I need help in reconciling what I have always been taught and what I am being taught now. I was baptized a few years ago in the church and at the time I did truly believe that it was necessary, since then I begin to question whether it was necessary and I question many other things in the church. At one point I did not believe baptism is necessary, so do you believe that I am no longer saved? I was raised Baptist and until I met my husband I did not question my beliefs as a Baptist. However, since becoming a member of the church all I have ever done is question and worry about my security.<\/p>\n
Please advise. Thank you for your time.<\/p>\n\t
Asking questions is not bad, in fact, God encourages it.<\/p>\n
“Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it”<\/em>” (Isaiah 55:6-11).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
But if you never learn; that is, if you never examine what God teaches and conclude what is the truth, well, then you will never grow. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God<\/em>” (Romans 10:17). I would conclude that the reason you are having problems is simply that you are not learning God’s word. Without confidence in what God has said, you are losing your faith.<\/p>\n
“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits<\/em>” (Hebrews 5:12-6:3).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\t
Question:<\/h2>\n
I appreciate your response.\u00a0 I don’t think you understand where I am coming from. You believe that I have not studied and I have. The more I study, the more confused and unsure I become.<\/p>\n
Thank you for your help. I guess I will see if I can seek counsel from someone else.<\/p>\n
Thank you.<\/p>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
I didn’t say you haven’t studied, what I’m saying is that you aren’t learning. That is, you aren’t coming to answers to your questions. Instead, you are letting the questions pile up unanswered. “Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth<\/em>” (II Timothy 3:7). When God speaks of “hearing” He means listening and coming to knowledge. You have to put that knowledge to use.<\/p>\n
So, take one point and study it for the purpose of coming to a reasonable and logical conclusion. It doesn’t mean you might not reopen the question later when you find another point that you hadn’t seen before in the Scriptures, but look for answers and then start living by what God says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I need help in reconciling what I have always been taught and what I am being taught now. I was baptized a few years ago in the church and at the time I did truly believe that it was necessary, since then I begin to question whether it was necessary and I question many…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1569,49,47],"class_list":["post-14932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-doubts","tag-faith","tag-salvation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31442,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-a-person-from-a-baptist-background-need-to-be-baptized-again-if-he-believes-he-has-done-everything-god-asks-of-him-correctly\/","url_meta":{"origin":14932,"position":0},"title":"Does a person from a Baptist background need to be baptized again if he believes he has done everything God asks of him correctly?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a question about baptism. My husband and I are setting up to teach a man who has been visiting the church where we attend for going on two years now. His background is Baptist and when I asked him was he baptized for the remission of sins\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":34164,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-primitive-baptists-believe\/","url_meta":{"origin":14932,"position":1},"title":"What do Primitive Baptists believe?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: To start with, I want to thank you for your website, particularly the questions and answers section. It is well organized and presents a strong knowledge base, which I am now wanting to draw from. I am a member of the church of Christ and have been using your\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2450,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-a-baptist-be-rebaptized-even-though-he-says-he-was-baptized-for-the-right-reason\/","url_meta":{"origin":14932,"position":2},"title":"Must a Baptist be rebaptized even though he says he was baptized for the right reason?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was raised in the church of Christ. I am married to someone who was raised in the Baptist church. She has no problem with going to church with me. But she doesn't think that she should be baptized again. She says that she was baptized for the same\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31937,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-seventh-day-adventists-teach-about-salvation-and-the-baptists-teach-about-obedience\/","url_meta":{"origin":14932,"position":3},"title":"What do Seventh-day Adventists teach about salvation and the Baptists teach about obedience?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello brother, Can you explain to me what is the Seventh-day Adventist's view on salvation? I was watching a discussion between a Baptist and an Adventist. What the Adventist said sounded kind of similar to what the church of Christ believes salvation is. If it is not too much\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10963,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-baptism-necessary-for-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":14932,"position":4},"title":"Is baptism necessary for salvation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello! I am from Brazil, and I am seeking salvation. I believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died for my sins on the cross and rose on the third day for my justification. I am sorry for all my sins. I would like to ask you:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43545,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-leave-the-baptist-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":14932,"position":5},"title":"Should I leave the Baptist church?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I've been up since 5 this morning wrestling through scriptures, websites, my pastor's teaching from three Wednesday nights ago entitled \"Is baptism required or necessary for salvation\" and emails from a close friend (who is a Baptist) who is trying to help me study the Scripture.\u00a0 I asked several\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}