The jailor chose to be baptized in Acts 16 because at

that time in history water baptism was the proof or

evidence that a person believed on the Lord Jesus

Christ. Water baptism was solely a Jewish earthly

kingdom ordinance, and because the book of Acts was

written by God to and for the Nation of Israel, all the

believers were water baptized as a SIGN (1 Cor 1:22).

The Nation of Israel was created by God to be His

kingdom of Priest and Holy nation in the earth (Exod

19:6, 1 Pet 2:9, Rev 5:10). God created the Body of

Christ to one day run and rule His government in the

Heavenly Places (Eph 2:6, Phil 3:20, 1 Thes 4:17), just

like He created Israel to rule His government down here

on the earth.

In your bible, we are told to "rightly DIVIDE" the Word

of truth (2 Tim 2:15). What that means is to make the

divisions in God's Word that He makes Himself. The

books of Genesis thru Acts are written to Israel to

explain how God dealt with them in the past. The book

of the Acts of the Apostles, which shows the ACTIONS of

all God's apostles, explains to Jewish people the fall

of the Nation of Israel and God's salvation in Christ

going to us gentiles (Rom 11:11).

Today, God's instructions to us gentiles and about us

gentiles are ONLY found in Paul's 13 letters Romans to

Philemon, which come right after Acts. Paul is OUR

Apostle sent by the Lord Jesus Christ to us today

(Acts 9:15, Rom 11:13, 1 Cor 14:37). That is important

to know because Paul learned later from the Lord that

He was NOT sent to water baptize (1 Cor 1:14-17).

Then the books of Hebrews thru Revelation are written

again to the Hebrew Nation of Israel, and those books

are for the future remnant of Jews who will go thru the

Tribulation period and deal with the Anti-Christ AFTER

the Body of Christ is taken home to Heaven in the

rapture. The book of Hebrews explains the Crosswork of

the Lord and His fulfilling of Israel's New Covenant

(Jer 31:31-34).

So when that gentile Philippian jailor trusted Paul's

preaching of Christ in Acts 16, Paul water baptized him

to show the Jewish readers that he was a TRUE believer

on the Lord Jesus. It is my understanding and can be

implied that Paul probably mentioned the baptism in

verse 32. God, by this time in the book of Acts, has

already taught the reader the issue of water baptism.

So it was really no need to show Paul actually saying

it. In fact, I find it interesting that God did not

record Paul actually saying that the jailor must be

water baptized because of what Paul says later in 1 Cor

1:17. So yes, it is obvious to everybody in that day

and time that water baptism was required for a believer.

Immersion was not the chosen method of water baptism in

the bible though. In the bible, Israel was baptized by

being SPRINKLED with water, not immersed (Num 8:7,

19:18, Ezek 36:25). John the Baptist himself knew this

and used an object called a "reed", which is a long

leafy plant like thing that he dipped in the water and

sprinkled the people with. The Lord Jesus Christ

mentions this Himself when talking about John (Mt 11:7,

Luke 7:24, 1 Kings 14:15). Just imagine how long it

would have taken, and how exhausted it would have been

if John had to physically grab a hold of and immerse

every single believer? It was MUCH easier for him to

just dip the reed in the Jordan river and sprinkle the

people as they came close.

Today, water baptism is NOT apart of God's grace

program for us gentiles! There is only ONE batism today

in the Dispensation of God's grace (Eph 4:5). That

baptism is not a physical water one, but an unseen

SPIRITUAL one, because the Body of Christ is a

spiritual entity (1 Cor 12:13, Col 2:12). Remember

there are about 12 DIFFERENT baptisms in the bible...3

different ones in one single verse (Mat 3:11). In fact

Paul says in 1 Cor 10:2, that the children of Israel

were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the Red

Sea coming out of Egypt, and we ALL know that they went

over on DRY ground. The ONLY ones who got wet were the

Egyptians that died in the water! Most people have been

taught and trained to automatically think WATER when

they see the word baptism, but in the bible, baptism is

simply the issue of "total identification" with

something or someone else.