BAPTISM AND WASHING IN WATER
Because baptism is a very visible kind of tradition and appears so prominently in the Bible, most Christians hold very strong beliefs about it. There are different doctrines about adult immersion and infant sprinkling, of course, but these religious practices all have their origins in popular Biblical stories. Jews and Muslims also have  doctrines and practices about washing with water that they justify through their understanding of the literal Bible.

All religions that use water in washing rituals err in thinking that literal, physical water has some sort of spiritual power — especially when applied by a religious leader. This thinking is wrongly based on literal interpretations of the Bible. Thus they believe that if it happened in the Bible, they should also do it. They do not understand the “first the natural and then the spiritual” principle. In the case of water baptism, washing, or dunking, is the natural event that precedes a spiritual event which is cleansing the heart from the sin of religion.

Baptism is another way of representing the process of being born again. It symbolizes the miracle of creation in which God changes evil, impure hearts to clean, pure hearts. This all happens only when people hear God’s spoken voice. Only God’s words have the power to change hearts.

Heart condition is represented in the Bible as covenants. There is the Old/First Covenant which represents evil, impure hearts that follow religious laws. And there is the New Covenant which represents clean, pure hearts that follow God’s spiritual laws.

The seeds of religion and religious laws exist in the literal words of the Bible. Religious leaders (i.e. Pastors, Priests, Rabbis, Apostles, Bishops, Elders, Deacons, Overseers, Rabbis, Priests, Pastors, Popes, Missionaries and Evangelists) sow these seeds in teachings based on the literal words of the Bible. God calls these words of these teachers the fruit of Trees of Knowledge of Good and Evil (i.e. false prophets). They are sown into evil, impure hearts of Old/First Covenant religionists, and sprout and grow (i.e. carried out, fulfilled) as those religious people raise religious children and evangelize others to become religious. We see this principle in these scriptures:

Mark 7:15  Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them.”

COMMENTARY: This statement by Jesus was made in response to complaints by pharisees that his disciples did not observe Jewish traditions about hand washing. Jewish hand washing evolved out of belief that eating food with dirty hands would lead to spiritual defilement.

Jesus corrects this belief with the truth that religious words and behaviors are what defile them.

Mark 7:18-23  “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? 19 For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.)

COMMENTARY: Jews, and some Christians observe dietary laws found in the literal Bible. Because they have constructed their religion on the literal words of the Bible, they believe that certain foods defile them spiritually. Jesus corrects this belief with the truth that spiritual defilement results from religious thoughts and religious words that go into the heart, while food only goes into the stomach and then out of the body.

Religious thoughts and words are the seeds of religion sown by religious leaders (i.e. false prophets) who preach religious doctrines and practice them in public for others to observe and do.

20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”

COMMENTARY: Religious people are defiled by the religious things that they say and do. Religious words and religious behaviors all flow out of evil, impure hearts.

 See this link for spiritual understanding of references to sexual sins.

See this link for understanding of deceit.

See this link for understanding of arrogance.

See this link for scriptures about greedy religious leaders who extort money through commercial religion.

Luke 6:45 “The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart.

COMMENTARY: See this link and this link for understanding of the treasures of the heart of a good man.

See this link for understanding of the treasures of the heart of an evil man.

Matthew 15:18 “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.

COMMENTARY: What proceeds out of the mouth of religious people is meaningless religious talk.

Psalm 73:7-8 From their callous hearts comes iniquity; their evil imaginations have no limits. They scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.

COMMENTARY: Iniquity is another word for sin. The root of sin, therefore, is found in evil, impure hearts.

STUDY TIPS: See this link for more about arrogance. See this link for more about oppression.

All of the defiling things mentioned in these scriptures are evil, soulish food eaten (i.e. heard) by people who are hungry for religion. Religion begins in the heart, and is acted out through words and actions. Religious words and behaviors are called flesh.

Flesh and religion are features of Old/First Covenant religion. They are not what God wants for his people. God says this religion is defiled. What God wants is New Covenant disciples who worship him in spirit and truth in their hearts — not in their flesh. This religion is pure religion.

STUDY TIP: See this link for comparisons of Old/First Covenant religion and New Covenant worshipers.

God’s strategy for converting Old/First Covenant religionists to New Covenant disciples is to wash them with his spoken word. They become religious because they listen to the words of false prophets, and he saves them from religion when they learn how to hear his spoken voice. Washing with God’s word is symbolically represented as baptism in water.

Baptism (i.e. washing) with physical water symbolically refers to hearing God’s word (i.e. his spoken voice). Washing with physical water only cleans the outer body. God’s spoken word has the power to change hearts. God’s spoken word (i.e. living water) has the power to cleanse the heart from the desire to practice the sin of religion. Spiritual water has the same healing power as spiritual blood. This is why we are told that Jesus came by water and blood. 

From the story of Jesus’ baptism, we can see how Jesus came by water, but we can’t so easily see how he came by blood. Understanding comes clear, however, when we recognize that the spirit, water and blood are one. That means that the spirit, water and blood are all terms used to symbolically represent God’s voice.