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.