BOW: Baptism - Changing One's Status

​Thoughts on Davidic Kingship.

In the last two posts of Born of the Water, we saw that Faith is a belief that results in action and that Repentance is repairing our previous life as we turn to God’s covenant. This week, we review the principles associated with Baptism. The concept of Baptism or full immersion - in Hebrew Tevilah - originates in the Old Testament and represents a change of status before God - burying our old lives and beginning anew as an Initiate in God’s Way.

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​The Process of Perfection
Our Process of Perfection looks like this:

                                                                     Individual Salvation
                                                                             Born Again
​                                                       (Redemption / Sanctification)
          Born of the Blood / Born of the Water > Keeps the Commandments > Born of God/Spirit

                                                                       Married Exaltation
                                                                     Going Onto Perfection
                           Becoming Perfect > Reaches the Full Stature of Messiah > Sees God the Son

Baptism and a Change of Status
We see in the Old Testament this concept of burying an old way and beginning in a new way - a change of status. We first see this concept in the creation of the Earth where the earth is in chaos then it is covered with water then God divides the land and the water.  We see this concept again with Noah and a global flood. And then again when we see the children of Israel pass through the Red Sea and then again passing through the river Jordan into the Promised land. So the concept of Immersion is a well established doctrine in the Old Testament and for which is implemented as a public witness in the New Testament of changing one’s life and one’s status before God.

Dr. Ron Moseley wrote in his paper, The Jewish Background of Christian Baptism, “The baptismal water (Mikveh) in rabbinic literature was referred to as the womb of the world, and as a convert came out of the water it was considered a new birth separating him from the pagan world. As the convert came out of these waters his status was changed and he was referred to as “a little child just born” or “a child of one day” (Yeb. 22a; 48b; 97b). We see the New Testament using similar Jewish terms as “born anew,” “new creation,” and “born from above….” 

In the Endtime, we see the Earth with a Baptism of Fire as the Earth is changed from a Fallen World to Paradise - the Earth’s change of status.  Millennial Believers also pass through this baptism of fire into the Millennial Age.

Jacob/Israel to Zion/Jerusalem
The prophet Isaiah sets out a systematic plan of salvation that Dr. Gileadi assembles as a Ladder to Heaven.  At the transition category of humanity, are the Believers in the God of Israel that Isaiah calls Jacob/Israel. Those who repent and are baptized enter into a conditional status with God as Zion/Jerusalem or God’s Covenant People - those who seek to be Sanctified.​

Jacob/Israel

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Baptism

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Zion/Jerusalem

Rites of Passage
The New Testament focuses on two rites of passage at this juncture that symbolize this change of status - Baptism (Mark 1:4,5) and the Sacrament of the Lord’s Sacrifice Matt 26:26-29 (linked to the Passover Seder) , which both of these are linked to consummating or bringing to a completion the invoking of the Atonement to remit sins. We saw in the previous post on Repentance that to be fully and unconditionally reconciled with God, we needed to invoke the Atonement. 

Fathers of families as kings and priests to their families have the right and responsibility to administer these rites to their families, to place the Name of God on their families and to commit them to living the Commandments.  Fathers obtain their authority through God’s Holy Spirit by the taking of an oath, which we will review later.

The Doctrine of the Messiah
Some call these three actions - Faith, Repentance and Baptism - the Doctrine of the Messiah. Indeed, all three of these actions lead one to keeping God’s Covenant and Law.​

The Doctrine of the Messiah

Faith	Results in Obedience	>
Repentance	Returning to the Law	>
Baptism	Change of Status to Walk in God's Way-the Commandments	>

God's Commands and Covenants