**You can argue with Peter and Paul all you want, but it is not water that gives us life:**
I never said one time that water gives life. Water baptism in the name of Jesus is burial with him, We are to rise from that burial, by the ‘glory of the Father’ (the Holy Ghost.
Sir, you certainly use a LOT of private interpretation.
The flood washed away a type of sin; the evil in the world. And the flood BURIED it.
**Water baptism saves you out of the wicked world we live in and show we are a people set apart. It follows new life, but does not give it.**
FOLLOWS new life? So you’re saying that, symbolically, the Israelites had new life without crossing the Red Sea, but passed through the sea to be a people set apart.
The Red Sea ‘washed away’ a type of sin (the life in Egypt), burying it in a watery grave. The children of Israel passed through it, else they would have perished at the hands of the Egyptians. They arose from that ‘passing through the sea’ experience to life in the Spirit (the cloud that went before them).
**There is a reason why the baptism in the Holy Spirit is so important:**
You’re preaching to the choir. I believe in the Holy Ghost infilling making us one spiritually with Christ, and giving us power to overcome the world, AND having the power of the resurrection by that Spirit.
I’ve never said that water baptism is life. It is being buried with Christ.
Whether you realize it or not, you seem to interpret Acts 2:38 this way:
“Repent, and be baptized every one of you with the Holy Ghost in the name of Jesus Christ and ye shall receive remission of sins”.
That’s not what it says in my Bible. The obedience of repentance, and being baptized in the name of Jesus (buried with him) brings remission of sins (that’s when His blood is applied to you individually, bringing remission of sins). Believe it!
“FOLLOWS new life? So you’re saying that, symbolically, the Israelites had new life without crossing the Red Sea, but passed through the sea to be a people set apart.”
Yes - God had already claimed them as His own, and had already decided to bring them out of Egypt. They were already saved by God, and already His Chosen People. They were not accepted by God based on crossing the Red Sea, but crossed the Red Sea because God had already accepted them!
“Whether you realize it or not, you seem to interpret Acts 2:38 this way:
“Repent, and be baptized every one of you with the Holy Ghost in the name of Jesus Christ and ye shall receive remission of sins”.”
Peter was not teaching a systematic theology class, thank God! What he said, after the people repented, is summarized in three sentences:
“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.”
The emphasis was on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit - after all, that is what drew the men to listen to Peter to begin with! Acts Chapter 2 is about what happened when the Apostles received the Holy Spirit!
Peter undoubtedly also insisted on water baptism for the new converts, all of whom were Jews who fully understood the concept - unlike today, when almost no one in the unsaved populace knows what it is or why it might be done.
Peter did not need to explain to the listening Jews what water baptism meant because they already knew. It was already long accepted by the Jews as a symbol of the inner change that had already taken place - after all, no adult is baptized against his will. No Jew believed the water gave life, or that it was anything other than an outward symbol of the inner reality.
As for “the remission of sins”, the Greek can by interpreted two valid ways - baptized to gain forgiveness, or baptized in recognition of forgiveness. Given that the audience was Jewish, and that they ALL understood before Peter said a word that water baptism RECOGNIZED the change, it is pretty simple to know how they interpreted Peter, and indeed what Peter meant.
To be made part of the body of Christ requires baptism of the Holy Spirit - the Baptism that Jesus does. That is directly and explicitly taught: “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”