I presented the reason why the balance of scripture precludes Mark 16:16 referring to water baptism, because of your example of a professing believer who was water baptized, yet not saved.
I was on vacation for a week, thus this delayed replay.
I meant that Mark 16:16 is given in parallel with the other accounts of the "Great Commission" (teach all nations, baptizing them). We understand this to be water baptism (disciples baptize with water). In this parallel account, it would seem that Jesus makes the statement in Mark 16:16 just after telling the disciples to "preach the gospel to every creature [baptizing them]." Then, telling them "He that believes and is baptized will be saved" would still be referring to the water baptism that He just told them to do, hence my explanation above.
I, too, can explain Acts 2:38; 22:16; Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:27; Colossians 2:11-12; and 1 Peter 3:21, demonstrating spiritual baptism is necessary for salvation but water baptism is not.
Sure. I would agree.
For example Acts 2:28 can be understood to read, Repent [and be saved] (and let each of you be water baptized for the forgiveness of your sins) and you shall receive [just as you received forgiveness when you were saved] the gift of the Holy Spirit.
My explanation:
- The Greek word for for here--eis--does not always mean "to obtain." It can generally mean "pertaining to" or even "because of" (Mat 12:41; Luke 11:32; 5:14). Peter could be saying to be baptized "pertaining to" or "because of" the forgiveness of sins, not so that they would obtain it.
- Both repent and remission of [your] sins are in second person plural. be baptized is in third person singular. Although it is not a hard rule in Greek that the two cannot be linked, it can indicate that Peter intended repent to go with remission of [your] sins, and that "[let each of you] be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ" is a parenthetical construction as one could be deduced from 1 Peter 3:21.
- Although the baptism of John the Baptist is not the same as "Christian baptism," a parallel description could shed light on what Peter meant in Acts 2:38.
Mar 1:4 John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
John preached the baptism OF repentance for the remission of sins. It is the repentance that is for the remission of sins, and the baptism is an identification with that repentance.
- A non-dispensational understanding of Daniel's 70-weeks can influence one's understanding of Peter's message to the Jews at Pentecost. If Daniel's 70th week began at Christ's baptism where He began to "confirm the covenant with [the] many for one week," He was cut off "in the midst of the week" (causing "the sacrifices and oblations to cease"), and there remained another 3 1/2 years for the disciples to finish the "covenant" with Israel before God sent Peter to the Gentile Cornelius, Peter's language could reflect Israel-specific language that would target the priestly nation and would be understood more like John's baptism.
In Acts 22:16, where Paul is recounting the followup of his Damascus road experience, Ananias tells Paul to (1) arise, a human act, (2) and be water baptized, a human act, (3) wash away your sins, either meaning (a) symbolically as a human act, or (b) the act of God, and (4) calling on His name. Now whoever calls on the Lord shall be saved, and we cannot call on the Lord unless be believe in Him, so the verse says when Paul is saved by calling on the name of the Lord, which washes His sins away he should make known that God has spiritually baptized him into Christ and forgiven his sins, by ceremonially washing away his sins and be water baptized.
In Acts 22:16 there is only one
kai (AND) in the Greek, not two. Ananias gives Paul
two commands on each side of the
kai, each with a participle modifier. In the Greek, it looks like this:
Arising, be baptized AND wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.
or
Having arisen, be baptized AND wash away your sins, having called on the name of the Lord.
Command #1: Be baptized by getting up.
Command #2: Wash away your sins by calling on the name of the Lord.
It is the calling on the name of the Lord that results in washing away sins, not the baptism.
Romans 6:3-4 is referring to our spiritual baptism.
I would say it is referring to the spiritual reality of regeneration in which the water baptism is an identification.
Galatians 3:27 is referring to our spiritual baptism.
Like above, I would say that the baptism could be referring to water baptism as an identification of the spiritual regeneration through faith. Paul could be saying that the water baptism (which they had already had) was outward proof of the faith that they had in Christ, and that this faith was all that is needed to be "Abraham's seed" (rather than circumcision and the Law).
Colossians 2:11:12 refers to our spiritual baptism.
Similar to the above. The circumcision is not the same as the baptism. The circumcision made without hands is regeneration. Whereas the context of all three of these passages seem to mention baptism in passing, it seems that Paul may be referencing their water baptism as an identifying indicator of the faith that they have pertaining to their regeneration.
1 Peter 3:21 prefigures our salvation in the "ark" of Christ by referring to those saved in the ark of Noah, therefore baptism is symbolic, not washing dirt off flesh, but illustrating that when we are spiritually baptized into Christ, our sins are forgiven; therefore the spiritual baptism into Christ, including the circumcision done without hands, provides peace with God, with our good conscience untroubled by the fear of God's wrath, through the resurrection of Christ.
I agree with this for the most part. Peter makes reference to Jesus' physical resurrection as being "quickened by the Spirit" which is what happens to us internally when we are regenerated. Noah's family were "saved by water" in that they were in the ark, and the one's literally immersed in the water were actually the unsaved. Just like the water can be referenced as a synecdoche of the salvation Noah had from God in the ark, so the water baptism we do in our "answer" or "pledge" of a good conscience before God symbolizes the "putting away of the filth of the flesh" that the Spirit does in us through "the washing of water
by the word." (Eph 5:26)
