Originally Posted by CarolinaCalvinist

I think you're on the right track. But I wasn't meaning to say that all of the Israelites were spiritually circumcised, which would mean that they were regenerated. Paul and Peter just use huge redemptive-historical events from the Old Testament to give us a better understanding of what water baptism symbolizes (passing through the Red Sea being the escape from slavery and the passing through the flood by Noah and his family being a picture of escaping judgment). I was just trying to show that Baptism isn't entirely new to the New Testament. Infants were included in both of these groups that the apostles used to help describe water baptism. The main point I'm trying to show is that the differentiation between the sign and the thing signified has always existed, first with circumcision and even now with Baptism. Not everyone who is baptized has the benefits that baptism signifies, just like not everyone who was circumcised had the benefits that circumcision signified (which were basically the same as baptism, unless, again, you're dispensational). I have to go to work but if you have any more questions I'll try to answer them when I return.