Before his death? Fair enough.
But these guys?
In Acts 10:44-48, Cornelius and those with him were converted through Peter's message. That they were saved before being baptized is evident from their reception of the Holy Spirit (v. 44) and the gifts of the Spirit (v. 46) before their baptism. Indeed, it is the fact that they had received the Holy Spirit (and hence were saved) that led Peter to baptize them.
Peter asked why anyone should stand in the way of water baptism since it was clear that they had already received the Holy Spirit.
Strange way to treat a a ritual you say is needed to receive the Holy Ghost and salvation.
Acts 11:11
"Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost."
Romans 10:9-11
That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
The Bible does not teach any work, commandment or ordinance is required for salvation.
When speaking of "these guys" the Bible is using them as a descriptive event not as a prescriptive event, an important difference.
You are attempting to use the
description of the household of Cornelius as a way to
simply ignore the clearly
prescriptive text of Acts 2:38.
Let me give you an example of another descriptive salvation event in the New Testament:
And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:
“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,so he opens not his mouth. In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.”
And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The man said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing.
Both Acts 8 and Acts 10 are
describing to one degree or another individual salvation events. One seems to imply salvation after baptism (chapter 8) and the other implies salvation before baptism (chapter 10). Regardless of which one we may think is correct, neither can be used to ignore the very clear words of chapter 2.
Peter is not describing an event, he is
prescribing the means of salvation.
There is no promise to us in chapter 10, our promise is in chapter 2.
"This
promise is to
you and
your children. It is to
all people everywhere. It is to as many as the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:39)
If it helps, google "prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar".