Baptism With the Holy Spirit-Hilary L Hunt MD

As suspected, yesterdays post about the history  of baptism, created  quite a   stir about the origin of baptism and its meaning. There are certain groups of Christians who cannot allow themselves that luxury of historical perspective. However, the  pagan origin of Baptism is undeniable. The ‘rub’ came when the Catholic Church declared Baptism a Sacrament, and  an essential for admission into heaven. That instantly created another loophole which had to be closed—that being  state  of limbo for the  un-baptized.

I will expose my ignorance here and declare that I do not know exactly  how the Fundamentalists  Christians came  to recognize  Baptism as a requirement for salvation. They don’t recognize Sacraments—some accept a few–Episcopalians accept them all—just don’t recognize the Pope. Suffice it to say, the pagan ritual of baptism was adopted by the Jews and  was eventually converted to a rite of ‘penitential cleansing’ by making John’s baptism as…