from the outside. Another difficult question concerns to what degree the new covenant community is continuous or discontinuous with the old covenant community. This question is not answered by simply saying that the new covenant is “new,” or by saying that the new covenant is simply the old one renewed under new management. Unfortunately, the issue of water baptism has on the one hand been assumed to be a matter of little importance (see, for example, most Quakers or the Salvation Army), or on the