water baptism

[votivesoul]

I offer this only as a meditation, not as a doctrine I think needs to be embraced:

On Yom Kippur, after the High Priest had laid his hands on the scapegoat and pronounced the sins of the nation of Israel upon it and symbolically transferred them to it, a "fit man" was found who was required to lead the scapegoat into the wilderness to be lost for good (the goat likely died in the desert after being led out).

Ritual Apostolic Immersion in the name of Jesus Christ is designed, when coupled with repentance from dead works and faith toward God, to bear ones sins away (the real meaning of "remission" in Greek, from aphesis), allowing for the initiate to experience the destruction of the body of their sins.

To me, this is along the same lines as the scapegoat and Yom Kippur.

This being the case, who then is the "fit man". Well, from what I've read on it, it appears to be whoever was handy, willing, and available to do so, presumably as long as they were members of the Sinaitic covenant, and as long as they were allowed to be within the sanctuary where the high priest ministered. This required them to be dedicated, consecrated, and atoned for, so they would not profane the sanctuary or defile the ritual.

Whoever meets that definition above, under the auspices of the New Covenant, of course, I think, is authorized to immerse.