Bully's Blog

Passover versus Atonement = Circumcision versus Baptism

With that background, the entire Bible follows this pattern:

Sabbath - Creation to Abraham

000Passover - Circumcision divides humanity in two

>000000Firstfruits - Under Moses, a priesthood ascends before God,
>000000and draws near over blood sacrifices

000000000Pentecost - In the biblical pattern, this central point is always
000000000testing in the wilderness. This is the life of Christ,
000000000who is tested in the way all men are, but who does not sin

000000Trumpets - Christ assembles the New Covenant church,
000000making out of Jew and Gentile one new man in the first century

000Atonement - A corrupted Judaism is destroyed as Jericho, vindicating
000the words of Christ. This is the first conquest of the age
000in which we now live

Booths - the final coming of Christ and the judgment, after which the saints live with Him in glory

Now, to get to the point…

Infant baptism pertains to the first ‘division’ by water, Passover—entrance into a PEOPLE at the beginning of LIFE. New Testament baptism, however, in both type and antitype, consistently pertains to Atonement/Conquest—entrance into an ARMY at the beginning of MINISTRY (government). The structure of the book of Acts hammers this home. If you read it through with the above pattern in mind, you will always find the baptisms occurring at the ‘Atonement’ step. Here’s an example:

Creation / Sabbath
An angel commanded Philip to go to Gaza at noon

000Division / Passover
000Philip departed for a desert place.
000He miraculously ran to meet an Ethiopian eunuch’s chariot.

000000Ascension / Firstfruits
000000He was from his queen’s court and in charge of treasure.
000000He was returning from worship in Jerusalem (the Law given).
000000He invited Philip to come up and sit with him in his chariot.

000000000Testing / Pentecost
000000000The eunuch was reading Isaiah’s prophecy of the slain lamb of God.

000000Maturity / Trumpets
000000Philip explained the prophecy was about Jesus (the Law repeated),
000000and the eunuch was converted.

000Conquest / Atonement
000The eunuch commanded the chariot to stop, and Philip baptized him.
000When they came up from the water, the Spirit took Philip away.

Glorification / Booths
The eunuch went on his way rejoicing, and Philip found himself at Azotus,
and preached the gospel in all the towns until he reached Caesarea.

Following the large Bible pattern, Jesus’ Testing carried the church from Ascension (Israel) to Maturity (the NT church assembly). It makes sense that the public demonstration of Covenant membership was “transfigured” from circumcision to baptism. Christians are “born again,” filled with the Spirit and, like Adam, mature from birth. The church’s ministry is no longer crossing the Red Sea, the baptism of Moses (1 Corinthians 10:2) –death, but crossing the Jordan, the baptism of Joshua (Hebrews 4:1-11), leaving Moses’ grave behind—resurrection.

Christ commanded us to disciple and baptize, applying this “Deuteronomy-Jordan” step as we divide up Christ’s inheritance—the nations, by carrying living water across the world. The Christian era was typified by the era of Joshua and the Judges. Christ has given our enemies into our hand and given us the promise of Joshua. He is with us.

So, WHY is baptism for both males and females? WEPOW