Copyright Dr. Trudy Veerman, 1999. It is true that they define baptism as sprinkling, pouring, or immersion 2. Unless it had been so, Paul's analogical argument about our being buried with Christ in baptism would have had no meaning. Nothing could have been simpler than baptism in its first form. When a convert declared his faith in Christ, he was taken at once to the nearest pool or stream of water and plunged into it, and henceforward he was recognized as one of the Christian community.
Baptism is the grave of the old man and the birth of the new.
This baptism is an image of his participation both in the death and resurrection of Christ. Alluding to the ancient manner of baptizing by immersion. For the explanation of this figurative description of the baptismal rite, it is necessary to call attention to the well-known circumstance that in the early days of the church, persons, when baptized, were first plunged below and then raised above the water. Apostolic commands and examples are not binding b.