Baptism: Sacrament or Symbol?

You ever notice something? Every group for two thousand years –

apostles, martyrs, bishops, monks, canonized saints,

persecuted Christians, the guys getting eaten by lions – they all agreed

on one thing, baptism saves. Then 1,500 years later, a handful of

religious startups with fog machines and merch tables show up and say,

"Actually, it's just symbolic." Amazing, truly amazing. The Holy Spirit

must have gone on a very long vacation. If baptism doesn't save,

why did every Christian everywhere for every century believe that it does?