How the religion of men confuses basic details of God's Word
The following is portions of an article published in an online UK newspaper.
Priest quits after his baptisms found invalid because he said the wrong
words
Andres Arango, of the Diocese of Phoenix in Arizona, who has been a pastor
since 1998, and has since performed thousands of baptisms, was forced to
resign his position. According to the diocese, the priest would say "we
baptise you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"
instead of "I baptise you…" up until June 2021.
Because of that, all of the baptisms that he performed are presumed
invalid.
In an announcement, the diocese calls people to check their files for a
baptismal certificate, or even photos and videos of the baptism to see if
they were baptised by Arango.
And if they can’t find the files, the diocese urges people to contact their
parish to look up their certificate and find out whether they need to book
for a new baptism.
An announcement read: "It may seem legalistic, but the words that are spoken
(the sacramental form), along with the actions that are performed and the
materials used (the sacramental matter) are a crucial aspect of every
sacrament ... If you change the words, actions, or materials required in any
of the sacraments, they are not valid."
Original article here.
This is a sad, and even shocking, state of events. It is heartbreaking to
see how far religion has veered away from the truth. Such religion of men is
so distorted that it's hard to understand how people can be steered into
such fables. It is hard to fathom how clergy can miss the target by the
proverbial mile. Then again, I can understand that if the Word is not
rightly divided, things like baptism and other ordinances can become
misunderstood and terribly misapplied.
Let's clear up the air and bring proper biblical context to what baptism is
all about, and prove that this whole mess presented in the
article above is so unnecessary and unbiblical.
