If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, let Israel now say

Before we get started, he, I wrote a book!  Of you're curiosu about that, go here; Elisabeth and the other man (Paperback) or here, Elisabeth and the other man (ebook), here's my latest on Locals;Lumbee federal recognition and why it's about time, and, if you'd like to help me out, go here; Help with medical bills 

And, don't forget to check out my previous article, here; A reflection on Psalm 123

I have another article already written and I need to type it out. But, y'all are getting a Psalm for today because I overslept (Chop Suey but you overslept), and, you know what? Here's the actual song, System Of A Down - Chop Suey! (Official HD Video).
So, now you know my taste of music (yes, Nu Metal IS real metal, and stop saying “rock and metal” heavy metal IS a style of rock music).
Now that that rant is out of the way, remember how I did Psalm 123 last time? Why not? Let's do Psalm 124.
“If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, let Israel now say-
If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us alive, when their anger was kindled against us; then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; then over us have gone raging waters.
Blessed be the LORD,
who has not given us as prey to their teeth!
We have escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken, and we have escaped!
Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth”.
So, you may have noticed that the Psalms take about floods a lot.
Well, why?
Well, there's Noah's flood (Noah teaches us to listen to God).
But, there's also the flood of the Exodus, with the parting of the Red Sea and the drowning of Egyptian soldiers (Exodus 14:26-32).
So, to a Jewish audience, familiar with the parting of the Red Sea and the flood in Genesis would show that one can be saved through a flood, but can also be destroyed by it.
Water and fire are both extremely destructive, but both have salvific power.
Obviously, I've discussed baptism before (An overlooked passage on baptismal regeneration and infant baptism, Something the Bible doesn't teach), but, I want to teach on this “fire/water” aspect in Salvation.
I don't want to rehash arguments that I've already made.
But, I want to focus on a couple of verses, first, I want to start with a verse that I usually don't use in defense of baptismal regeneration, because, 1) There are better verses, and, 2)This ties back to The Psalms.
It's important to remember that the earliest Christians were Jews.
They were familiar with Jewish scriptures. Even the gentile converts presumably would have been.
This is going to be a little long, but bear with me,
“For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous and the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is eight persons, were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him”. (1 Peter 3:18-22).
And getting into the fire thing, I refer you to 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 (which has been historically used to argue for Purgatory, and the NAB notes on this are trash, why are they still in Catholic Bibles? Also, I didn't appeal to this verse for post-mortem forgiveness, Post mortem forgiveness).
Fire has the power to destroy, but it also has the power to save.
In fact, I'm not going to quote it here (this article is already quite long), but, read Psalm 66, ESPECIALLY Psalm 66:12.
But, there are a couple of things I do want to quote, let's go to Matthew 3:11, and keep in mind it's John the Baptist talking,
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
And, of course, the coming of the Holy Spirit comes in Acts, when Jesus's followers are speaking in tongues (which, by the way, is the antidote to the Tower of Babel, Coffee and Christianity: Episode 28: The Tower of Babel)
“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly, a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance”. (Acts 2:1-4).
Yep. I just wrote a huge article because I got up late. But, my point is, is that water and fire both have salvific and destructive value.

*Bible used; Revised Standard Version Bible, Ignatius Edition, Copyright 2006, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America

Adam Charles Hovey is the founder of the Catholicism, News, and whatever community on Locals