What Water Baptism Means (Part 1)
Water baptism should be a simple issue but it has so many church variations that it is seldom done correctly.
The Earth was baptized at Creation
When God created the Earth, it was initially covered in water.
GENESIS 1:7 "And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so."
The firmament is what we call the atmosphere.
GENESIS 1:9 "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so."
God made the land rise up out of the water so that the land could bring forth life.
God’s pattern is for life to be covered by water and then to emerge from that water.
Natural birth follows the same pattern.
A baby in the mother’s womb is completely covered in water in its amniotic sac, a kind of water bag. The wall of the sac must tear or rupture. We say the water breaks. The baby then emerges from the water in order to be born.
In effect, the body of a baby is just a handful of earth that God has breathed life into.
That teaches us that God has a deep plan that He sticks to. God brings earth-life out of the water that fully covered the life.
So, when we contemplate receiving eternal Life, which is the Spirit of God, we should also expect to be fully covered in water at our water baptism.
Initially, men lived around 900 years but wasted their long and easy lives by indulging in violence and immorality.
God then began his long-range Plan to finally have a reasonably sin-free Kingdom for 1000 years. This can be called the Millennium which will probably be starting reasonably soon, when the battle of Armageddon is over.
God’s fight against sin involved a terrible Flood that eliminated everyone except eight members of Noah’s family. The highest mountains were covered in water.
GENESIS 7:19 "And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered."
God had effectively baptized the earth. Totally immersing the earth in water to kill off sinful human life.
Water baptism thus symbolizes that we have died to self and been cleansed from sin by the blood of the Lord. We have handed over our lives to Jesus.
Water is symbolic of God’s Word. We bury ourselves in God’s Word to get His forgiveness, guidance, and protection.
Our minds must be washed in the water of the Word.
We believe that every word in the King James Bible is the Perfect and Absolute Truth.
EPHESIANS 5:26 "That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,"
