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Hello there
So many have taken part in this thread, with so many differing views, thank you all for your input.
* The following is a summary of what Scripture records on the subject:-
- Baptism with water and baptism with the gifts from the Holy Spirit, and the spiritual baptism of baptism unto Christ and unto His death are a means of identification. The context of each always explains with whom one is identifie
You mention 3 baptisms above, but there is just "one baptism" (Ephesians 4:5) that is now in effect. This one baptism would be the baptism found in Christ's great commission (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:47). This one baptism of the great commission:
--is commanded,
--is administered by disciples (humans) as Phillip water baptized the eunuch
--contains a death burial and resurrection ie, the gospel that must be obeyed (2 Thessalonians 1:8).
saves,
--is how disciples are made
-- it it to be perpetually taught as Paul taught it
--lasts till the end of the world.
All these fit water baptism and not any kind of spirit baptism.
charity said:
- Paul, unlike Peter, did not come to baptize with water, although he had baptized a few. When Paul wrote of baptism in I Cor. 10:1-4, in Rom. 6:3-4, in Gal. 3:27, in Eph. 4:4-5 and in Col. 2:11-13 he was not writing of a ceremonial water baptism, he was writing of a spiritual experience that identified one with God. Peter also wrote of a spiritual baptism unto Christ and His death in I Peter 3:20-21.
- Paul’s message of baptism was no different in the post-Acts period than it was in the Acts period. That is to say the epistles written during the Acts period speak of the baptism unto Christ and unto His death, which are the same baptisms Paul wrote of in his epistles written to the church which is His body in (Eph, Phil, Col, 1 & 2 Tim, Titus and Philemon).
(1)
There is "one faith" (Ephesians 4:5) meaning there is just one gospel system of faith therefore Peter and Paul taught that same "one faith".
I have had people ask me "what faith are you" with that question implying there are many different faithS yet there has never been but one faith. The Bible does not teach the idea that there is a buffet of many different faiths and people choose from that buffet whatever faith fits their personal liking. Such an idea comes from man and man's invention of denominationalism.
(2)
Galatians 1:23 "
But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed."
"The faith" refers to that one faith found within the pages of the NT which Christ's calls "truth" (John 17:17) and truth
never contradicts itself. Hence Peter and Paul taught the one truth, their inspiration does not contradict each other.
Back when Paul (Saul) was a unbeliever he went about destroying the faith he once destroyed. Saul went about destroying the faith as taught by the original 12 Apostles (including Peter) but Paul "now preacheth" (present tense) that faith. Saul went about to destroy the faith of the congregation of the church located in Jerusalem that included Acts of the Apostles 2:38. Paul as a believer now preaches that faith that includes water baptism of the great commission for Paul:
-- obeyed the great commission command of Acts 2:38 himself (Acts of the Apostles 22:16) and had his sins remitted, washed away,
--Paul water baptized others (1 Corinthians 1:14-16) hence Paul could not be sent to literally not baptize for he DID baptize others because he, as other disciples, was under Christ's great commission command to go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,.
--Paul taught the necessity of the "one" water baptism to others 1 Corinthians 1:12-13; Romans 6:3-7; Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5; Colossians 2:11-12.