we are saved by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit. we are baptized into Christ and into His death, in which we receive eternal life and reconciliation with the Father by His sacrificial death on the cross and His shed blood.
again, i ask, where does the Bible say baptism is symbolic?
every verse i read, says baptism is doing something very important.
Baptism is very important. No one is denying that.
Baptism in the Spirit is what makes us part of the body of Christ. It is what seals us to salvation. Without it, we are not Christians.
Baptism with water is not identical, as Cornelius proves. But water baptism DOES have value, for sanctification (separation from the sinful world) - as Peter taught.
But ONE BAPTISM refers to the one baptism that makes us Christian. The Baptism done by Jesus Christ. In the Holy Spirit.
I believe a new believer ought to be baptized right away, as was the custom in New Testament times. The only excuse for delaying is that unlike New Testament times, baptism isn’t known and understood by non-believers.
Jews and heathen alike had been baptizing converts upon their conversion in New Testament times, so the symbolism was well understood - and I say symbolism because no Jew and very few heathen would have thought that sprinkling with water had power apart for the working of God and the prior repentance of the one being baptized.
“Mikveh the Forerunner of Baptism
Along with the purposes already mentioned in the Torah, another use of symbolic purification by water became part of early Jewish tradition. This was immersion or baptism for Gentile converts to Judaism. Though the only Biblical requirement for entrance into the covenant was circumcision, baptism became an added requisite. No one knows exactly when or by whom the requirements were changed to include baptism, but it was before the time of Jesus. We know this, because debates on the subject of proselyte baptism are recorded between rabbinic schools of Shammai and Hillel, both contemporaries of Jesus. Whereas the school of Shammai stressed circumcision as the point of transition, the Hillelites considered baptism most important because it portrayed spiritual cleansing and the beginning of a new life. Ultimately the Hillelite view prevailed, as is reflected in the Talmudic writings. Maimonides, that greatly revered 12th century Jewish scholar, summed up all Talmudic tradition concerning converts to Judaism as follows.
“By three things did Israel enter into the Covenant: by circumcision, and baptism and sacrifice. Circumcision was in Egypt, as it is written: ‘No uncircumcised person shall eat thereof’ (Exodus 12:48). Baptism was in the wilderness, just before giving of the Law, as it is written: ‘Sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes’ (Exodus 19:10). And sacrifice, as it is said: ‘And he sent young men of the children of Israel which offered burnt offerings’ (Exodus 24:5)…When a gentile is willing to enter the covenant…He must be circumcised and be baptized and bring a sacrifice…And at this time when there is no sacrifice, they must be circumcised and be baptized; and when the Temple shall be built, they are to bring a sacrifice…The gentile that is made a proselyte and the slave that is made free, behold he is like a child new born.”
To this day, Gentiles who would embrace Judaism must undergo baptism in a mikveh ritual. The purpose of this ceremonial immersion is to portray spiritual cleansing, as Maimonides concluded in his codification of the laws of mikveh:
“…uncleanness is not mud or filth which water can remove, but it is a matter of scriptural decree and dependent on the intention of the heart.”
http://www.jewsforjesus.org/publications/issues/2_10/baptism