Yeshua, you mix up too many different points to answer your questions. The Bible teaches Baptism is necessary for Salvation. That is a 2,000 year old fact. You can deny it, but that doesn't make your point true. As for you last claim against Catholicism, we preserved the Canon of Scripture thru 2,000 years. You wouldn't have a Bible if it weren't for the Church. All that we do is supported by Scripture, yet when this is patiently shown to others, they simply deny that the Word of God is valid at that point and begin to "interpret" into those Words, things that aren't there. God bless. Ginnyfree.
Ginny, most commonly the argument will be 'What about the thief on the cross?'. The following was taken from a paper given to me in an RCIA class and I'm not sure who produced it, but I think it gives a good answer to what I suspect is coming next.
The thief was saved. We readily agree with such, for the text plainly teaches such.
But the circumstances surrounding the salvation of the thief are far from those anyone today will experience. The thief was in the physical presence of Jesus Himself. But the apostle Paul stated clearly that “last of all He was seen of me” (1 Corinthians 15:8). Thus, no one today can expect to see Christ until all men stand before Him in judgment (2 Corinthians 5:10). Jesus Himself stated that “the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins” (Matthew 9:6). It is clear though that after His ascension to heaven to the right hand of the Father that matters were different. Christ confronted the sinful Saul in the road to Damascus. When Saul, stricken with the grief of his sin, cried out,
“Lord, what wilt thou have me do?” he was not told he was saved, as was the thief. Rather he was told to
“go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do” (Acts 9:6). And by the way, Saul (Paul) himself tells us that he was told to
“arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins” (Acts 22:16).] Thus we see that yes, the thief was saved, but not in a manner in which we today can expect to occur. Things are different now. All one proves by looking to the thief on the cross is that Jesus, while on this earth, chose to save the penitent man in accordance with the will of God the Father.