I was about to close the pharmacy door when I saw a basket of medicines that hadn’t been shelved yet. So, I decided to stay for a moment and put them in their places and add them to the catalog, so I wouldn’t have to return to this task tomorrow. Let’s see what we have here?
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Let’s say a few more words about the catechumenate and baptism. It’s convenient to explain sacraments with analogies to biological processes in the surrounding world. Let’s liken baptism to grafting in orchard cultivation. How does this happen? If we take a seed from a tasty, sweet apple and plant it in the ground, a wild apple tree with inedible fruits will grow. To get a cultivated plant, we need to graft a scion from a garden apple tree onto this wild tree. Many various nuances need to be considered: how this particular variety is grafted, when it should be done, how to remove wild branches, how to tie and heal the grafting site, how to water the saplings, how to fertilize the soil, and so on. Christianity is this blessed graft: it is grafted onto the wild tree of fallen human nature and, if properly nurtured, transforms it into a cultivated tree that bears beautiful fruits of the Holy Spirit in due time. It is obvious that the prerequisite for this process is the existence of the tree (rootstock). Christianity is intended for mature, discerning, responsible, and free individuals – it is for those who consciously, responsibly, and voluntarily WANT to follow Christ, deny themselves, and, taking up their cross, joyfully and humbly walk (strive to walk) after the Bridegroom, the Savior, the One who has so Divinely Loved them… For people to accept and assimilate the grafting of Christianity (the Holy Spirit), they must already possess the aforementioned qualities (discernment, responsibility…) and “cultural affinity” for the mystery of union to occur according to the spiritual law, where “like attracts like” (that is, the catechumen must already have ascetic love, patience, mercy, gentleness… humility, that is, ascetic virtues that resemble the Divine virtues, the fruits of the Holy Spirit). Recall the parables-analogies about the seed, leaven, and conception as the beginning and growth of the Kingdom of God (see Matt. 13:31-33, 1 John 3:9). The seed is sown in prepared, cultivated soil; leaven is placed in prepared flour; the scion is grafted onto a mature, prepared tree; the seed of conception is placed in the womb of a mature person (a married soul), who consciously, lovingly, and voluntarily marries and, in marriage, gives herself wholly to her Bridegroom (and having intimate relations and conceiving outside of marriage is fornication! God cannot fornicate! God unites in one Spirit only with those who voluntarily, consciously, responsibly, freely, and lovingly give themselves to Him, saying with their whole being to God: “Yes!”). Therefore, the Lord performs the baptism of the Holy Spirit only on the catechumens, the prepared, conscious, discerning, free, and mature individuals! There can be no talk of baptizing infants or children!
We bear witness (arguably(!!!), from various perspectives: through Scripture, through fruits, historically, logically, by common sense, etc.) about these obvious things (catechumenate, baptism), but “Christians,” “Orthodox” (foolish and blind, cunning hypocrites), who are confident in their correctness and the correctness of all things “Orthodox” (various traditions of elders: teachings, traditions, ranks, rituals…), do not even try to listen to you but preemptively (prejudicedly) brand you a “heretic,” “Protestant” and, to avoid being “groundless,” they pull out (those who do not know either the Scriptures or the Power of God!?) some worn-out selection of quotes, which, as they (“Orthodox”) believe, utterly destroy anything that threatens their “sacred traditions”! We have said that there can be no talk of baptizing children, infants. “Orthodox” cannot cite any quote from the Scriptures where it speaks of baptizing children. Such quotes do not exist in the Scriptures and cannot exist!!! On the contrary, there are direct indications that only adults were baptized (who, hearing the word of God, believed): “But when they believed Philip as he preached the good news about the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women” (see Acts 8:12). (It is said (8:9-13) that everyone, from the least (children) to the greatest, listened to Simon the sorcerer, but only adults were baptized! That is, children (“from the least”) are mentioned when it comes to Simon’s sorcery and belief in him, that “he was the great power,” but nothing is said about children believing in Jesus Christ and being baptized, although it would have been much more important to clarify, to tell about this. But Luke, being a true historian, could not write about something that did not happen, that is, that infants and children were baptized). I hear someone already muttering the words of a worn-out record: but the Scripture says: “he and his whole household were baptized,” the apostle Paul says: “I also baptized the household of Stephanas”! These childish arguments-fantasies are easy to refute. Let’s consider (very briefly, given the obviousness of the issue) a few places from Scripture where it speaks of “the whole household” in the context of baptism.