Note 5 at Acts 11:18: The account of Cornelius' water baptism is noticeably missing from Peter's arguments. If water baptism was necessary for forgiveness of sins, as some teach, it wouldn't have mattered if an angel spoke to Cornelius or if they had received the Holy Ghost, or whatever else happened, if they didn't receive water baptism. Peter's omittance of their water baptism illustrates that the early church did not believe that water baptism was essential for salvation (see note 9 at Mk. 16:16, p. 564; note 2 at Acts 2:38, p. 582).