and SALVATION we need to study the passages that speak of both BAPTISM and SALVATION.

The Bible in fact DOES speak about FAITH ONLY - James 2:24, where it states that faith only is dead, being alone. It is faith that worketh by love that avails (Galatians 5:6) It is the obedient faith that the apostles tried to establish in the hearts of people (Romans 1:5).

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