Baptism... It's What Pagans Did

[Yahda]

Well I am quite pleased you are so enlightened. May you enjoy your sacrifices to a defunct and destroyed temple.

What sacrifices?

Psalms 50:8 I am God your ( Israel) God

I do not reprove you because of your sacrifices

Nor because of your whole burnt offerings that are constantly before me

I DO NOT NEED TO TAKE A BULL FROM YOUR HOUSE, NOR GOATS FROM YOUR PEN

FOR EVERY WILD ANIMAL OF THE FOREST IS MINE

EVEN THE BEAST UPON 1000 MOUNTAINS

I know every bird of the mountains

The countless animals of the field are mine.

IF I WAS HUNGRY I WOULDN'T TELL YOU

FOR THE PRODUCTIVE LAND AND EVERYTHING IN IT IS MINE."

Hmph. I guess the Creator Of All Things told us !!!

So you all can kill the noise about needing a sacrifice. That's neither her nor there for now.

God said on numerous occasions did he did not speak with your forefathers concerning a sacrafice, and after every time he made such a statement, He followed it up with " but I did tell you to obey my laws, statues and judgments"

 

[GreenTea]

The bible does not claim that you need to be baptised in order to be saved. If you read the chapter John the Baptist prepares the way
Luke 3:16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
The act of Baptism is the symbolic cleansing of sins - symbolic is not literal. It represents to die in Christ (the act of being dipped) and to be born again (coming out of the water). Whenever the Bible mentions being baptised, it is more to do with being baptised with the Holy Spirit (like what Jesus Christ does) than with water (what John does).

You can't simply claim a ritual to be pagan when it shares similarities with so many other religions. Whilst baptism is done once, Tevilah is done repeatedly throughout one's life in Judaism. Maimonides (an ancient rabbinical teacher) finds a symbolical significance in tevilah:

"The person who directs his heart to purify his soul from spiritual impurities, such as iniquitous thoughts and evil notions, becomes clean as soon as he determines in his heart to keep apart from these courses, and bathes his soul in the water of pure knowledge."

So when Yochanan the Immerser (John the Baptist) was down along the river of Jordan and there were multitudes that came down to him, it wasn't unusual that so many of those Judeans had come out of Yerushalayim and Judea.

Before you go into the water or mikveh, you should know why you go into the water. You don't go into the mikveh to join a church. You're not sprinkled to join a church. You go into the water as an outward manifestation of an inward work that's happened in your life, a change in your life. That day it was to be for repentance.