A Sincere Request: Before proceeding, please review my previous articles, listed in order, for context. If you've already read them, please continue.

The First Church - Garden of Eden:

In the beginning, God created the Garden of Eden, the first church, where He commanded Adam and Eve to practice the religion of love. As long as they followed this religion, they loved God and obeyed His commandments. Before falling into sin, they attempted to uphold God's love, as recorded in scripture:

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” (Genesis 3:2-3, NIV)

The Nature of Satan:

During Satan's deception, Adam and Eve's effort to live God's religion of love was inadequate. They should have avoided the evil one's snare and continued practicing the religion of love. Satan, a thief of love among humanity, despises the religion of love. Therefore, he continually tries to separate those united in God's love, guiding them away from the Garden of love. Satan is consumed by the vice of separatism and division, using it to sow discord and rule over humanity.

God's Love Amidst Satan's Relentless Attacks:

Amidst Satan's relentless efforts to divide, God created humans in His own image, longing to see mutual love among them. He continually seeks, through His prophets, to guide humanity back to God's love. This reflects God's immense love for mankind and His desire to see humanity reunited in love. He longs for us to defeat our adversary, Satan, and remain in God's love.

God chose John the Baptist, who heard His call, to become His voice in the wilderness. John administered the baptism of repentance by water, beyond denominational walls, to teach people to overcome Satan, who spreads discord and division. By cleansing their vices – animosity, separatism, arrogance, hypocrisy, pretentious nobility and hatred – John helped restore mutual love. He elevated them from weakness to spiritual strength, enabling them to live in God's love and become God's children, as written in Scripture, "God is love." (1 John 4:8, NIV)

If We Lived by God's Words!

We can emphasize the importance of God's words for love (1 John 4:8, NIV) by living them, rather than just speaking about them. If we don't live by God's word but speak, we hear God's words with one ear and ignore them with the other. When we treat God's word this way, we stray from its true application.

Consequently, modern administrators of the 'Baptism of Water' fail to unite people in the religion of love, unlike John the Baptist's example. What are the consequences? We create our own churches, religions, and worship methods, fuelled by separatism, division, strife, hatred, arrogance, hypocrisy, and pretentious nobility.

By not living God's word, we allow deceptive Satan to spread his kingdom, sowing discord and ruling over us. If we lived by God's word, we would:

- Live the religion of love
- Unite in God
- Behave as He desires
- Love one another with all our heart, soul, and mind
- Become God's children, in His image and likeness

As scripture declares: "Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother." (Mark 3:35, NIV)

Denominations An Assured Risk to Love:

"For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." (James 3:16, NIV)

Therefore, God desires humanity to be guided into the Garden of love, where they can live the religion of love, as John the Baptist did by the Jordan River, transcending his church, beyond denominational boundaries.

In the Garden of love:

- Individuals flourish in love
- Behave like God's relatives, loving others as themselves
- Become God's relatives – brother, sister, mother, father
- Share a relationship with God akin to Jesus Christ's

Let us ponder deeply:

- Do we, administrators and recipients of the 'Baptism of Water,' live by God's words?
- If so, why are we fragmented into countless churches worldwide?
- If not, how will we face judgment day for not living by God's words?

Despite receiving the 'Baptism of Water,' we remain:

- Fragmented, divided in our churches in the wilderness
- Beyond the Garden of love

Is God not addressing the administrators of the 'Baptism of Water,' who cause fragmentation instead of unity, as Scripture reminds: "Because they have no regard for the deeds of the Lord and what his hands have done..." (Psalm 28:5, NIV)

God Looks at Us as A Mirror:

Do the administrators of the ‘Baptism of Water’, instead of guiding recipients to live a life of love in the Garden of love, confine them to their physical church boundaries, where division, separatism, tug-of war, estrangement, blame-shifting, roars like a lion? If yes, then, it is necessary to receive the baptism of repentance, which is: ‘Baptism of Water’, if not taken, and ‘Baptism of Repentance’, to end the exile in the wilderness and enter the Garden of love, living by the religion of love. Indeed, where there is love, there is God. If we harbour vices like estrangement, division, and envy towards others, and gather in the physical church made of materials, then how can we claim the presence of God over there? As long as the ruler of discord reigns among us, love can’t prosper. We must unite, overcoming these vices, in our lifetime: enviousness, separatism, division, tug-of-war, estrangement, and gather in the Garden of love to live the religion of love. Indeed, God, created us in His image and likeness desires to see His image in us, as the scripture says: "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48, NIV)

Oneness in Trinity, Oneness with Humanity:

God is Trinity by nature; Lord God is in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is in the image and likeness of God, and both are in the image and likeness of the Holy Spirit. By creating us in Their image and likeness, They desire unity and likeness for humanity.

Jesus Christ prayed for mankind's unity in Them, as recorded in Scripture: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:20-21)

Love: The Yardstick of Human Accountability

As long as we don't embrace the religion of love, we'll continue to live with human vices like separatism, division, and estrangement, and our worship within the boundary of our physical churches will be ineffective. God is love; therefore, love is our religion – loving everyone without discrimination.

Indeed, love will be the measuring scale for our deeds on Judgment Day, as Jesus commands: 'Love each other as I have loved you' (John 15:12, NIV)."

The Irony: Vowing to Love, Embracing Wilderness

The Irony: Vowing to Love, then Embracing Wilderness

Though many have been baptized with water, their spiritual journey ended in spiritual darkness in wilderness. Oh, that their final breath could have been in the garden of love, surrounded by the divine presence, embodying the religion of love.

This underscores the importance of understanding baptism as a sacred ritual that unites us with the Triune God, as we'll explore further...

To be Continued…..

==> Stay tuned for our next article, where we'll uncover how 'Baptism: Embracing Oneness with the Trinity, Inspired by John's Example' that transforms our faith journey.

Amen!

Praise be to God, Thanks be to God.

Not being Unrighteous is Religion!!

Jharkhand! Peace be upon you!!

India! Peace be upon you!!

Peace to the whole world!!