before<\/em> baptism and not during or after. I also have all of these sins that I didn’t know were sins until recently that I’ve been committing (using euphemisms in place of God’s name and swear words, and I have a library book that I had put away and forgotten about, and never returned from almost two years ago, I also lost a second library book, and unpaid property taxes from a few years ago, also that I had forgotten about, and not having a right attitude, both towards my family and friends and with myself). Regarding the euphemisms, I now try to redirect my thoughts and words to avoid saying them, but I find myself slipping up occasionally. I’m concerned that I didn’t truly repent and that I should be rebaptized upon correcting my mistakes.<\/p>\nThoughts?<\/p>\n
Thank you.<\/p>\n\t
Answer:<\/h2>\n
To become a Christian, a person must repent of his sins. “Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”<\/em>” (Acts 2:38). Very likely most people could not innumerate all the sins committed. But what repentance means is that you have changed your mind about sin and are changing your behavior. A person does not have to be perfect to be a Christian. In fact, that isn’t possible for anyone. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us<\/em>” (I John 1:8). However, a person can change his attitude toward sin by no longer accepting it, excusing it, or tolerating it in his life.<\/p>\nWith your changed attitude toward sin, you started examining what you do and realized that changes are needed. That is normal — it is called growing in the faith. It doesn’t require being baptized again, it requires corrective action (II Corinthians 7:10-11) and an apology to God (I John 1:9).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: Hi, After spending most of my teenage and early adult life in the Baptist Church, I came upon the\u00a0Interactive Bible Study by Ronald Boatwright, which talked about how to be biblically saved.\u00a0I was actually baptized for the correct reason a few weeks ago. However, I’ve been wondering if I should be baptized again, mainly…<\/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,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[248,179],"class_list":["post-38938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-baptized-again","tag-sin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25930,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-was-baptized-as-an-infant-do-i-need-to-be-baptized-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":38938,"position":0},"title":"I was baptized as an infant. Do I need to be baptized again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was baptized as an infant; however, I have recently found Christ and repented from my sinful ways. I know the importance of baptism and want to ensure that I am in accordance with the Scriptures. There are many different views on this subject; however, I cannot seem to\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":24451,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-much-repentance-is-needed-before-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":38938,"position":1},"title":"How much repentance is needed before baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a few things that bother me from time to time and I can't seem to be at peace with it. The topic of repentance comes to mind. I have read through some of\u00a0your articles, as well as other articles, regarding repentance and its necessity for baptism (which\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":48825,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-fear-i-didnt-have-the-right-attitude-before-i-was-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":38938,"position":2},"title":"I fear I didn’t have the right attitude before I was baptized","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 24, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: First off, I would like to say, I grew up in a church of Christ. A few years ago, I was struggling with hardcore sin in my life. My brother died that year, and it woke me up quickly. I was partying, drinking, smoking weed, cussing, having sex, and\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":32652,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-if-you-continued-with-your-sin-after-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":38938,"position":3},"title":"What if you continued with your sin after baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What if you continued with your sin after the baptism of water? Do you still need to be baptized again? Answer: The proper question is whether you repented of your sins before you were baptized. Some people do want to become Christians, but they are not interested in giving\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":8987,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-have-to-know-that-baptism-is-for-the-remission-of-sins-in-order-to-be-forgiven\/","url_meta":{"origin":38938,"position":4},"title":"Do you have to know that baptism is for the remission of sins in order to be forgiven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: The question I pose is, \"Does one have to have the knowledge that baptism is for the remission of sins, for such to occur?\" I understand that if one is taught by one who knows the truth, this would not even be a question. However, I can not logically\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":35700,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-keep-going-back-into-my-old-sins-do-i-need-to-be-baptized-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":38938,"position":5},"title":"I keep going back into my old sins. Do I need to be baptized again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I was recently baptized for a second time because I felt that my first baptism was invalid because I wasn't truly converted and turned back to my old ways too quickly. But with this baptism, I feel that I didn't repent before I was baptized because I went\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\/38938","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=38938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38938\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}