It appears that, although error seems to have been compounded after Constantine created the State Church, still error began creeping into the church almost from the beginning. Baptism, as practiced in the New Testament, was of course for those who first believed (of course, they were in a unique point in time) -- ambiguous passages notwithstanding, the unambiguous ones are plain.
As understood by the first Christians, baptism was seen as a replacement for circumcision. Jewish Christians would have understood this, and this fits with Christ's words as a teacher of the law, a fulfiller of the law, and a redactor of the law.
Unfortunately, rather than just being seen as an outward profession of inward conversion, it also came to be physically equated with circumcision, to be performed on infants of Christian parents. This dovetails with the establishment of the Christian religion as the state religion of Rome, and the need to record births officially for tax purposes.
The other, more sinister error is in giving baptism a salvific value. This caused bizarre behavior initially, such as holding off on baptism until one is on one's deathbed... Because apparently baptism was seen as a 'free pass' for forgiving your past sins. But once you used your free pass, you couldn't use it again. Constantine did it this way, thinking that his bases would be covered. But his actions do not support those of a living faith in the Son of God, but rather the superstitions of Sol Invictus.
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