Acts 1:5

‘“For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit’” (Acts 1:5).

Question:

I consider myself more spiritual than religious. I was surprised and rather pleased when I took my mother to Unity Church of Mesa while she was visiting from Alaska. She enjoyed the services. I thought with her upbringing in the Southern Baptist church, she would think that Unity was a cult. My mother puts a lot of emphasis on the need to be baptized. How can I explain to her that baptism is a symbol for renewal, rebirth, commitment? In her mind, if you are not baptized, you will not get into heaven (traditional view of heaven).

Comment:

This passage illustrates that Jesus was calling his disciples to something more than the baptism by water that was associated with John the Baptist. He is promising a baptism of Spirit, which you beautifully describe as ‘renewal, rebirth, commitment.’ It doesn’t support the idea that a baptism by water is required for admission to heaven. It affirms that a spiritual baptism of Christ awareness is necessary to achieve the new dimension of consciousness that Jesus calls the kingdom of heaven—not a place we may go after death, but an elevated spiritual consciousness in which we may live our lives here and now.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed