Quote:
Originally Posted by Aquila
There is only one baptism. However, it is composed of two elements, water and Spirit. Just as you are composed of matter and spirit yet one whole. Both your body and spirit must undergo baptism. Remember... your body will be raised from the dead and thus it must be baptized also.
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It's one baptism, with one element, the living water, which is the blood of Christ.
Blood was called 'living water' by the Jews. Remember when Christ told the woman about drinking the living water? Then told the disciples to drink of the cup which is his blood?
The Jews had a custom or tendency to speak in doubles which referred to the same thing, to solidify their point. "The water and the spirit" is one of many examples in scripture.
Spirit = Blood of Christ = Living Water = Truth
One baptism, one element.
The actual washing with literal water was the Jewish Proselyte Baptism, to be done along with offering of turtle doves and circumcision. This was an ordinance nailed to the cross by christ (a nullified contract), which Christ's disciples later figured out (some were still washing people in water early in their ministries), particularly Paul who stated later that he came not to baptize with water (being adamant that the New Jerusalem Church not be amalgamated into the old Judaism, but which the 'Jews' were constantly demanding), and Peter who (in the actual Greek text) said "The water, forbid!", not "Can any man forbid water?" (as in the poorly translated english passage), to the Egyptian Eunuch who was on the way to Jerusalem to undergo becoming a Jew (the proselyte baptism)