{"id":45301,"date":"2015-06-11T20:20:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T01:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=45301"},"modified":"2025-10-15T16:23:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T21:23:16","slug":"can-someone-be-baptized-who-is-still-struggling-with-pornography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-someone-be-baptized-who-is-still-struggling-with-pornography\/","title":{"rendered":"Can someone be baptized who is still struggling with pornography?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

Question:<\/h2>\n

My friend keeps watching pornography; he says he is trying to stop, but he keeps failing. He wants to be baptized, but when I baptize him and he keeps on doing so, will God keep on forgiving him, or will his Christianity just fade away to God?<\/p>\n\t

Answer:<\/h2>\n

There is a difference between wanting to quit, but not thinking it is really wrong, and really trying to quit but slipping up. Sin doesn’t have to be completely conquered before baptism, but a person has to have the attitude that he no longer accepts sin in his life. “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?<\/em>” (Romans 6:1-2).<\/p>\n

Sometimes you have to take a really radical approach to get sin out of your life. “For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter<\/em>” (II Corinthians 7:11). Too often people think that getting baptized is going to make the temptation to sin go away. It won’t. The temptation will always be there. What changes with repentance is our attitude about the acceptability of sin in our life.<\/p>\n

Try sharing\u00a0Lies Pornography Tells Men<\/a>\u00a0with your friend.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: My friend keeps watching pornography; he says he is trying to stop, but he keeps failing. He wants to be baptized, but when I baptize him and he keeps on doing so, will God keep on forgiving him, or will his Christianity just fade away to God? Answer: There is a difference between wanting…<\/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":[52,226,50],"class_list":["post-45301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-baptism","tag-pornography","tag-repentance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":18542,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/ive-fallen-back-into-pornography-how-can-i-be-confident-that-when-i-repent-ill-still-go-to-heaven\/","url_meta":{"origin":45301,"position":0},"title":"I’ve fallen back into pornography, how can I be confident that when I repent I’ll still go to heaven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi. I was once a member of the Lord's church. I say \"was\" because since getting baptized last year, I was so dedicated and love the Lord, but it was so soon after that I got trapped and went back to my wallowing in sin! i.e. pornography and masturbation.\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":14638,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-you-explain-all-these-similar-phrases-about-dying-with-christ-and-dying-to-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":45301,"position":1},"title":"Can you explain all these similar phrases about dying with Christ and dying to sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What do these phrases mean? I have been crucified with Christ I am dead in Christ I have died to Christ I am dead to sin I am dead in sin I am resurrected with Christ Answer: Let's examine each phrase in the statement in which it was given:\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":45301,"position":2},"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":[]},{"id":44673,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-i-get-to-heaven-if-i-continue-to-struggle-against-porn\/","url_meta":{"origin":45301,"position":3},"title":"Will I get to heaven if I continue to struggle against porn?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 13, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning, I am writing to tell you I have been struggling watching porn and to masturbate for a long time now. I have a wife, but I still do those types of things. I've tried to get away from it all, but I keep going back to all\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":27691,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-get-rid-of-the-sin-of-pornography\/","url_meta":{"origin":45301,"position":4},"title":"How do I get rid of the sin of pornography?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello sir, I want to know how I can get rid of my sins. Actually, I am from a Christian family. I grew up in a good environment, but about six months ago I started seeing unwanted movies on the Internet. I know it was very sinful, and after\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":47373,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-we-have-sex-one-more-time-before-our-baptisms-will-god-forgive-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":45301,"position":5},"title":"If we have sex one more time before our baptisms, will God forgive us?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 2, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I recently converted to Christianity and so did my girlfriend. We both have been in a very sexual relationship before we found God. We have been trying hard not to do anything sexual, but we messed up once, felt horrible, and asked for forgiveness. We're getting baptized soon,\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\/45301","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=45301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}