I wanna say that I explained my view of Cornelius and his soldiers earlier in this thread, but I'll try to summarize: I believe that God gave Cornelius and his men the Holy Ghost before their baptism just basically to show Peter ( who had an issue with the whole Jew-Gentile thing anyway ) that the Gentiles were also being included in his invitation to salvation. Peter questioned Cornelius and his men receiving the Holy Ghost before being baptized in water for a reason, in my opinion.
Acts 10:44 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
Acts 10:45 And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Acts 10:46 For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter,
Acts 10:47 Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
Acts 10:48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
It seems pretty obvious to me that Peter, and I can only assume all the others that were at Pentecost, believed that the Holy Ghost was supposed to come after the baptism. Acts 11:1-18 helps to further explain what I am talking about. I believe Peter reiterates the story again later too. It is the only time in scripture where you can find people that received the Holy Ghost before they were baptized in water. Paul runs into some people that said that they knew John's baptism and Paul still baptized them before he laid hands on them for them to receive the Holy Ghost. To me, this is very similar to the argument that the thief on the cross didn't receive the water baptism before being allowed into Heaven, and he is the only person that you can find anywhere in scripture that you could lay some doubt on about the baptism including much of the Old Testament people, apparently. If some of you do not want to be baptized or don't believe in it then you definitely should not do it, I don't mind, do what you will. I'm just showing what I see in scripture.
Yes, Cornelius and his men were chosen by God and received the Holy Ghost while they were listening to Peter talk--notice it doesn't even mention anything about them believing what they were hearing or anything either.
I still want to see scripture and/or explanation to why so many people say that baptism is just an outward demonstration etc.