What are people baptized into?

[360watt]

So, we see in scripture being baptized 'into'

The question is what this is into?

Because 'body' in 'body of Christ' may not necessarily mean all redeemed.

There is a local body of believers..and then all believers as a body.

All believers as a body. .I believe is the New Jerusalem in the end. Not a body of Christ now.

I think this where distinctions can be made and made clear in separating baptism from salvation.

So for eg.. Corinth.. you have people baptised into the body AT Corinth.

Is this salvation, or actually water baptism as a pre requisite to join a local body. I.e the body AT Corinth.

Because 1 co 12 describes something unified, together and localized. That's not all redeemed.

 

[dwight92070]

The body of Christ is universal, comprised of believers from every corner of the earth. We, as believers, are all part of the universal body of Christ.

 

[360watt]

The body of Christ is universal, comprised of believers from every corner of the earth. We, as believers, are all part of the universal body of Christ.

Ok..yes this is popular to say..but 1 co 12 is of a unified, together body where one member grieves with another.

That is really all redeemed?

 

[atpollard]

So, we see in scripture being baptized 'into'

The question is what this is into?

Water. The word "baptized" is a transliteration (changing the letters of a foreign word to create a new English word) of "baptizo" ... a Greek word that means to plunge under, to dip into or to 'whelm'.

So when Peter said: "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (Acts 2:38), every person in the crowd knew exactly what he meant and was immersed in water in a ritual bath for the cleansing from sin (something they knew from Judaism and from John the Baptist). The whole "and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" - which they had just witnessed in Acts 2 - was something completely new that God had just added (and Jesus had promised).

However, to answer your question, in Acts 2, they were (immersed, plunged, dipped, whelmed) into "water" ... because God said to do it!