Michael Wrenn
New Member
No! That is obedience to scriptures!
You fail to understand both the concept and purpose of a symbol. The concept of a symbol is an established PATTERN/FORM/SHADOW whose sole purpose is to visibly convey a certain truth. If the administration veers from the established pattern the intended truth is PERVERTED and denied visible manifestation.
Water baptism is by design to publicly identify the believer with the truth of the gospel or the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We are explicitly said to be "buried" by baptism and any other mode PERVERTS that truth and thus perverts the gospel of Jesus Christ. In addition, any other mode (sprinkling, pouring) repudiates the Holy Spirits choice of "baptizo" and arbritrarily makes it synonymous with epicheo and rantizo which are NEVER used for the Christian ordinance.
On the contrary, I perfectly understand both the purpose and concept of a symbol. But I refuse to make such a symbol into a legalistic requirement for which an exception never dare be made under any circumstances.