This view is consistent with the same emphasis of spiritual baptism and spiritual union in every epistle of Paul. In Ephesians 4:5, Paul is referring to spiritual baptism. Their water baptism signifies their Spirit baptism. In the New Testament, believers go through physical baptism after putting their faith in Christ (Acts 2:41 8:36-38 10:47-48 16:14-15, 31-33 18:8). Then physical baptism occurs after faith in Christ. When you trust Christ, you are baptized spiritually in the Spirit. Spiritual baptism occurs upon one’s faith in Christ. You are baptized in the Spirit first and then you are baptized in water. Physical baptism follows spiritual baptism. As I mentioned earlier, physical baptism is the outward symbol of the inward reality of spiritual baptism. There is a link between physical baptism and spiritual baptism. At the moment that you trusted Christ, you were joined to His body by spiritual baptism. Just as you were joined to Christ upon faith in Christ simultaneously, so you were joined to Christ’s body, the church, upon faith in Christ concurrently. This is the believer’s spiritual union with Christ’s body. In spiritual baptism, a believer is joined to Christ’s body at the moment that he trusts Christ. In spiritual baptism, you are baptized in the Spirit. In physical baptism, you are baptized in water. Spiritual baptism is the act of immersing you in the Spirit to join you to the body of Christ (Gal. When you trusted Christ, you died in Christ, got buried in Christ, and rose again in Christ at the same time. When you repented and trusted Christ as your Savior, you were joined to Christ simultaneously. When were believers united to Christ? When did you die, got buried, and resurrected in Christ? Your spiritual union with Christ occurred at the moment of your faith in Christ. Then you come out of the water to signify your resurrection in Christ. You are immersed into the water to signify your death and burial in Christ. Water baptism is the outer symbol of the inner spiritual union of believers with Christ-their death in Christ, their burial in Christ, and their resurrection in Christ (Rom. This is the believer’s spiritual union with Christ. At the moment of faith in Christ, the believer is united to Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. Water baptism is the immersion of a believer into the water to symbolize his spiritual death, burial, and resurrection in Christ. There are two kinds of baptism in the New Testament-physical and spiritual. Now they only see them at Christmas and Easter. They baptized the squirrels and voted in as members. The Catholics also humanely trapped them and attempted to teach them the “rhythm” method which of course did not work. Within 3 days, they were all back in the church. They humanely trapped them and released them in a park at the edge of town. The Methodists decided they should deal with the squirrels lovingly in the style of Charles Wesley. The Presbyterians decided that it was predestined that squirrels be in the church and that they would just have to live with them. Each church in its own fashion had a meeting to deal with the problem. 2:12 3:3-4).Ī small town had four churches Presbyterian, Methodist, Catholic and Baptist.Īll four had a serious problem with squirrels in the church. Theologically, baptism is the act of immersing a believer of Christ into the water to signify his death, burial, and resurrection in Christ and, thereby, his death to sin and new life in Christ (Rom. The word baptism is from baptizo, which literally means, “to dip, immerse.” (Gingrich) Baptism is immersion.
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