Water, Water, Everywhere, and Not a Drop to Drink!

[Brother Rick]

While it seems that most of the time denominations argue about what method of baptism to use, little attention is paid to the fact that there are actually seven baptisms in the Bible and that only three of them actually involve people getting wet! It’s very important to familiarize yourself with these baptisms, because they play a critical role in rightly dividing the scriptures.

If you start applying things from one baptism where it wasn’t intended, you could wind up getting crazy ideas like thinking baptism has something to do with salvation, receiving the Holy Ghost, or some other kind of nonsense.

We’ll start chronologically from the first recorded baptism to the last.


1. The Baptism of Moses.


I Cor. 10:1-2, Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea;
2) And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;”

Isn’t that peculiar? A baptism in the Bible, 1500 years before John the Baptist ever showed up!

This refers to the time when the entire nation of Israel passed through the Red Sea on dry ground, and not a Jew in the whole bunch of them got wet! This was a baptism of identification. At the moment of Israel passing under the cloud and through the sea, it was a public identification for the entire world to know that these people were God’s people, and that the Lord God Jehovah was their God.


2. John the Baptist’s/Peter’s Baptism.


Matthew 3:1-6, “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea,
2) And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
3) For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
4) And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
5) Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan,
6) And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.”

Before we delve into this, it’s critical to point out some very important facts. Do you realize at this point in history, no one knew who Jesus was? They would shortly, but these people were getting baptized before anyone had ever even seen Jesus! They were getting baptized before Jesus had even started His earthly ministry, let alone died on the cross, and certainly before anyone was talking about trusting in His atonement on the cross. John the Baptist would have made a terrible Baptist today, he was a bacon avoiding, Mosaic Law abiding, Sabbath keeping Jew!

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