Good point. They thereby make baptism nothing more than an
empty ritual. Furthermore, St. Peter wrote...
"... because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited
in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him." (1 Peter 3:20-22)
The Apostle refers to baptism as
the antitype of the flood. This is an important point the Apostle makes because in Christianity, the reality of something always surpasses the type / figure of it. If baptism is merely an empty ritual as the poster is are arguing,
then it would be the very first time in all of Scripture where the type / figure of something would have surpassed the reality of it.