Checkyourhappiness.com Make the Lord your Guide, the Bible your itinerary    Baptism More Questions... Water is carnal and of the earth, not spiritual and of Heaven. Obviously baptizing with water has become a religious tradition. If in anything different religions agree it is about that. And about Christmas but that is a subject for a different page. On this page we want to share with you why we do not value the water baptizing anymore and why we say that it is against the will of God. Apart from perhaps personal satisfaction and beautiful ceremonies, visualizing your progress in becoming a Christian, it has no meaning and does not help you on judgment day reason why we preach to abstain from baptizing with water. The only real baptism is baptism through the spirit. And it is not just our idea. The Bible is full of verses and comments confirming our preaching, our believe. When the Lord met with John the Baptist, John stopped his baptizing. Matthew witnesses in 3:11 writing: “I [John] indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.” The book of John shows you the same in chapter one. Actually, the confusion about baptizing with water already existed amongst the apostles. In the first chapters of Acts for example, baptizing with water keeps on being mentioned like in 8:34-40 the baptizing of the eunuch by Philip. Written by Luke, the Book of Acts records key events in the history of the work of the early Christian Church to spread the Gospel throughout the Mediterranean world. We have to make one side step here and go into one detail. Many episodes in the Scripture are periods of 40 years, like the wandering of the Israelites in the desert for 40 years before entering Canaan. And this number comes back and back again, even corresponding with more or less one hour in a day of God as one day for God is a thousand years for men. Jesus died at the age of 33 1/2 which meant that, after He had done his task seven more years were needed to end the period and with that fulfill the prophecies. The original apostles went on for these seven years preaching only to Jews and continuing doing their works according to the Jewish laws and commandments. Acts 11:19 Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phenice, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to none but to the Jews only. Only after the ‘court sessions’ about Paul and Barnabas as witnessed in chapter 15 of Acts the apostles followed Paul and really started preaching to Gentiles as well. Logically the baptizing with water continued to being used during these years. The awareness that they were committing errors started when Peter was reminded that he took wrong decisions through the vision he received (Acts 10: 9-17). He then explained to the apostles and brethren about what happened to him and that he had heard the voice of the Lord upon his return in Jerusalem (Acts 11:16 Then I remembered the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.) Another passage in the book of Acts clearly says that the baptism with water might have been done in the past but to really enter in the Faith you need to be baptized with the Spirit: Acts 19:2-6 He [Paul] said unto them [disciples in Ephesus], Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost [because the other apostles did not speak about it, see above]. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said unto John’s baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they [the disciples] heard this, they were baptized [by Paul] in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied. And there was no water around. Some preachers use the same verses as we do to show that baptizing with water is the only way to baptize. Be aware that in those cases they often have the habit to take just one verse that then will be seen outside of its context and therefore actually misused. Talking about the commandments, and the laws of the Spirit, this behaviour of trying to deceive are examples of the lies and the fornication (of the mind) that will be judged by the Lord in his final judgment. There is a website (I presume that there are more, but we did come across this one) on which chapters and verses of the Scripture are easily found. This is the Barthlebywebsite. The link directs you to the King James Version, but other versions as well as other books are accessible there as well. updated 14 April 2006