Do I Need to Be Baptized Again if My Beliefs Have Changed?

You are here

Do I Need to Be Baptized Again if My Beliefs Have Changed?

Login or Create an Account

With a UCG.org account you will be able to save items to read and study later!

Sign In | Sign Up

×
Downloads
MP3 Audio (3.29 MB)

Downloads

Do I Need to Be Baptized Again if My Beliefs Have Changed?

MP3 Audio (3.29 MB)
×

God expects us to come to baptism with true, heart-felt sorrow for our sins—our offenses against His holy, righteous law. He requires us to repent of that sin and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38). If we do this, He will grant forgiveness and the gift of His Holy Spirit.

If you were baptized in this manner and stayed true to your commitment to God, you should see good fruit in your life. Your biblical understanding should have increased since baptism. Your relationship with God through prayer and the study of His Word should have grown stronger. And you should have made good progress in overcoming your sins and carnal human nature.  

If your baptism has produced such good fruit of God's Spirit, it is evident He has been working in your life. In such a case, even if your beliefs have changed, rebaptism may not be necessary. However, there is no absolute, one-size-fits-all answer to the question.

For instance, at the time of your baptism, you may have been keeping the seventh-day Sabbath as God commands. Then, after baptism, you may have come to realize more perfectly that the annual Sabbaths of God should also be observed. If the fruits of God’s Spirit are evident in your life, even with less-than-perfect understanding, your baptism may be valid.

To be assured this is indeed the case, it is a good idea to seek counsel from a minister of God. He can guide you in an examination of the fruits borne in your life since baptism. With his help, and with the convicting power of God’s Holy Spirit, you can come to a settled answer in your mind. Contact one our ministers listed here for counsel in your walk.

You might also be interested in...

Comments

  • Mark Jeffrey Mode

    I was Baptized, but I don't remember the laying on of hands.
    Who can Baptize me according to the scriptures.

    Mark Jeffrey Mode

  • Pam Redline

    Hebrews 6:1-2: seven doctrines
    Acts 19:1-5

  • Pam Redline

    Acts 19:1-6 people re-baptized
    Hebrews 6:1-2, 7 doctrines

  • nkthgreek

    You might want to add the circumstance of infant baptism: Having been raised in the Greek Orthodox Church, I was baptized when I was a baby. We are instructed in Acts 2:38, we are to repent before being baptized. As a baby does not understand repentance, the baptism is not valid. After God called me as an adult I understood this and was subsequently re-baptized.

    -Nicolas Nick

  • Jhaskins

    When I was 12, I was baptized in a mainstream Sunday keeping church. I was coerced by a teen friend of mine. She used fear; “what if you died during the night.” It was not my idea, nor did I volunteer on my own, to be baptized at that time of my life.

    When I was 18-19, I mulled around in my mind the subject of really being baptized; into a church that more closely matched the teachings of the Bible, such as the Sabbath and the holy days.
    I went through a process of elimination, in deciding which church.

    Before baptism, I felt a “brick wall” in fully understanding and growth. After baptism, I didn't have that feeling anymore. God's Spirit living in us, inspires better understanding and growth.

    There are two stages that we are created in the image of God. 1. Physical and 2. Spiritual creation. The physical is overnight birth. Whereas the creation of us spiritually is a lifetime process in incremental stages. The greatest growth spurts after a trial, gives me more faith and empathy.

    If we are waiting for a dramatic event like Apostle Paul. It normally doesn't happen to the rest of us. It is a sincere and serious prayerful and meditative process.

  • Join the conversation!

    Log in or register to post comments