What is the baptism of laying on of hands in Christ?
It is the baptism given to those who, confessing and repenting of all sins committed in their worldly lives, make a vow not to chase again after the world that gives birth to sin and desire, nor pursue vain hopes, worldly success, and lusts that belong to the flesh, but rather live a life worthy of salvation by following the love of the cross—the life of the spirit. It is the true baptism and laying on of hands given to those who center their lives upon the love of the cross, who hold that love as their hope, and who are fit to receive the forgiveness of sins. This is not the empty baptism of today, where one merely attends church, listens to doctrines and teachings set by men, and answers with momentary determination and confidence, relying on fleeting words and human resolutions that are always shaken and changed—nothing more than superficial values built upon human resolve and determination.
The baptism they have made today is nothing more than an outward form used as a pretext to exalt and deify themselves. It is not rooted in the inward value of repentance and the pursuit of the cross’s love that builds the temple of the heart worthy of salvation, but only in the repeated cycle of sinning and regretting, vowing and deciding hundreds or thousands of times in vain. Such baptism and laying on of hands exist only to deceive the eyes of the congregation, no more than an outward circumcision of the hand.
What then is the true baptism of Christ?
It is the baptism of repentance and reflection, where one abandons the vain life that produces sin and desire by pursuing worldly ambitions, and instead vows to follow the love of the cross, which builds within us the divine nature—the temple of the heart—leading us to salvation. It is given to those who confess and repent of all sins committed in worldly ties of the past, and who take the love of the cross as the guide and goal of their hearts, lives, hopes, and purposes. True baptism is not the superficial, futile baptism born of man’s momentary resolution, zeal, or confidence—an unstable faith that always repeats broken promises and unkept vows. Rather, it is the baptism of those who abandon worldly ambitions and vain desires, choosing instead the life of sacrifice, the life of the spirit, as their vow before God.
But today’s churches, pastors, and believers imitate the practices of ancient Judaism and Catholicism, continuing traditions rooted not in the love of the cross but in worldly life, using tears of regret and vain repentance that arise from fleshly desires. Their baptisms and repentances are false rebirths, unrelated to the building of the temple of the heart that carries the true love of the cross. They are like those who serve two masters—clinging to the world with one hand and to God with the other—chasing vain desires while pretending to follow the sacrifice of the cross. These are religions, churches, pastors, and faiths whose fundamental reason for believing in God is not salvation but the fulfillment of their own worldly desires, successes, and satisfactions. In the end, their faith reduces God and Christ to mere instruments for securing what they need in their worldly lives.
Rather than the gospel of Christ that is worthy to lead to salvation, they believe more in their selfish claims, thoughts, and judgments that pursue only their own benefit and desires, accustomed to the vanity of the world. They are churches and shepherds who, instead of the true love and sacrifice of Christ, put forward excuses, theories, and words of the tongue rather than the practice of the cross. Thus, instead of showing forth the example and model of the sacrificial cross that is fitting for salvation, they parade self-display, hypocrisy, and pretense. Instead of goodness and peace, they bring forth constant strife and jealousy. They are shepherds and churches of double hearts, whose inner thoughts and outward words differ, whose lives and actions inside and outside the church are entirely opposed.
Inside the church, with one mouth they depend upon words that appear holy and compassionate, boasting with pious speech, and with a voice that sounds beautiful they sing praises. Yet with the other mouth, outside the church, they live a life no different from the world, filled with curses, hatred, strife, and jealousy without ceasing. Their faith and their churches are such as these. Outwardly they appear as true Christians who endure with patience, yet inwardly they harbor wrath that is concealed; with words and tongues they seem to love, but in practice and deed they produce only outward forms. They are filled with slander, intrigue, lies, and jealousy without end. Like a dog returning to eat its own vomit, their religion, their churches, their shepherds, and their faith carry within them the cause that makes them repeat sin as naturally as eating daily bread.
What use is it to sin, regret, and weep again and again? Thus, because of their own sins, tribulation, tears, and pain follow after them; they weep and repent again and again, and yet in their foolishness they regard such tears and suffering as if it were the repentance of Christ. But how can tears shed from the pain of the rod ever be called true repentance in Christ? The tears of those who suffer only because of the pain of chastisement are no true repentance in Christ. Even dumb beasts cry out when beaten by their master—how much more will man cry under God’s punishment? But tears shed from pain alone are not repentance. True repentance in Christ means abandoning all worldly ways of life and forsaking every earthly dream and goal, setting one’s aim only on the holy will of God and on the love of the cross, which is a path of suffering and sacrifice. It is a life that does not pursue worldly or fleshly existence, but practices the love of Christ grounded in sacrifice. True repentance comes through sincere devotion, prayer, and the beautiful practice of serving and sacrificing for all brothers and neighbors who are poor and in need, one comes to recognize a worldly life stained by sin, and seeks to gain the wisdom to choose instead the life of the spirit that follows after the love of the cross.
Deceived by the vain teachings, emotions, and comforts of the world, they spend their whole lives in empty worship, heaping up only sin and lust, pursuing nothing but the vain successes, desires, and ambitions of the world. Thus, they can do nothing but walk in circles, always repeating the same steps, never advancing, and their repentance—having departed from the fruit and testimony of Christ—is only a faith that endlessly repeats sin and regret. Not content with committing lawlessness, lies, and sin themselves, they claim to lead the saints into the true light, yet in reality they lead them further into the mire and swamp of worldliness. They appear as though they are light, but lead into darkness; they appear as though they are good, but lead into evil. Such ones are filled with flattery, praise, and vain compliments, covering everything in order to compel unconditional obedience to themselves. To drive this blind obedience, they bestow awards and decorations without restraint, inciting excessive loyalty—just as the dictators of communism once did—handing out false honors and praises that are nothing but hypocrisy, using them to manipulate human nature and exploit the disposition of man to secure ever more servitude.
Their baptism is not founded upon the true Word and truth of God, but rather opposes the Word, exalting the outward circumcision of the hand which the Lord forbade, and thus they perpetuate traditions, customs, and ceremonies that deify their own reason and authority. By this, they lead not into righteousness but deeper into lawlessness, not into truth but into falsehood, not into purity but into corruption. The false traditions once carried out by the Jews who killed Jesus Christ have continued to this day, for circumcision of the hand was used to exalt their own position and authority, glorifying outward values, and attempting to serve both God and the world together with material wealth. Thus has it been carried on and developed by men corrupted with distortion and lies. And this has become the worship of theft, the practice of hypocrisy, a baptism of mere display, and a laying on of hands that is nothing but vain show.
To those who do righteousness, there is a reward; to those who commit sin, there is punishment—this is the fundamental law common to God and to all creation. Yet the reason why baptism and laying on of hands are indiscriminately and recklessly performed, whether upon sinners, upon the cursed, or upon those who have not repented, is because such churches do not know the true repentance of Christ that leads to salvation, nor the contrite and broken spirit, nor the heart of confession. Instead, they heap falsehood upon falsehood, distortion upon distortion, and are governed and taught not by the true Holy Spirit nor by the power of God’s love, but by a counterfeit spirit and a false anointing created by worldly learning, human certificates of ordination, and theological inventions. Their standard is not salvation but empty worldly studies; their foundation is not truth but the practices and traditions of corrupt religion and sects handed down through lawlessness, lies, and decay; and their teachers are not God but men tamed by the vain wisdom of the world, who rely on human pride, intellect, commentary, and theories forced upon Scripture.
Their goal is nothing more than the visible edifice of brick churches, symbols of wealth and material possessions of this world by which they glorify their own earthly lives. To elevate their standing and draw in wealthy members and sheep, they pose as spiritual shepherds, as if they themselves were healing the sick, but with lies and hypocrisy they deceive, further ensnaring the afflicted saints lying upon sickbeds. They are vile men, exploiting patients as hostages, coercing families into service or demanding money, cloaking their schemes under the pretense of “faith,” and thus bringing shame upon the command of God which says, “Freely give.” They pretend to heal diseases that are never healed, and even those standing at death’s door, clinging to the last straw, are mercilessly exploited under the name of faith. They press their sheep with threats and fear, declaring: “God has healed your sickness; now believe this, testify with faith, give thanks to God, and do not doubt lest the disease return and you die.” Thus they oppress and terrify, playing with the sufferings of saints by words and tongues. And when the deceived saints, desperate to grasp at any hope, even utter false testimonies and then die, these shameless men excuse themselves saying, “It was because they doubted, because they had no faith, that God had healed them but they perished in unbelief,” thereby mocking even the power of God and exploiting the faith of Christ for their own greed.
If one dies, they blame faith; if one lives, they boast of their own power—such cruelty is wickedness itself, exploiting even the dying sheep. And yet the saints beneath them, desperate and grasping for anything in their affliction, are easily misled into giving false testimonies. Some, even with minor ailments, are frightened by false prophecies and revelations, as though they were stricken with deadly disease, using tricks no different from shamans. With fabricated visions and cunning deceptions, they make the sheep believe they are under a great curse, binding them in fear and anxiety, so that they may extort them with threats, saying only their laying on of hands or harsh rituals can heal them. Yet in truth the disease never existed, or was never healed, and countless saints waste their lives anxiously waiting for healing, only to die or worsen and miss the true time of healing.
Their so-called “healing touch” is nothing but abuse of the body, acts of superstition no different from shamans and sorcerers who worship false spirits, striking the body harshly, using physical tools or their hands to inflict pain, often drawing blood—practices utterly ignorant and cruel. These are not at all the works of Jesus Christ or His apostles, but the very tricks of shamans, proving that they have none of the power or authority of the Word once displayed.
These false laying on of hands and violent rituals are not of the Spirit of God’s authority, but of strange spirits unknown even to themselves, revealing that they bear the same spirit as mediums and sorcerers. This is especially manifest among those who call themselves female pastors, though they are neither the head nor qualified to teach. Ensnared by worldly greed and covetousness, they draw after the gods of material wealth, driven by lusts, seeking to rule like earthly kings, desiring service and dominion while unable to rule over their own corrupt members. They heap sin upon sin, like blind guides leading the blind, teaching detestable doctrines. Instead of the beautiful praise of prophecy, they oppress and threaten the saints with lies, false teachings, and curses; they bring forth gibberish tongues—filthy and detestable babblings of Satan—claiming them to be the tongues of Christ, the heavenly language, the seal of God’s kingdom.
Their so-called “spiritual training” is but foul utterances of tongues, languages they themselves cannot understand and which are abominable to hear. This is not prophecy filled with thanksgiving, richness, praise, joy, meekness, and peace united in the love of Christ as written in the holy Word, but only worldly teaching that stirs vain resolutions and fleshly zeal, leading the saints into greed and covetousness. They deceive with false prophecy, fabricated visions, threats, and fraud, pressing saints with fear to rob them of their wealth under the name of faith, making them slaves of obedience to men. They teach vain prayers that inflame passion and pride, preventing saints from bearing the true fruit of Christ, which is patience and self-control, and instead make them children of hell by exploiting God, slaves of greed by exploiting the cross.
Thus the word they teach is not the Word at all, but a cunning craft, puffed up like leaven in dough, outwardly swollen yet empty within, fleeting lessons of emotion and vain comfort born of human passion. All the saints are deceived by these empty teachings, never finding salvation but only weariness, poverty of soul, and groaning, led into a stagnant faith no different from the world. It is the snare of Satan, the scheme of the devil, from which no man’s intellect, strength, or ability can easily escape.
Their hearts, always inflated by zeal and pride yet quickly deflated, are left empty, bearing fruit no different from the world: anxieties, worries, fatigue, and sorrow entangled in worldly cares. So even elders and deaconesses, who believed in vain all their lives, find in the end nothing more than empty shells of titles—elders in name only, hypocritical faith serving two masters with divided hearts. Their behavior inside and outside the church is different, their appearance outwardly holy and kind, but after years of outward forms they are left with nothing but the same worries, complaints, hatred, exhaustion, and emptiness as the world. Their faith is two-faced, hidden under the pretense of office and title. How long will such people remain deceived by empty positions and shells, repeating steps in place, never advancing beyond the first faith? How long will they repeat the folly of trusting in their own resolutions, zeal, and confidence born of human passion?
Scriptural references testified to the above content:
(1 Corinthians 7:18-19) (Galatians 5:6) (Galatians 6:12-16) (Titus 1:10-16)
(Romans 2:17-29) (Colossians 3:5-11) (Ephesians 2:11-12) (Colossians 2:6-15)
(Philippians 3:1-3) (Revelation 2:9) (Revelation 3:9)