There is no talk of baptism anywhere in those verses. The problem is you see the word "water" and your mind automatically thinks baptism.
Jesus is talking about regeneration which everyone needs in order to comprehend spiritual matters. Baptism is something entirely different. Baptism has to do with cleansing.
Until we are regenerated we are dead in our sins. We are not physically dead (we have a human body), nor are we intellectually or emotionally dead (we have a human soul), but we are spiritually dead (no human spirit). We are body and soul only until we are born of the Spirit. Regeneration is the Holy Spirit generating a human spirit. "Spirit gives birth to spirit".
I don't see who or what you're responding to, but this is interesting.
The gang that's so manically in favor of water baptism allegedly being a requirement for us today, they not only are failing to rightly divide the word of truth, but they're also failing to read the texts for what they say within the confines of the grammatical rules in the English language. A prime example is:
Acts 19:1-6
1 And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,
2 He said unto them,
Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
3 And he said unto them,
Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism.
4 Then said Paul,
John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
5
When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
6 And
when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
What's missed so easily by so many is the fact that verse 5 is still speaking about the Jewish crowd to whom John the Baptist was addressing who then were baptized in the name of Christ Jesus. If we look at the imagery painted for us by the scriptural text words, the cinematic shift away from that crowd of people John the Baptist was addressing didn't happen until verse 6.
In other words, Paul didn't do an additional dunking in water of those disciples to whom he was speaking, but some whacko groups today assume what's utterly false because of their failure to consider the antecedent pronoun that defines which crowd was being spoken about. The rules governing antecedents among so many of those who are products of modern and historic public schooling that has long since gone downhill, these kinds of silly errors continue to this day and beyond.
A shift in verse 5 could only have come about if it read like this:
5
When they heard this from Paul, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
As you can see, that shift did not at all take place until verse 6. Do you see that? This is a valuable lesson to us all to read the text for what it says rather than to inject into it what isn't there, as is the practice of far too many, as you have seen for yourself in here.
Further backing for this proper understanding of the text is evidenced here:
Acts 8:14-17
14 Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that
Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John:
15 Who, when they were come down,
prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost:
16 (For
as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)
17 Then
laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost.
Notice there is absolutely no mention for them to have been baptized a second time since it was the first water baptism whereby they received the remission of their sins with them having been under the Kingdom Gospel rather than the Gospel of Grace preached unto the Gentiles.
Therefore Paul did not re-baptize them in water, but rather laid hands on them for the receiving of Holy Spirit, as was the case for those, again, under the Kingdom Gospel.
MM
