The ABC's of the Christian Life (6): Following Jesus Christ Rightly (2) – Baptism by Immersion

Following Jesus Christ Rightly and the Importance of the Local Church

Well, in this important series on sermons on the basics of Christian living, we first addressed, of course, matters essential to salvation, and that was initially how we come to faith in Jesus Christ for salvation.

But not only are we to come to Jesus, but we come to Jesus in order to follow Jesus. And following Jesus is as important and essential to salvation as coming to Jesus. Following suggests the idea that we are his disciples, and we follow him, even as he leads us out of sin, out of this fallen world, onto our final and full salvation.

But then we began last Lord's Day to address the third division of our study, and that is how we may follow Jesus Christ rightly. And so what we're addressing now are not essentials, in other words, you can be wrong in these areas and still have salvation, but when we say that, we are not in any way diminishing.

Their importance.

These are important matters, and a Christian who is not, does not follow these, follow Christ rightly in these matters, I think will experience a great deal of deficiency in his or her Christian life.

And by the way, I know our time is abbreviated on the first day of the month, and you have 13 pages in front of you, there's no way in the world we're going to be able to cover it, but I'm increasingly aware that we're having to put things together for a broader group of people, and so these have already gone out in many places of the world, and I'm mindful of what would be helpful for them too, and so sometimes we'll skip over some portions here, but I think it will bring benefit to them.

And in fact, I'm receiving notes every week now, just about, from pastors that are saying that they're duplicating these, some translating them and distributing them to other pastors in their churches, and some are following them in their teaching and preaching in their.

Churches.

It's an amazing, amazing thing in today with the technology and the privilege and responsibility the Lord has given us, and so pray, continue to pray for the Lord's blessing. Of course, the first subject we addressed last week under this heading of following Jesus rightly was for the new believer to join himself to a local church.

The Local Church as the Chief Means of God’s Work

Today, we'll consider, secondly, the manner of entrance into the Church of Jesus Christ, which is believer's baptism by immersion, but before we consider this topic, I do have a few more words I want to say about last week's topic, because it is so very important that the new believer join himself to a local church, and so let me assert a few things quickly before we move on.

First, we affirm that it's the will of God that every true Christian is to commit to be a member of a local church. That's a truism. It's not optional. That's not essential to salvation, but it's important to the Christian life.

Every Christian in the New Testament, if he was able to, join himself to a local church. The Lord added to the church daily those who are being saved. The idea of a Christian existing apart from a local church is really an idea foreign to the New Testament.

All Christians join local churches. That's a given. Secondly, we affirm that the local church is the only institution identified in the word of God through which the work of the Lord is conducted. It is the only divinely instituted organization that we find in the scriptures.

Now, that's not to deny the value of parachurch organizations. We're going to be giving to needy flood victims through Samaritan's Purse. It's a good parachurch organization. But many times the local church is looked down upon as though it's not really effective and that there are better ways in which the work of God can be conducted in the world.

And that's just not biblical. God has ordained local churches to be the chief means by which he conducts his work in the world. And we acknowledge that and recognize that. So we have a very, very high view of the local church.

And it's easy to take potshots of local churches. There's no perfect church because there's no perfect people on this side of glory. But the local church is the only institution identified in the scriptures through which the work of the Lord is conducted.

And then recognize that the church, local church, is also the primary defender and promoter of the truth of God's word in the world. And the scriptures describe the local church as a house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

And so where does the truth of Christianity manifest itself? Where is it defended? Where does it stand forth in the fallen world? It's in the local church. And so the local church is to teach the truth, proclaim the truth, publish the truth, defend.

The truth.

And the local church is to assure that the truth is delivered to the next generation of churches that will do the same. And in our own little way, we try to do that through the influence and input we have, let's say, in our New England Reformed Fellowship, of which we're involved, 120 or so Reformed pastors throughout New England, in which we have contact with.

I write to them every month and hopefully have contact with them. We offer the Bolton Conference. But also in other ways, you know, Ross McDonald is preaching this morning because he grew up in this church, an extension of this ministry.

David Bedanza is preaching up in Gardner today. And, you know, he was an elder here for 12 years. And so we're extending, thank God, you know, extending the word that will continue after our passing, Lord willing.

The Local Church as a Haven of Spiritual Protection

And then fourthly and very importantly, a matter which I want to give emphasis this morning about is that the Lord has purposed the local church to provide a haven of spiritual protection for his people within this fallen world.

I cannot emphasize this enough. Now, I've talked about this many times to many different people, but I don't think I've ever put it down in notes. And so I wanted to do that this morning. We live and move in a fallen world.

And although the Lord Jesus is the ruler of this world, he is the sovereign king, the fallen world is still the haven of the wicked one, the devil. The devil is the prince of the power of the air, as he's described in Ephesians 2, 2.

But we need to recognize and we should be grateful that he has been deposed from the lofty position that he had before Jesus Christ died and ascended into heaven. And so the devil is no longer, no longer has the power to defeat the people of God.

He tries, but whatever he does ends up strengthening the people of God. Jesus prayed for Peter, Satan, it desired to sift thee as we, but I prayed for you that your faith fail not. And so actually Satan's fight against Peter actually equipped Peter to be the apostle.

He wasn't prepared to be until that happened. He came forth from that event, humble and cautious about the devil, and he wrote about that in his epistle. And so when our Lord Jesus died upon the cross, ascended into heaven, he was exalted above all spiritual authority.

And a lot of evangelicals, they teach and preach as though Jesus hasn't yet got there, hasn't yet ascended above all spiritual authority. Some argue all day long that the devil's in control of this world.

No, King Jesus is in control of this world. Paul prayed that new Christians would perceive this, what is the exceeding greatness of God's power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in heavenly.

Places.

That was a position of authority. Jesus is Lord. And then Paul describes this exalted, kingly role of Jesus, far above all principality and power, might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.

Clearly in this age, King Jesus is over all spiritual authority, and that would include.

The devil.

And God the Father has put all things under his feet, gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is the body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Jesus himself spoke of the impending demise of the devil, the unseating of his authority.

And so Jesus said, now is the judgment of this world. This is just prior to his crucifixion. Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. He's not talking about his second coming, he's talking about his crucifixion and resurrection.

And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, talking about the cross, as well as his ascension to the throne. If I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples, in other words Gentiles as well, to myself.

The devil is no longer the ruler of this world as he was before the crucifixion and exaltation of Jesus Christ. Jesus is Lord. Yes, the devil continues to be the great force of evil in the fallen world, and we're no way diminishing that.

But the devil no longer has the authority he once possessed. Martin Luther wrote about it in the third stanza of his hymn that we sing, A Mighty Fortress. And though this world with devils filled, demons, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us.

The prince of darkness grim, that's the devil. We tremble not for him. His rage we can't endure, for lo, his doom is sure. One little word shall fell him. And that little word is not the word from you or me, but the word from King Jesus.

And so the devil's rage is great, but our Lord's authority over the devil is greater. The devil knows his time is finite, and as a result he's filled with animus toward the Lord and toward his people.

And we read of this in Revelation 12, and I believe Revelation 12 is misunderstood by most evangelicals who believe most of the book of Revelation is future from our perspective. I think Revelation 12 describes the course of this church age.

Let's read it.

John the Apostle. Now a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and this woman would have been Israel. The moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then, being with child, she cried out in labor and pain to give birth.

And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great fiery red dragon, having seven heads, ten horns, seven diadems on his head. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven, fallen angels probably, through them to the.

Earth.

And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her child as soon as it was born. Think about King Herod wanting to kill all the infants in Bethlehem, trying to kill off the Messiah.

She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. Her child was caught up to God in his throne. When did that happen? Upon his ascension from the grave. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1 ,260 days.

The idea is that God would preserve his people. And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought. But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.

So the great dragon was cast out. That serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. The idea of being cast out speaks of him being deposed of the authority that he formerly.

Had.

It doesn't mean he's powerless.

For we read,.

Then I heard a loud voice say it in heaven, Now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

His accusations no longer have any weight. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives to the death. And therefore rejoice, O heavens, who dwell in them.

Woe to the inherents of the earth and sea.

Why?

For the devil has come down to you having great wrath, because he knows that his time is short. Yes, he's still in the world. In fact, he's the prince of the power of the air. And he hates people, especially God's people, Christians.

And so, in my opinion, for what it's worth, contrary to the popular view that this is an event that will take place in a future seven-year tribulation period, just prior to the second coming, this passage describes the spiritual realm of this entire church.

Age.

Israel gave birth to the promised Messiah, the male child, who upon his resurrection and ascension from the dead was caught up to God on his throne. And upon the enthronement of Jesus as Lord, the devil was cast out of heaven.

That is, he was deposed of his uncontested authority over the nations that he had formerly possessed. That's why the gospel goes out into all the world, and the Gentiles come within the kingdom. The devil could no longer blind them, because King Jesus calls forth by his power that the gospel would be effectual to the Gentiles.

But upon losing his seat, so to speak, in the heavens, he's come down to you having great wrath, because he knows he has a short time. But thankfully, the Lord protects his own from the devil. And what we're asserting here, what I'm asserting, is that it is within the local church that the Lord protects people best from the rage and wiles of the devil.

You've heard me say it before, and this is after 43 years of pastoral experience, I've never known a Christian disconnected from a local church to be mature and well-balanced. And moreover, when you find Christians, and from time to time you do, who think, who have the attitude as me and Jesus and my Bible and maybe my Christian radio, generally their lives have been ravaged by sin, and I would argue the devil, because they do not have the spiritual protection that the Lord provides for his people within the local church.

Now I believe we can substantiate this by considering 1 Corinthians 5 and how the Lord would have the church deal with a sinning member of this church. This guy was sinning egregiously in an unrepentant way.

1 Corinthians 5, 1 and following, it's actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality not even named among the Gentiles. I mean that had to be pretty gross if it was worse than anything the Corinthians did, because Corinth was known to be kind of like the San Francisco of the ancient world, as it were.

That a man has his father's wife, probably stepmother, and you're puffed up, see the church was puffed up, having not rather mourn that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you, in other words removed from membership.

For I, this is Paul the Apostle speaking, as absent in body, and present in spirit, have already judged, as though I were present, him who has done so this deed, has so done this deed, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when you are gathered together, along with my spirit, with the power that is the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

And so this professing Christian, who was a member of the church at Corinth, had been committing egregious sin, and Paul was concerned about the adverse effect of this man within.

The church.

Don't you know a little leaven leavens a whole lump? He would reason later. But he was also concerned about the salvation of this man. This man had to be weaned of this sin, and this man had not been suffering the consequences of his sin, as he should, which might have brought about his repentance.

And so his membership in the church protected him from the devil, who apparently was unable to afflict him, because he was in the church. And so Paul told the church, basically, that you are to excommunicate him, and the very action of removing him from the church made him susceptible to, and vulnerable to, the devil, that he would suffer the consequences of his sin, perhaps even death, but hopefully to bring him to repentance from his sin.

And so those outside of the local church are vulnerable and susceptible to the devil's.

Power and wrath.

Those in the church are preserved by the Lord from the devil's rage. That's one of the greatest benefits of a local church, spiritual protection of its members. You think you're having it bad? If you're not a part of a local church, you're going to have it much, much worse.

Now before we pass on from this very important reason to be a member of a local church, let's consider one more dimension to this matter. Different local churches are able to afford different levels of spiritual protection for.

Their members.

Not every local church provides the same level of spiritual protection for its members. We may see this to be true based upon our Lord's addressing the seven churches of Asia Minor in Revelation 2 and 3.

The Revelation opens with John having a vision of Jesus as a high priest, as though he were in the temple, trimming the lampstands. There were seven of them, and each of these lampstands represented a local church in Asia.

Minor.

And then in Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus dictated individual letters to each of these seven.

Churches.

And in these letters, the Lord Jesus either condemned the church for its defections and deficiencies, or he blessed the church for their faithfulness and their obedience. In fact, the Lord Jesus said in one instance regarding the church of Pergamos, you people either repent, or I myself am going to come and fight against you.

Think about that, the Lord Jesus coming to fight against the church. And there's a lot of local churches that are not churches in the sight of the Lord, but that's a whole other matter. Now, if you read Revelation 2 and 3 carefully in these seven letters, you'll actually see that there's two areas in which the Lord Jesus addresses these local churches.

First, the Lord either pronounced his approval or his disapproval based upon the purity of the doctrine of the church. You have that doctrine of the Nicolaitans, that thing I hate.

You better repent.

And then secondly, aside from doctrine, our Lord either pronounced his approval or disapproval based upon the holiness of the members of the church. You know, you permit that Jezebel to be in your midst, who entices many to commit adultery, spiritual adultery.

And I won't go into any detail about that, but a local church, depending on its doctrine, and depending on their members, whether they're striving to live holy lives, or either the church, churches that the Lord promised to bless and preserve, or curse if they were not right in these two realms, in these two areas.

And this underscores the importance of a church to be confessional in nature. A church ought to stand for doctrine, biblical doctrine, true doctrine. It ought to be stated. And frankly, most local churches today have these little, skinny little confessions that don't even take up a single page, this is what we believe.

And they're just the most generic kind of generalizations about what it is believed. Their concept and understanding of the truth is so watered down so that it's an umbrella that just about anybody and everybody can embrace.

I think it weakens the church and makes their people vulnerable. And they forfeit the Lord's blessing when this is the case. And then I would also argue, not only does this underscore the importance of a church to be confessional in nature, confessing and proclaiming sound biblical doctrine, but it means that a church should attempt to maintain a regenerate church membership.

And not everybody does. You know, a lot of churches think, you know, the bigger the better. Whatever we have to do or say or offer to make the church bigger in numbers means better. And the Lord's blessing is upon us.

No, no, no.

As I've said in the past, I'd much sooner pastor a church of a hundred people that are devoted to the Lord than a thousand people and only a hundred of them are devoted to.

The Lord.

That church is going to have problems. They're going to have issues. And so what's very important is that we maintain a regenerate church membership, which implies and suggests that church discipline is an important matter.

And a church should have sound doctrine. And to the degree that the church does will be to the degree that the Lord will bless that church and preserve the members of that church from error. He'll give the church blessing and grace to keep them from trial and difficulty.

And so we see how critically important it is to not just be a member of a local church, but to be a member of a local church that is grounded and sound in these areas. We never arrive, but we certainly should strive toward this end, and we do.

Baptism by Immersion as the Biblical Mode

Well now, in the time we have remaining, let's address this second matter in following the Lord Jesus rightly, and that is believers' baptism by immersion.

Important matter.

Not all Reformed people believe in baptism by immersion of believers only. Pado Baptists who baptize infants, Pado is a, taken from the old Greek word referring to child or infant, they baptize infants or children, and there are many good Reformed men that do this.

My best friends in the ministry are Pado Baptist ministers who preach the gospel, who hold the Reformed theology, but we and they would differ very much on this matter of the nature of baptism. We're advocating that the Bible teaches the mode of baptism to be immersion only, and this can be demonstrated.

The believer is to be immersed in water, not sprinkled with water, not have water poured on him or her, but immersed. And so although many churches practice baptism by the mode of sprinkling water on the one being baptized, they call it baptism, some practice baptism by pouring water on the head of those baptized.

The Bible neither commands nor illustrates baptism except by immersion only. I can argue this from Christian history, church history, and even Pado Baptists themselves. Many of them will acknowledge this.

John Calvin, who is one of the greatest men of church history, he's one of my heroes, but he was a Pado Baptist. What it was, of course, the Reformers came out of Roman Catholicism that practiced infant baptism, who taught that children were born again by baptism.

And the Reformers came out and they sought to reform the doctrine and practice of the Roman Catholic Church, and that's why they became Protestant churches. But we would argue that many times the Protestant Reformers did not reform the matter of baptism, but rather they took infant baptism, which had been commonly practiced for centuries, went to the Bible to try and find justification for it.

Calvin, himself a Pado Baptist, wrote some very hard things against people like us who hold to baptism by immersion, but he wrote these words, "...whether the person baptized is to be wholly immersed in that, whether once or thrice, the Greek Orthodox baptize by immersion.".

The Greek Orthodox, they know what the Greek word means. They baptize infants, but they baptize by immersion three times, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and that's what he's alluding to.

"...whether he is only to be sprinkled with water is not of the least consequence.". Well, I would differ from that. "...churches should be at liberty to adopt either according to the diversity of climates, although it is evident...".

Now notice, "...although it is evident that the term baptize means to immerse, and that this was the form used by the primitive church.". That's quite an acknowledgment, isn't it? But yet he says it doesn't matter.

Well, we would say, you know, John Calvin, who are you to say it doesn't matter? If the scriptures lay out in the early churches' practices, baptism by immersion, how can you say it's immaterial? We are bound to conform our belief and practice to the Holy Scriptures, and yet even Calvin acknowledged that the practice of apostolic churches was baptism by immersion.

And this is a common acknowledgment among even Paedo-Baptists. And so let's consider some arguments for baptism by immersion. First, the Greek word baptizo means to dip or immerse. That's what it means.

And this can be substantiated fully from citing ancient writings both in and outside of Scripture. One described the Greek word baptizo, "...the clear and simple meaning of baptizo in the New Testament when describing the physical baptism of disciples is to dip or immerse.".

This understanding is based on consistent etymology, that's the history of a word, historic usage in Josephus, a Roman historian of the first century, and the internal grammar of both the Old and New Testaments.

Now many Paedo-Baptists resist this argument, saying that the Greek word does not mean to dip or immerse, but their efforts are really quite futile, because clearly it does. In fact, most Greek lexicons will use it as their definition of baptizo, to either dip.

Or immerse.

Interestingly, and this is important, when the Greek testament was translated into English, take the King James, for example, rather than translating the Greek word baptizo as immerse, or immersion, as they should have done, because the translators themselves were in the Church of England, say the King James translators, who practiced infant baptism by sprinkling, instead of translating the Greek word baptizo, they transliterated it, they took the Greek word and made it into English, thus you have the word baptize.

It's like they invented a new word in English. And thereafter, when somebody read the word baptize, they just assumed sprinkling was covered by that, rather than translating the Greek word as it should have been, to immerse, they made a new word, baptize, and then they extended that to apply also to sprinkling.

And so it was really a way to perpetrate ignorance on the part of English readers of the Bible, not knowing the meaning of the Greek word. But there are many internal arguments in the scriptures to show that immersion was the.

Mode.

Take John the Baptist, when we consider what is said of him in John chapter 3, 22 and 23. After these things Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea and there he remained with them and baptized.

Now John also was baptizing in Enon, near Selim, that would have been on the Jordan River, and then it says why he baptized there, because there was much water there, and they came and were baptized. That only conforms to the idea of baptism by immersion.

Why did John the Baptist need much water, unless he was immersing the ones who were returning from sin? If John were baptizing by sprinkling, pull out the water pouch, that would have been sufficient, wouldn't it?

Clearly he was baptizing by immersion. Now it's important to recognize John's baptism was not Christian baptism. He baptized people as they confessed their sins, with view to the impending kingdom of God, the appearance of the kingdom of God.

After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, of course, that baptism was infused with new meaning. Immersion came to reflect the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. John did not preach the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He preached the need of cleansing or washing from sin. And the Jews had previously practiced baptisms when Gentiles became Jewish proselytes. They were unclean, they needed to be cleansed, they needed to be washed.

And what was unique about John the Baptist is he was telling the Jews they needed to be cleansed just like Gentiles needed to be cleansed. They needed to be baptized, they needed to be washed. But again, the idea of baptism, through the course of Jesus' ministry, particularly the death, burial, and resurrection, it was infused with new meaning.

And so Christian baptism is performed, of course, in the name of the Trinity. To be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. John did not baptize with that Trinitarian formula.

Now for the Apostles, of course, they didn't have to be rebaptized, they were all baptized by John. And they continued in the church era, that baptism was legitimate. But if anyone was converted after the resurrection of Christ, then they had to be baptized with the Trinitarian formula.

And there's an instance in Acts 19, we won't go into great detail about that, about some who Paul encountered, Gentiles, who had been baptized, but they had only been baptized informed of John the Baptist's baptism.

And Paul asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? We haven't even heard there was a Holy Spirit. And Paul baptized them, even though they had been previously baptized. Because their previous baptism, according to John's baptism, was illegitimate.

And so Paul didn't rebaptize them, but rather he baptized them legitimately for the first.

Time.

And you read about that in Acts chapter 19. Clearly you see some development there. The Christian baptism grew out of John's baptism. Right in the middle of page 6, we're skipping over some material because of the time.

Right in the middle of page 6, we can see the mode of baptism by immersion when we consider the way Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch. In Acts 8, Philip was preaching the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch.

You recall, the Holy Spirit sent Philip there in a miraculous way. He came up to the chariot, and the eunuch is reading from Isaiah 53. And he asked Philip, who's he writing about? And Philip took from that same passage and preached to him Jesus.

And then we read in verse 36 of Acts 8,. Now, as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized? He knew baptism had to be by immersion.

Well, here's a sufficient body of water. Philip said, If you believe with all your heart, you may. There's believer's baptism. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, with all that's suggested by that.

So he commanded the chariot to stand still, and both Philip and eunuch went down into.

The water.

That wouldn't have been necessary if he just needed to sprinkle the eunuch, or pour some.

Water on him.

And he baptized him, and they both came out of the water. Clearly immersion is being suggested here. No other mode can be placed upon this context. They both went down into the water. Third, we could argue that baptism by immersion reflects what Paul said of baptism in Romans chapter 6.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?

Certainly not.

How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore, we are buried with Him through baptism unto death, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.

Even so, we also should walk in newness of life. Paul took baptism, and he described and depicted the believer's union with Jesus Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection by his baptism. Clearly only immersion portrays this idea, this union with Christ, identification with Christ and His death, burial, and resurrection.

Sprinkling carries the idea of cleansing, maybe pouring too, but not death, burial, and resurrection. Only immersion points to this truth. Fourth, in Colossians 2, Paul makes the same association between the mode of baptism and Christ's death and burial.

There we read,.

In Christ, in Him, you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.

Now notice, circumcision and baptism are found in the same context in these two verses. It's the only place in the Bible where circumcision and baptism are linked together, are found in the same context.

Now, our Paedo-Baptist friends argue that baptism in the New Testament is the New Testament counterpart to circumcision in the Old Testament. And so they argue, just as the Israelites would circumcise their male children on the eighth day, so Christians are to baptize their children, both male and female, by the way, as infants, they are to baptize them.

They say baptism is the New Testament equivalent of circumcision in the Old Testament. And they base it on Colossians 2, 11 and 12. But if you look at Colossians 2, 11 and 12, it says no such thing. The circumcision of the Old Testament, the physical circumcision, is not linked to baptism, but rather it's linked to a spiritual circumcision of the heart.

That's the New Testament counterpart to what physical circumcision pointed to in the Old Testament, not baptism. And again, Paul identifies baptism here with the burial with Christ, the union with Christ.

It's not linked to circumcision, baptism. And so this argument based on this passage is just a knee-jerk reaction and response that Paedo-Baptists, well-intentioned, will provide, but it's ill-founded.

It's not here in these verses. And then, fifthly, Paul associates the idea of baptism by immersion with the Red Sea crossing under Moses in 1 Corinthians 10. Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that our fathers were all under the cloud in the shekinah glory of God by day, protected them from the heat of the sun.