[shazeep]

well, one might apply water symbolically as in church baptism and be correct, surely, don't get me wrong, but it was in seeking a meaning for baptism by "fire" that may lead one back to people, and one's interactions with them. If you will accept it, there is a sense in which water baptism's importance may be revealed in the passage "...but He will baptize you with the Spirit and with fire," noting that Christ was yet baptized with water, albeit with a rather interesting remark that seems to indicate that it was symbolic, for a public declaration.

Also, 3You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you should be considered, wherein no water seems to have been involved, although one must reflect upon what "word" was spoken to them, but it had to have been signifying this "water" or Spirit, so it would seem to verify the interpretation of water as Spirit, while discounting actual immersion in water, which is still an important symbol.

so not to discount immersion in water, but i have trouble seeing it as the be-all end-all of baptism, and i have become convinced that there will be those "accepted" who never participated in the immersion ritual.