Mid-Acts water baptism

[Right Divider]

There is a problem there if the person getting baptized believes that they are being cleansed BECAUSE they are performing this religious ritual.

Agreed, and that is what most cultist groups teach.

If, on the other hand, they are performing the ritual BECAUSE they have been cleansed by the blood of Christ, (as well as buried with Christ and raised to new life) then I see no problem.

The later is what the vast majority of protestant Christians teach, by the way.

And that is a major reason why so many Christians are very confused on the issue. Since that makes no sense.

 

[Derf]

Agreed.

Agreed.

Yes, I said just that in an earlier post.

As I mentioned before, it's typically because they include doctrines from other dispensations to come to that conclusion.

If everyone actually took the ONE baptism seriously, that would at least help with unity.

It's a little ironic that you use the passage about "one baptism" to divide the body of Christ. Of course it would help with unity if everybody agreed with you, but that's only good if you are correct. And since you use the passage about "one baptism" as a wedge between those who received water baptisms of the apostles and those supposed spirit baptisms of Paul, it is exactly opposite the intent of the passage, which is trying to unify the body of Christ that includes the 12 apostles.
Ephesians 4:11-12 KJV — And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

I'm not trying to force anyone's hand. Just sticking to the ONE baptism per Paul.

Which wasn't Paul's point, since he speaks of the other apostles, who were known to have baptized by water.

The symbolism of "water baptism" is about cleansing the person of their sins.

Yes, agreed.

But a member of the body of Christ is already 100% cleansed by the blood of Christ. Do you see the problem there?

Not if Paul practiced and spoke of water baptisms favorably, as @Clete pointed out. That makes Paul guilty of the thing he spoke so vociferously against regarding Peter, that is hypocrisy.

So denying ANY use of water baptism in the church today is as much of a problem as Peter only following Jewish rules about not hanging out with Gentiles when the more law-oriented folks came to visit. And perhaps that's why Bob didn't make much ado about when asked.