You are right in saying no power in the water itself, but in the symbol "all" power to enter the saving name! Whether by declaration of faith on a cross! or Jesus himself to fulfil all righteousness for even Jesus was redeemed through the name which was given him!
Take the highest ground and that way many will climb to attain the wonderful view.
Alethos
The highest ground will always be Christ, and Christ only. You say that many will climb to your lofty view, but by teaching others that Salvation is only gained if one is Baptised, that Christ's work was in itself not enough, you are only deceiving them, not giving them a lofty view. You may say "since baptism is a good thing to do, then no harm will come", but once the door is open to thinking that Jesus is not sufficient, then all sorts of heresy will sneak in, which is harmful to people's souls.
The Peter verse is so important....I'm gonna go over it again..
Baptism doesn't save you, but we demonstrate faith in it.
Baptism is 2 things, historical fact, accompanied by personal faith. The historical fact is that Jesus is God, he lived without sin, died for my sin, He was buried and He rose for my salvation. Baptism is the personal faith, publically demonstrated in historical fact.
When someone gets up and gives their testimony they say "Here's who Jesus is, and here's what He's done for me. He died (under the water) and rose (out of water) for me. My old life is buried for Him (under the water) and my new life is lived for Him (out of water).
You're not saved through Baptism (Baptismal regeneration) you're saved through Christ and Baptism is a means of demonstrating faith in Christ. It's not the getting wet that saves you, it's your faith in Christ that unites you with God.
Peter (1 Peter 3:18-22) says it this way: "not as removal of dirt from the body" -it's not getting wet that makes you saved...makes you a Christian. If so, then Baptism is nothing more than superstitious. This is why some people are so determined to Baptise their babies, even though there's no evidence of it happening anywhere in the Bible. The thought is, if you get the baby wet and if they die, they'll go to heaven. That's superstition, magic and paganism. Christians don't (or shouldn't) believe that.
We believe that once you have a personal faith in Jesus, you demonstrate that by publicly being Baptised and proclaiming that Jesus is the object of your faith and Jesus is the source of your salvation. and that as He rose, you will rise and that as He died, He died for you.
So Peter says it's not the getting wet part that matters so much, although it's important...that's why we still do it. But what matters is an appeal to God for a good conscience. "God, my conscience is clear, I've repented of my sin and I appeal to you for Salvation through Jesus Christ, through the resurrection of Jesus. You should have a clear conscience if you have appealed to God for the forgiveness of your sins through the resurrection of Jesus, that's how you know you're saved and Baptism is a public evidence of this.
To require the cross plus Baptism would mean that Jesus' words "it is finished" were not enough. Jesus would have had to say "I'm atoning for all your sin, and now if you get wet, it'll be finished. That's not what He said.
You say "oh, of course the actual water doesn't mean anything...of course it has no power", but you are, in effect, giving power to it. If the water has no actual 'power', what's the reason that you insist it has to be water Baptism, that it, the act itself that gives us salvation? And if indeed water Baptism will give one salvation, then why was Jesus even necessary? John was Baptising hundreds of people before Jesus died for us.... As I said before, that's superstition and magic...that a thing, this action will give me this... Even something good, something that God has told us to do, can become something unholy if it's given the saving power only Jesus has. Jesus told us the greatest thing, the most important thing for Christians to do is love. In the name of that today we see gay clergy and pastors. They say that they are saved, that they are loving, so they are ok. Mankind is fallen, and we will somehow always find a way to "add on" to what Christ did for us, so that we may partake in our own salvation. Please don't fall victim to that. Christ saves, only Christ.