“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.”
**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!**
Moses was the voice of God to the Israelites. Ex. 4:12,15.
They “were under the cloud, and passed through the sea. And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea”. 1Cor. 10:1,2
That’s when “Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still and SEE the SALVATION of the Lord, which he will SHEW to you TO DAY: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen TO DAY, ye shall see them again no more for ever.” Ex. 14:13
**Peter was not teaching a systematic theology class,**
Yes he was!!
**What he said, after the people repented, is summarized in three sentences:**
...after the people repented? The word says they were pricked in their hearts. That’s conviction, not repentance. That’s why Peter told them they had to repent.
You seem to do a lot ‘cart before the horse’ theology. And go into long interpretations of baptism, and STILL you won’t address ‘being buried with him’. That’s not Holy Ghost baptism. Because Holy Ghost baptism is not death and burial, but life eternal.
**No Jew believed the water gave life,**
That’s good, because I haven’t said it does either. Remission of sins is not Holy Ghost baptism. They are not the same thing; just like the ‘cloud’ and the ‘sea’ were not the same thing. But the Iraelites had to experience them both to ‘see the salvation of the Lord’.
Ecellent!