YOU MAY HEAR: “Arise, and Be Baptized, and Wash Away Thy Sins”
Bible check: Grant the tight baptism/washing/calling association. Then ask whether the verse actually names H2O as the efficient cleanser and compare Acts’ explicit faith/remission statements.
A recent Church of Christ defense argues that “calling” is an adverbial participle of manner and that baptism and washing are the way Saul calls on the Lord. That is stronger than pretending “calling on the name” is unrelated to the baptismal commands.
YOU MAY HEAR: “A recent Church of Christ defense argues that “calling” is an adverbial participle of manner and that baptism and washing are the way Saul cal…”
Bible check: Do not let a claim of institutional identity settle the exegesis. Test the saving condition from the biblical text before accepting the group’s boundary claim.
Then let Luke interpret Luke.
In Acts 9 Saul has already encountered the risen Christ, obeyed His direction, prayed, and was addressed by Ananias before the baptismal command. None of those details alone should be made to carry justification. The stronger control is the New Testament's own use of calling on the Lord and faith in Christ.
Romans 10:13-14 asks how men can call on Him in whom they have not believed. Calling rests on believing; baptism publicly belongs with that appeal.
Scholar check — participles and middle voice
CLEARLY STATED: epikalesamenos (“calling upon”) is an aorist middle participle; baptisai and apolousai are aorist middle imperatives. The participle can describe attendant circumstance or manner in relation to the commands.
NOT PROVED BY THE TEXT: that morphology alone means “water baptism constitutes calling on the Lord” or identifies water as the efficient cleanser. Those are interpretive conclusions, not lexical definitions.
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WHAT WOULD HAVE TO BE TRUE
The argument must prove that water is the efficient cleanser in Acts 22:16 and/or that Luke narrates a post-water saving indwelling event in Acts 9. Neither may be inserted into the chronology.
START WITH THE BIBLE TEXT
Key control passages: Acts 22:16, Acts 9:3-5, Acts 9:6, Acts 9:11, Acts 9:13-14, Acts 9:15, Acts 9:20-21, Acts 9:17
The governing teaching for this objection is Acts 9 and Acts 22 — Paul’s Conversion Testimony from Christ to Baptism. Read the actual biblical foundation before letting the objection redefine the terms.
Paul Met Christ Before the Water
Acts 9 records the actual encounter on the Damascus road. Paul, still called Saul at that time, was stopped by the risen Lord Jesus Himself.
And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. (Acts 9:3-5)
Paul was not meeting a mere prophet. He was confronted by the risen Christ. His whole understanding changed in that moment. The persecutor was brought face to face with the truth about Jesus Christ.
And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? (Acts 9:6)
His first word on the road was a question. Who art thou, Lord. He did not yet know who had stopped him.
Then the voice answered, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. And Saul said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do. That answer was surrender.
That is not the response of a man still fighting Christ in hardened unbelief. Paul recognized Jesus as Lord before he ever reached water. He had already met the risen Christ.
He had already stopped fighting the truth. He had already answered the Lord Jesus Himself. Then the Lord told him to go into the city, where he would be told what to do.
Behold, He Prayeth
For three days Paul was blind. He neither ate nor drank. Then God told Ananias:
Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth. (Acts 9:11)
That statement cannot be ignored. Behold, he prayeth. This was before water baptism.
Prayer alone does not save a man. A lost man can pray. But Saul was not a stranger reaching in the dark.
He had already met the risen Lord on the road. He prayed as a man already taken by Christ. He had been struck down by the risen Lord, humbled, blinded, fasting, waiting, and praying.
It reads like a man already conquered by the risen Christ, waiting for further instruction.
Ananias Was Afraid of Saul
Ananias himself was not eager to go at first. He knew Saul's reputation.
Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name. (Acts 9:13-14)
That fear was understandable. Saul was not an unknown man. He was known as a persecutor of the saints. He had authority from the chief priests to bind those who called on the name of Jesus. The believers had every human reason to fear him. Then the Lord answered:
Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me. (Acts 9:15)
That context gives Paul's baptism public force. The man who once hunted believers now had to stand openly with the very Lord he had persecuted. His baptism did not secretly create spiritual life in him.
It publicly marked his break with the old path and his identification with Jesus Christ. That explains the urgency of Ananias's words, and now why tarriest thou. Saul was not to remain in the shadows.
The persecutor had been conquered by Christ. The man who came to bind those who called on the Lord now had to call on that same Lord and stand openly with Him. That public identification fits the passage naturally.
It does not make water the thing that washed away his sins.
A Chosen Vessel and a Public Shock
The later verses confirm the public shock of Saul's change.
And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. But all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests? (Acts 9:20-21)
What stunned people was not water as a ritual act. It was the public reversal. The man who had destroyed those who called on the name of Jesus was now preaching that Jesus is the Son of God. Baptism belonged to that open identification.
It was the fitting public act for a man whose life had just been turned by the risen Christ. The saving power was still Christ Himself.
KEEP THE BIBLE’S CATEGORIES CLEAR
Baptism, washing, and calling can be tightly associated without making H2O the efficient cleanser. Likewise, filling, sight restoration, baptism, and indwelling must not be collapsed into an invented sequence.
THE STRONGEST ARGUMENT — AND WHAT IT ACTUALLY PROVES
Grant the grammar its real force: “be baptized,” “wash away thy sins,” and “calling on the name of the Lord” belong together and should not be artificially severed. Then ask what cleanses, what calling means elsewhere, and what Acts explicitly says about remission through Christ.
Bible Check: Even after granting that point, does the passage actually say that the believer lacks eternal life, remission, justification, sonship, or the Spirit until the water act occurs? If that sentence is missing, the system still has to supply the causal step rather than read it from the page.
WHAT THE TEXT DOES NOT PROVE
Acts 22:16 does not name water as the atoning agent, and Acts 9 does not narrate a second post-water event in which Saul finally receives a previously absent saving Spirit.
CONTEXT CHECK
This analysis grants the tight grammar of baptism, washing, and calling in Acts 22:16 instead of severing the clauses. It then asks whether H2O is named as the efficient cleanser and compares Acts’ explicit remission/faith statements and Romans 10’s calling language.
BOTTOM LINE
NOT PROVED BY THE TEXT AS A SAVING-CAUSATION CLAIM — the objection may contain a true observation, but the stronger conclusion must be proved from the text.
The core reading must stand even if a disputed lexical, historical, or theological support is removed. The burden remains on the stronger claim to show its saving mechanism in the inspired text.
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FOUNDATION: Acts 9 and Acts 22 — Paul’s Conversion Testimony from Christ to Baptism
Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins.
Acts 22:16 is one of the most common verses used to teach baptismal salvation. Ananias said to Paul:
And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. (Acts 22:16)
At first glance, some readers assume the verse means water baptism itself washes away sins. When Paul's conversion is read carefully in its full setting, Acts 22:16 does not establish that physical water was the efficient cause of his cleansing or the moment he first received eternal life.
Paul had already met the risen Christ before he ever entered water.
Brother Saul
POSSIBLE, BUT DISPUTED
And putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus ... hath sent me. (Acts 9:17)
Ananias addresses Saul as brother before baptism. The greeting fits the narrative of a man who has met and submitted to Christ, but the word by itself cannot prove Saul's precise spiritual status. Scripture can use brother for shared ethnicity as well as shared faith.
The argument does not need that one word to carry it. Before water appears, Saul has encountered the risen Lord, called Him Lord, obeyed His direction, prayed, and been chosen for Christ's service. The full narrative is stronger than an isolated greeting.
The Narrative Order Matters
CLEARLY STATED
And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. (Acts 9:18)
Luke's order is plain: encounter with Christ, submission, prayer, Ananias's commission, restored sight, and then baptism. Acts 9 does not explicitly mark one sentence with the label moment of justification, so the chronology should not be made to say more than Luke says.
It does establish that baptism was not Saul's first contact with Christ, first confession of His lordship, first act of submission, or first reception of divine direction. Acts 22:16 must be interpreted inside that recorded event rather than as though nothing had happened before the water.
ADDITIONAL BIBLE ARGUMENT — The Three-Day Water-Salvation Dilemma
A water-regeneration reading of Acts 22:16 must account for the man Ananias is addressing. Saul had already encountered the risen Jesus, received His direction, and was praying before Ananias ever arrived (Acts 9:5-6, Acts 9:11). The Lord had already identified Saul as a chosen vessel for His mission (Acts 9:15). Ananias then addressed him as "Brother Saul" before Luke records the baptism (Acts 9:17-18).
None of those details, taken alone, proves the exact instant of justification. Together they prevent Acts 22:16 from being treated as though Ananias were speaking to an untouched pagan who first encountered Christ in the baptistry.
Acts 22:16 must also be read as the whole sentence:
And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. (Acts 22:16)
The verse gives baptism strong cleansing imagery. It also keeps "calling on the name of the Lord" attached to the response. Scripture elsewhere ties salvation explicitly to calling on the Lord (Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13-14).
CLEARLY STATED: Acts 22:16 commands baptism and speaks of washing away sins.
CLEARLY STATED: the same sentence includes calling on the Lord's name.
CLEARLY STATED: Luke's Acts 9 narrative supplies substantial Christ-directed response before baptism.
NOT PROVED BY THE TEXT: physical water is the efficient agent that removes guilt from the soul.
The strongest answer does not weaken Acts 22:16. It keeps every word: baptism, washing, and calling. Then it asks what actually cleanses sin in the wider apostolic witness—Christ's blood and name received by faith—not H2O as an independent saving mechanism.
Wash Away Thy Sins, Calling on the Lord
STRONGLY SUPPORTED
Acts 22 is Paul's later retelling; Acts 9 narrates the event. The retelling adds Ananias's words about baptism and washing but does not cancel the prior encounter with Christ.
The question is not whether baptism carried weight. It did. Saul needed to stop waiting and identify openly with the Lord he had met. The question is whether the verse names water as the efficient cause of cleansing. It does not.
Calling on the name of the Lord is grammatically joined to the command and theologically central throughout Acts. Peter had preached that whoever calls on the Lord shall be saved and that whoever believes in Christ receives remission through His name. Baptism enacted that appeal and confession; the cleansing power remained in the Lord.
Calling on the Name of the Lord
Romans says:
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13)
Acts says:
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Acts 2:21)
Paul says it plainly in the next verse: "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?" (Romans 10:14). Calling presupposes belief.
Calling on the Lord is the believer's appeal to the Lord; it is not a synonym for the water. That matters because Acts 22:16 does not end with "wash away thy sins." It continues, "calling on the name of the Lord."
Acts 22:16 joins baptism, washing language, and calling on the Lord in one command. Romans 10 and Acts 2 attach salvation to the believing appeal to the Lord. None of those texts identifies physical water itself as the efficient cleanser.
The water did not give the name its power. The name gave the baptism its meaning.
The calling is not incidental. It belongs to the sentence and must remain in the interpretation. The Lord is the Savior, and the verse never says that water possesses cleansing power in itself.
Baptism stands with that public response, but it is not the source of the cleansing.
The KJV keeps the whole command together: “arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” Do not erase the final phrase.
The Greek contains the commands to be baptized and wash away the sins, followed by the participle epikalesamenos, “calling on” His name. The grammar does not permit the interpreter to act as though calling on the Lord is unrelated to the clause. At the same time, grammar alone does not prove that physical water is the efficient cause of forgiveness.
The safest reading uses the whole sentence, Acts 9, and Paul’s later doctrine. Saul had already encountered the risen Christ, was praying, was addressed by Ananias as “Brother Saul,” and was to rise, be baptized, and call on the Lord. The cleansing power in Paul’s theology is Christ’s blood, received through faith.
Do not make one grammatical detail carry more weight than the narrative and doctrine permit.
Paul’s Own Doctrine
Paul's own doctrine confirms that reading. Paul later spent his ministry defending justification by faith apart from works and rituals.
Galatians says:
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 2:16)
Romans says:
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. (Romans 3:28)
Philippians says:
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness. (Philippians 3:9)
Paul did not preach water baptism as the thing that gave him righteousness before God. He preached Christ. This is why 1 Corinthians 1:17 hits the argument so hard:
Christ Sent Me Not to Baptize
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. (1 Corinthians 1:17)
Use this verse carefully. The immediate context is Corinthian factionalism, and Paul is thankful that he personally baptized only a few so nobody could build a party around his name. A strong opponent can therefore say Paul is distinguishing his primary commission from an act other workers could administer. That is a fair contextual point.
But the distinction still matters. Paul can speak of preaching the gospel and administering baptism as distinguishable activities. First Corinthians 15 then states the gospel's core as Christ's death for our sins, burial, and resurrection.
This is supporting evidence—not a one-verse knockout—that baptism follows the gospel rather than becoming the atoning work or an additional piece of Christ's finished payment.
Acts 22:16 must also be handled without overclaiming:
And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. (Acts 22:16)
The baptism, washing, and calling language is intentionally close. Do not pretend Greek grammar simply severs washing from baptism, and do not make “Brother Saul” or the three days before Ananias prove the exact timestamp of justification. The verse gives baptism profound conversion, cleansing, and confession significance.
What it does not say is that H2O is the efficient cleanser or that God withholds justification until water touches the body.
“Calling on the name of the Lord” remains part of the sentence, and Acts elsewhere explains remission and cleansing: Acts 10:43 gives remission to the believer, Acts 13:39 says all who believe are justified, and Acts 15:9 says God purified Gentile hearts by faith.
Paul's pre-baptism encounter with Christ is consistent with a man already conquered by the risen Lord, but the clearest timing control is Cornelius, not Saul.
Acts 10 explicitly says the household received the Holy Ghost before water; Acts 11 identifies that event with the promised baptism with the Holy Ghost and the like gift given to believers; Acts 15 says God purified their hearts by faith.
That explicit sequence is stronger than trying to make every detail of Acts 9 carry the case.
The Blood Is the Cleansing Power
Acts 22:16 uses washing language, and water baptism naturally supplies a visible cleansing picture in the conversion scene. Let that association stand. The next question is what Scripture identifies as the actual basis of cleansing.
Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood. (Revelation 1:5)
The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)
The atoning basis is Christ's blood. Acts 22:16 does not say the chemical substance of water removes guilt, and it does not make calling on the Lord decorative. The strongest reading keeps the whole clause together: Saul is commanded to arise, receive baptism, embrace the washing imagery, and call upon the Lord whose name saves.
That does not make baptism meaningless. It makes baptism a serious, commanded conversion act bound up with allegiance to Christ. But the broader inspired explanation of forgiveness remains Christ-centered and faith-centered: remission through His name to the believer, justification to all who believe, and hearts purified by faith.
The washing image must be interpreted inside that larger apostolic doctrine rather than used to turn H2O into the efficient cause of pardon.
FULL BIBLE ANSWER — Acts 22:16: Baptism, Washing, and Calling
CLEARLY STATED
Ananias tells Paul, "arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." The KJV/TR includes the explicit phrase "the name of the Lord." The verse strongly associates baptism, washing language, and calling on the Lord. A sound answer must admit that association rather than trying to break the sentence into unrelated pieces.
Acts 9 supplies the narrative background: Saul has already encountered and confessed Jesus as Lord, is praying, receives Ananias as a divinely sent brother, and then receives sight and baptism. Acts 22 retells the same conversion from Paul's later testimony. The phrase "calling on the name of the Lord" is especially important because Acts 2:21 and Romans 10:13-14 connect salvation with calling on the Lord in faith.
STRONGLY SUPPORTED
The washing language is best understood in relation to the Lord on whom Paul calls and the gospel reality baptism visibly expresses. Water is genuinely part of the commanded response; the text does not require the conclusion that the physical element itself performs the moral cleansing.
Acts 9 records Saul meeting the risen Lord, submitting, praying, receiving Christ's commission, and then being baptized. Acts 22:16 gives baptism its full confessional weight without naming water as the power that removes guilt.
FULL NOT BY WATER STUDY — Chapter 24: Paul’s Own Testimony: Saved Before He Ever Touched the Water
BOOK FIDELITY: This is the full original chapter treatment so the illustrations, argument flow, and examples are not lost in the shorter teaching format.
Paul’s Own Testimony: Saved Before He Ever Touched the Water
V5 STRONGEST OBJECTION — Keep Baptism, Washing, and Calling Together
The strongest baptismal reply is that calling accompanies baptism while God grants cleansing in the baptismal response. That is a possible integration. The sentence still does not isolate physical water as the indispensable instrument. Acts 2:21 makes calling salvation language, and Romans 10:13-14 says genuine calling presupposes belief.