Chad:  With a great deal of affection and respect, I must beg to differ with you based on the following:

1.  There are no equal signs in the text.

2.  Scripture often suffers at the hands of "logic", when the logical conclusions which are presented are exegetically untenable.  I believe it would be beneficial if these particular "logical" conclusions were set over against a grammatical diagram of Col. 2:11-12.

The very "equation" you posit is precisely what I do not see the text warranting.

Soli Deo Gloria,  Sola Scriptura,

John T. "Jack" Jeffery