Why were people in Acts 8 baptized if baptism is not part of salvation?
They were baptized because the Acts 8 setting still belonged to the Jewish message, where baptism was tied to the message being preached. That revelation had not yet been given. Today, however, baptism has no part in salvation; salvation rests on Christ's finished work plus nothing.
Les explains that in the Acts 8 setting, the message was still the Jewish message, and baptism was tied to it; he would be the last to say it could be separated back there. At that time, the revelation had not yet been revealed. So when Jesus Christ was preached, men and women were baptized, and even Simon, after believing and evidently repenting, was baptized and continued with Philip. But today, Les maintains that baptism has no part in salvation; it must never be made part of salvation, because salvation is the finished work of the cross plus nothing. To add baptism is to imply that God did not quite finish it and that we must add our own contribution.