An excerpt from the Cleve Brantley letter we've entitled, "Baptized for the Dead."

"Christ’s baptism was a reality; ours is only a symbol of that reality, that is, our immersion in water. The mother of James and John certainly did not know what she asked for her sons. Had she known she would not have asked. Nor would they. They wanted religious preferment, to be the number one and number two men, one on the right and the other on the left. . . . .'Are you able to be baptized with my baptism?' They said, 'we are able.' Again they knew not what they said. They were not able. No one is or ever can be; none can take his place. Jesus granted them the honor and privilege of being 'baptized' with his 'baptism;' both were martyred. He did not give them the right and left hand place. He could not; that was predestinated by the Father; it was already appointed to the two thieves to be crucified with him, the one on the right hand the other on the left."