Should I be Re-baptized? Some Pastoral Advice on a Fairly Common Question By Chris White

Fred had moved to our area with the intention of making a fresh start in life and shortly after that joined our congregation.  He had grown up in a nominally Mormon home but as an eight year old had been water baptized.  Cecilia was a lapsed Catholic before becoming a confirmed agnostic during her university years.  A girlfriend had invited her to a ladies Bible study group at our church and over time she had found her faith re-invigorated.  Al had grown up in the Christian Reformed Church out in the Midwest before work and a marriage prospect brought him to the Northwest.  He hated the formality and “God’s frozen chosen” mentality of his past church and was genuinely excited about the openness and freedom he was finding outside of a denominational church setting.  As diverse as these people and situations are, they all share something in common.  They came to me asking if they could or should be re-baptized.

The short answer is that if you have been born-again and duly baptized by an appointed minister of the church then no, you need not be re-baptized.  I say this because what happened at your baptism, both spiritually and physically, was very real and an unrepeatable experience.  It’s like your birthday. You may want mark the day and thank your parents, but you cannot repeat it (and no doubt your mother wouldn’t want to anyway)!  With that general answer, let’s explore some possible exceptions that might make re-baptism a good idea:

1. If you were baptized in a church that was non-Trinitarian.  Christ commands His church to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Mt. 28:19).  This isn’t just a verbal formula or liturgy; this is the reality of the One True God.  If you were baptized outside of or in opposition to this reality, the external act may have resembled Christian baptism, but it was not.  In this circumstance, re-baptism is very necessary because the first one was not based on truth.

2. If you were baptized as an infant but desire baptism as an adult.  The New Testament teaches “believer’s baptism” which suggests being old enough to be aware of your sin and need of salvation before you are baptized.  My experience was that my parents had me baptized as an infant as a pledge to the Lord that I would be raised as a Christian.  Later on I made a decision to trust Christ as Savior.  I was already baptized but sensed the Lord wanted me to do this apart from the will of my parents.  In my case, the physical act of baptism was repeated, but the spiritual aspects of it clearly happened only once.  I believe a person can be born-again and be perfectly satisfied with the knowledge they were baptized as infants and hold that baptism in good conscience.  If that is where you stand and the Holy Spirit bears witness in your soul, then let that be your resting place.  If the Spirit leads you to a second baptism, then you should promptly obey Him in this matter.

3. If you are on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.  Jesus neither commands nor commends Christian pilgrimage, but since the earliest days of the Church, Christians have been drawn to the stage where the Lord lived, taught, was crucified, and resurrected.  For some Christians it is extremely meaningful to enter the same river (the Jordan) that Jesus was baptized and be baptized for the first time or a second time strictly as an act of praise and thanksgiving.  From my perspective this is like a renewal of wedding vows.  It is not a new marriage but a reaffirmation and appreciation of a prior decision and act.

I’d also like to mention a few situations where Christians have strongly felt the need for re-baptism, but it would be exactly the wrong thing to do.  The first is where the Christian has fallen out of fellowship and/or committed a grievous sin (or series of sins).  To be re-baptized in this situation is to treat baptism like a “grace bath” where we wash the filth of our sin out of our lives.  The fact is you are washed and made clean by Christ’s blood alone apart from anything you can do (1 Pet. 3:21).  In this case, heartfelt repentance is more desirable than re-baptism.

Another common scenario is when a person transfers to another church and they want to be re-baptized by their new pastor.  The truth is a person is baptized into Christ and his body the church.  This stands apart from any particular church or congregation.  If you were baptized into Christ in your last church, nothing’s changed.  You still have the same Lord no matter where you choose to worship.  Instead of re-baptism, join a small group or becoming involved in ministry there.

Finally, there are some who have gone through the grief of losing their pastor due to sin or apostasy.  I have known many people who have come to my congregation for a time of rest and healing after this experience in another church.  Some have wondered if they should be re-baptized because of the spiritual failure of their former pastor.  Once again, situations like these generate much grief and disappointment, but the validity of your baptism remains even you feel your faith has been shaken.  At your baptism, it was your faith in Christ and your obedience to Christ that made it valid, not the faith of the one who administered it.

Obviously, not every personal situation can be addressed in a short article but I hope if this is something you are pondering that you have found some direction in the matter.  If you are a Christian and have avoided baptism altogether I hope you’ll rethink your position.  The New Testament does not teach that people must be baptized to be saved, but it knows of no saved person who isn’t baptized.  If the Lord has said “follow me” to you, his path was through baptism.  Obedience to Him would do nothing less.  If you have any further questions about this matter write them in the comments section and I will get back with you quickly.

4 Things You Must Take to Heart in a Difficult Time by Chris White

Our best growth is in the difficult places

We live in a time of great uncertainty where change seems to be constant and most of it doesn’t seem to be “change for the better.”  From frightening natural disasters and unexpected job losses, to broken relationships and protracted illnesses, life can throw a lot of difficult things in our path.  Back in the early days of Christianity, the Apostle Peter was leading the church of Rome through a terrible persecution (this was when Nero burned Rome and scapegoated the Christians) and decided to write his Christian friends in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) to tell them to prepare their minds and hearts for persecution that was most certainly on the way.  This document (the epistle of 1 Peter in the New Testament) is just as vital today as it was then in teaching us how we are to think and act in difficult times.

1.        We have a guarantee of “tomorrow” from the God who made “today”.  1 Peter 1:3 reads “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..”.  It’s sad how many empty promises people are given and hang on to for hope these days.  The economy and stock market are going up, happy days are here again.  Vote for me and I’ll change things for the better.  Really, I mean it this time!  If you take this supplement three times daily you will finally have a perfect body, whiter teeth, fresher breath and loads of sex appeal.  Go to this all-inclusive resort and you’ll have the time of your life.  Peter calls our hope as Christians a living one because it is anchored in Jesus Christ being raised from the dead.  The greatest existential threat to all people that today may be their last.  If you belong to Christ, you have the certainty of living through death because Christ did and came back to talk about it.  He said that he goes to prepare a place for us that where he is, there we shall be also (Jn. 14:3).  No matter what happens in this life, there is a certain promise we will outlive our problems.

2.       We have a certain future that is far better than our present.  St. Peter goes on to say in his letter that we are called to an inheritance that is “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading” (1:4) that is kept in heaven for us.  This is fundamentally the opposite of what we experience here on earth.  Virtually everything perishes, becomes corrupted (the meaning of the defilement in the New Testament), and fades.  Sometimes the principle of entropy is the very source of the difficult time we are in.  The car breaks down and it can’t be fixed.  Relationships disintegrate because of an accumulation of broken trust.  The fit and firm body we once had is worn out.  The promise that we must take to heart is that there will be a day when things will stop falling apart and fading away.  This life requires us to accept many losses, sometimes loss at a catastrophic level.  In heaven this will be no more.  Life will always be getting better.

3.       We have “coverage” better than any insurance policy.  In 1 Peter 1:5 he says we are, by the power of God, “being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”  The word Peter uses for being guarded is a military term that can also be translated “shielded”.  The idea is that God shields his people in difficult circumstances.  “Now wait a minute,” I can hear you say, “God didn’t shield me when such and so happened!”  First of all, I said circumstances not consequences.  Sometimes the difficulties we face are actually the consequences of our poor choices or sinful thinking.  God sometimes does protect us from the full consequences of our sin, but he is not raising us to be perpetual children, but the responsible adults of his kingdom.  Therefore, he helps us to grow up by making us live with the consequences of our choices.  But other times God doesn’t shield us from external forces but rather gives us internal armor to withstand those forces.  This is what I would call unfailing endurance.  Either way, God does protect his own until the day when we realize all of his promises in Christ.

4.       We have a joy separated from personal circumstance.  In 1 Peter 1:6, Peter speaks of his friends rejoicing even though “now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.”  Why would anyone rejoice in their trials?  Because trials test and prove out the reality of our faith.  It is what I would call a “Francis Scott Key experience.”  As he spent the night of Sept. 14, 1814 on a British battleship watching our nation’s enemy bombard Fort McHenry for 20 hours, his excitement was not about the “rocket’s red glare” or “the bombs bursting in air” but that despite the ordeal, the Star - Spangled Banner was still there.  So with our faith.  We see in the ordeal that we still trust God and that he gives us endurance.  This in turn gives confidence that he is living in us and we in him and that our faith is real.  When you know God loves you and the promise of heaven is real, joy abounds without being connected to your personal circumstance.

None of these things will make going through a difficult time a pleasant or enjoyable experience.  But as Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church writes:  “the way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel determines the way you act.”  When we think differently about the troubles we face and focus on the long-term promise of future grace, it makes the weight of circumstances a bit easier to bear.  Hope always has that kind of effect.