In the Light of Truth
Grail Message by Abdrushin
1stBOOK ◄ ► 2ndBOOK
43. Baptism
If a child is baptized by a clergyman who regards it as merely a duty of his office, it is absolutely meaningless, doing neither good nor harm. On the other hand, when an adult person is baptized, the strength and purity of his inner preparedness to receive contributes to whether or not he really receives something spiritual or not.
In the case of a child, only the belief of the one who administers the baptism can be considered to serve as a means to the end. According to the strength and purity of the belief, the child receives a certain spiritual strengthening through this act, as well as a protective wall against evil currents.
Not every human being ordained by earthly church authorities can perform the act of baptism effectively. For this purpose a human being is needed who is connected with the Light. Only such a person is able to transmit Light. This ability, however, is not attainable through earthly studies, nor through church consecration or ordination. It has nothing whatever to do with earthly customs, but is purely a gift of the Almighty Himself.
One so endowed thereby becomes a Called One! There are not many of those; for the prerequisite for this gift is a suitable soil within the person himself. If this prerequisite does not exist the Light cannot establish a connection. The Light cannot penetrate soil which is dense or striving away from the Light, because like everything else, this process is also strictly subject to the all-pervading Primordial Laws.
Such a Called One, however, can really transmit spirit and power through the act of baptism, which thereby receives that value which it expresses symbolically. In spite of this, it is always preferable to baptize only those who are fully conscious of the effect of this act and who have the ardent desire for it. Therefore, if it is to become of real value, baptism requires a certain age of maturity and the voluntary wish of the person to be baptized, as well as a Called One to perform the act of baptizing.
John the Baptist, who still today is regarded and accepted as a truly Called one by all Christian churches, found his greatest adversaries mostly among the Scribes and Pharisees, who at that time imagined themselves to be the most highly called to judge over this matter. The nation of Israel of that time was Called. There is no doubt about that. In its midst the Son of God was to accomplish His Mission on earth. In this fulfillment, however, the calling of the entire nation became extinguished. A new Israel will arise for a new fulfillment. However at the time of John the Baptist the Israel of that time was still the called nation. Accordingly at that time the priests of that nation should also have been the most highly Called Ones to perform the act of baptism. Nevertheless, John the Baptist had to come in order, as the only Called One, to baptize the Son of God in His earthly vessel at the beginning of His actual Mission on earth. This happening also proves that earthly appointments to office have nothing to do with Divine callings. Performance of acts in the name of God however, i.e. as mandated by Him, and as it should be in the case of baptisms, can only be effectively fulfilled by divinely Called ones. John the Baptist, the Called One, who was not acknowledged at that time by the high priest of the Called people, described his adversaries as a “generation of vipers.” He denied them the right to come to him.
Nor did these same high priests of the then Called people even recognize the Son of God Himself; they persecuted Him ceaselessly and worked toward His earthly destruction, because He was superior to them and therefore inconvenient. If Christ were again to come among men at the present time in a new form, He would undoubtedly meet with the same repudiation and animosity as He experienced then. A similar fate would befall one sent by Him. All the more so, because mankind today imagine themselves to be more “advanced.”
Not only in this one case of John the Baptist, but in many similar cases, clear proof emerges that consecrations and ordinations by earthly churches, which are always only part of “church organizations,” can never bring a greater qualification to perform spiritual acts unless the person himself has already been called for it.
Considered in the correct way, therefore, baptism administered by church representatives is nothing more than a preliminary act of admission into the community of a religious organization. It is not acceptance by God, but admission into the respective earthly church community. The confirmation which follows later can only be regarded as a repeated acknowledgement and expanded admission to the customs of these communities. The minister acts as the “accredited servant of the church”, i.e. in a purely earthly sense, because the church and God are not one and the same thing.
