I am saying:Originally posted by Carson Weber:
Hi DHK,
Are you saying that "baptism" in 1 Peter 3:21 is not referring to water baptism?
If so, then you need to explain what Peter means when he says in v. 21, "not as a removal of dirt from the body", which shows that Peter is explicitly referring to Christian water baptism.
"baptism ... now saves you" (1 Peter 3:21)
Christian water baptism saves you, DHK.
Do you deny this?
Do you deny what the Bible teaches?
1. That the Bible never teaches that water saves, not with baptism or in any other way; never.
2. That the word "baptism" simply means "immersion," and when translated that way, 1Pet.3:21 becomes subject to two or three interpretations. But one interpretation not consistent with the rest of Scripture, and therefore wrong, is that water baptism saves. That is not what the passage teaches.
In verse 20 water was a destroying agent. It destroyed everything around. And it destroyed physically, not spiritually.
Peter is making a comparison between the flood and baptism. This doesn't mean that one is just like the other it simply means that there are similarities in what they accomplish. It can be put this way. As the flood separated Noah and his family from the wicked world of their day, so baptism separates believers from the evil world of our day. Baptism, then, is the counterpart of the flood. It is symbolic only, just as it is in Rom. 6:1-4. It is symbolic of our death to our old life, and our rising again to our new life in Christ. It provides the picture of salvation for the believer where he makes that break from his old life of sin, and rises anew with a new life in Jesus Christ. In 1Pet.3:20,21, both Noah and the New Testament believer are safe when they are in the Ark. There is no baptism that is efficacious. Baptism is always symbolic.
DHK