“This food we call the Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake except one who believes that the things we teach are true, and has received the washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth, and who lives as Christ handed down to us
wanted you to especially note what he says about the “washing for forgiveness of sins and for rebirth”
many people who knew St John were still alive when he wrote that, puts the whole baptism is just a first act of obedience heresy in it’s proper light.
And? Of course we must be baptized to be saved. Just not the baptism you seem to be hung up on. There is the baptism of the Holy Spirit (born of the Spirit) that occurs when a person puts their trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior. That is when they become born again. The act of water baptism after they make this decision is in obedience to Christ to make an outward confession of faith to others and to indicate a commitment to walking in newness of life - just like it was done in the very beginning. Pigeonholing is not a smart practice and shows a lack of thinking about what we say before we say it and also to not just spout off what someone else says without being able to defend it yourself.