Baptism and the Waters of Judgment

These are the two sides of the baptismal coin: on one side the waters are invit­ing and on the other they are threatening. The former depicts the covenant promise of forgiveness; the latter demonstrates the covenant threat of judgment. In what follows, we will peer down the corridors of redemptive history to examine the Flood and the Red Sea — two Old Testament events which New Testament apostles use to present the waters of Christian baptism in the threatening sense.