Question:

What if I already accepted Christ in my heart as my personal savior today, and my baptism is tomorrow, due to conflict schedule, and suddenly the night before my baptism I would die. Do you think I will be saved?

Answer:

I cannot answer for each individual. That is the realm of God's judgment. But I can tell you want God has said. "If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen" (I Peter 4:11).

Nowhere in your Bible will you find anyone being told "Accept Christ in your heart as your personal Savior and you will be saved." The concept can actually be traced back to the early 1900's when so-called street preachers were in a rush to claim to have saved as many people as they can. So they stripped down the actual gospel and told people they could be saved by a simple declaration. Much faster and took less time. The problem is that it isn't what God said. "I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:6-9).

What you see in the Bible are people in a rush to be baptized. "And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized" (Acts 16:33). "And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord" (Acts 22:16). Take a look at "What Saves a Person?" and a table I created of the things connected with salvation and see that it takes much more that saying you accept Jesus as your personal Savior in order to be saved.

Now, let's examine your example. If you couldn't be baptized the same day because of a scheduling conflict, what does that tell everyone? Something was more important to you than having your sins washed away. If you died that night, what are you going to tell the Lord in Judgment? Would it sound like a flimsy excuse?

Rather than trying to find excuses for not doing as the Lord plainly commanded, why don't you do everything you can to be obedient to the Lord, after all Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments" (John 14:15). Then you really could say you accepted Jesus as your Lord.