SDG,
I think that your email does not refute
anything in what I posted.
For starters, you are begging the question with your examples of oil and water sprinkling: where do we get the idea that baptism came, or developed from them? Where do we get the idea that baptism, in its administration, follows directly in their vein? On the other hand, have you done any historical research on the origins of baptism (as a purification rite amoung certain Jewish sects)?
You quote a few verses about the Holy Spirit coming down upon someone, or touching their head, or something like that, and try to say that the water in baptism must be applied in like manner. Let's take a look at a few of those examples (I'm focusing on the water ones), and then look at the premise of your argument.
Ezekiel 36:25-27 "I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall he clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you And I will put my spirit within you..."
This is not talking about baptism. It is an illustration taken from Leviticus. Kiel and Delitzch explan:
The figurative expression, “to sprinkle with clean water,” is taken from the lustrations prescribed by the law, more particularly the purifying from defilement from the dead by sprinkling with the water prepared from the ashes of a red heifer (Num_19:17-19; compare Psa_51:9).
Matt 3:16 there are 2 baptisms and the water baptism symbolizes the spirit baptism. Notice the spirit descended onto him and he was not immersed in it. Check out this verse in the ESV and notice that Jesus "went up from the water."
You're arguing against yourself here. Jesus went up from the water because he had been baptized- immersed- in it. The Spirit descened on Him afterword as a visible authentification of His person. Please exegetically demonstrate the link here between the Spirit's descent and the mode of baptism.
I'm not sure why you quoted this. There's nothing in here remotely about baptism.
Your
a priori assumption that baptism does not signify burial (or the washing away of sins, which hasn't been gotten into), or that being baptized in the spirit can't mean being immersed in Him, etc., is still unproven. And the speculative links between the mode of baptism and a few non-immersive symbols of the Holy Spirit still remains to be shown exegetically. To just state that something is true doesn't make it right.
I think some study into baptism's significance as a Jewish puricication rite, the use of the term in the NT, and the invarience of it's practice in the early church would be worth it's time.
