Randy Kluth
Well-Known Member
OT baptism
Isaiah 52:15 So shall he sprinkle many nations;
Ez 36:25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put withi n you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
This doesn't appear to be OT Baptism. The only OT Baptism I know of was the Baptism of John the Baptist, and any baptisms performed by Jesus' Disciples. Apparently, it was a non-legal ceremony that constituted a public confession of repentance, which is clearly OT practice. The Baptism part was therefore incidental to the repentance itself.
The important matter was the confession, the forgiveness from God, and the repentant lifestyle. The ceremony was just incidental, as I said, and in the NT became a kind of initiation ceremony into the Christian faith--a public confession of Christian conversion, as well as repentance for a previous pagan lifestyle.
New Testament
Matt 28:19
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
( Disciples by baptism not faith alone)
Baptism was not considered, by Paul, to be necessary with the Gospel, and as such, not necessary for Salvation.
1 Cor 1.17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel.
Baptism was, however, an indication that one had become a Disciple.