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For me, I can't begin to imagine how immersion was a common practice except in those places where water was plentiful. Water is such a precious commodity in those areas of the world. And when we think about the different places where baptisms occurred, it seems like a stretch to affirm complete immersion. On the day of Pentecost, so many people were baptized in an area where the baptism of that many would preclude immersion, no matter how many ceremonial baths are nearby. Cornelius' household may be another example.
The deeper issue may be that we have difficulty getting past the mere sign. When David lifted up his hands as if to signify the evening sacrifice, it does not say that God was displeased with this. Because what David did certainly and spiritually did signify the sacrificial sacrament as it would normally take place in worship. Such is the case with the NT sacraments we've been given. They are real and physical, but that is not the most important thing. God is a spirit and therefore must be worshiped in spirit and truth. When someone is baptized, we see the water, they feel the water as it is applied, so it is real and physical. But much more important is the spiritual aspect that our forebears were correct in stating that mode does not matter, but only the spiritual aspect of it.
I think if we're going to apply a mode to baptism, and baptism signifies the washing away of sin, our ingrafting into Christ, and our engagement to be His, then we should keep in mind that we come to Mount Zion in this sacrament in worship, and that when we come, we come sprinkled with the blood that speaks better things than that of Abel. However we're baptized physically, the important thing is the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ applied to our sin, sick souls. This is the only way we may live as we come before the consuming fire of our God.
In Christ,
KC
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