Last week I happened upon a church in my neighborhood and looked upon their statement of faith. At first everything seemed in keeping with sound theology, until near the end when I found this statement: “Baptism saves! Contrary to popular belief, baptism is part of salvation.” Once I was over my initial shock that anyone would want to add anything to the gospel I asked a simple question, “which baptism?” The answer I received was not surprising, but it may be enlightening for some to explain why I asked the question. There are, in fact, seven different baptisms mentioned in the Bible.

The baptism most of us are familiar with is the Believer’s Baptism. Commanded by Jesus himself (Matthew 28.19) it is one of only two sacraments the early church recognized. Interestingly the other is communion which was also instituted by our savior (Matthew 26.26-30). Most of Christendom believes baptism is a symbolic event of the follower’s spiritual death, burial and resurrection, and the washing away of sin. For this reason, most baptisms are by immersion though historically water has been poured over the head for those who cannot reach a river, such as prisoners.

There is another baptism most Jesus-followers are familiar with, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised the coming of the Spirit to indwell and seal every believer, an event that took place at Pentecost (Acts 2.1-4). While less dramatically, every true follower of Jesus is baptized by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 12.13). This baptism is evidence of a believer’s saving faith, not salvation itself (Acts 1.8) and is distinct from water baptism (Acts 1.5).

Other less well known baptisms referred to in the Bible include the Baptism of the Cross (Mark 10.38 and Romans 6.1-11), the Baptism of John (Matthew 3:6-11), the Baptism of Jesus which was performed by John but had a different meaning (Acts 10.37-38), and the Baptism of Moses (1 Corinthians 10.1-4). Yet it wasn’t one of the lesser known baptisms that my neighborhood church was referring to as the key to salvation. Their remarks were centered on the Believer’s Baptism and as evidence of such they offer up 1 Peter 3.19-22:

[During his three days in the grave Jesus] went and preached to the spirits in prison, after they were disobedient long ago when God patiently waited in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water. And this prefigured baptism, which now saves you – not the washing off of physical dirt but the pledge of a good conscience to God – through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who went into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels and authorities and powers subject to him.

This is a curious passage and it would take far too long to properly exegete this passage in context. Thankfully we don’t need to in order to understand how this relates to baptism. To begin understanding the meaning we must take note of Peter’s intention. He tells his readers outright that symbolism is used (through the term “prefigured”). We can discern the following meanings: Noah’s ark is a symbol of Jesus, and the floodwaters represent judgment (clearly in view given the context). Since the world’s unbelieving population perished due to the water, this cannot represent the Believer’s Baptism. In a sense, the ark was baptized by the floodwaters and the believers (Noah’s family) were protected inside.  This symbolizes Jesus (our ark) being baptized by judgment (the floodwaters) we all deserved and it is this baptism, not water baptism, that saves us from our sins.

This kind of baptism that Jesus underwent during the time of his death and resurrection is one of the most complex. It is called the Baptism of Fire which has three different types including eternal torment (2 Peter 3:10), trials and testing (1 Peter 1:7) and conviction of the Spirit of God (Hebrews 10:19). For the sake of time we will take up a discussion of these baptisms another time. Let it be sufficient to say that it is Jesus’ Baptism of Fire (judgment) that is responsible for salvation, not water baptism.

As fascinating as this is, there is a much simpler way to show that the Believer’s Baptism is not necessary for salvation, and that is to examine the salvation message throughout history. Before Jesus, Old Testament saints put their faith in a future act of God and his Messiah to save them. After Jesus, New Testament saints put their faith in the Messiah’s past work for salvation. In either case, salvation has always been through faith in God and his Messiah. Furthermore, there is no mention of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, David, Esther, Ruth, or any of the prophets or most of the other Old Testament believers ever having been baptized. If baptism is necessary for salvation, what is the eternal destiny of these heroes of the faith? Clearly it is not water baptism that saves but faith alone.