Baptism

Matt. 3:11 "I baptize you with water for repentance. ...
John's baptism was not Christian baptism- it was a Jewish baptism of washing
with a new spiritual meaning. In this case it is always referred to as the
baptism 'unto repentance'. John's call was the coming of Christ is at hand.
John’s baptism was the prophetic message, that those born of Jews are not the
real Israelites and they needed to repent and become real spiritual Israelite.
Acts 19:1-7 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the
interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples and asked
them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" They answered,
"No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit." So Paul asked,
"Then what baptism did you receive?" "John's baptism," they replied. Paul
said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to
believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." On hearing this, they
were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul placed his hands
on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and
prophesied. There were about twelve men in all.
So we have the answer straight. John's baptism was baptism of repentance and
also of discipleship. John's baptism was also symbolic of rebirth- being dead
to the sin and reborn. Act 19:17 indicate that John's baptism was prophetic
indicating the coming of Messiah. How did this baptism differ in order to
indicate the messianic expectation? Incidentally John's baptismal mode was
not by all probability total immersion. The candidate walked down into the
water and the baptizer scooped up water from the river and poured it over the
candidate. They then came up out of it. There was an officiating Person and a
community of witnesses. This will explain several passages such as the
following. We shall later show that early Christian baptism also followed this
method.
Acts 8:36 -39 As they traveled along the road, they came to some water and
the eunuch said, "Look, here is water. Why shouldn't I be baptized?" And he
gave orders to stop the chariot. Then both Philip and the eunuch went down
into the water and Philip baptized him. When they came up out of the water,
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