{"id":55800,"date":"2022-11-14T17:15:07","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T23:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=55800"},"modified":"2022-11-15T10:57:51","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T16:57:51","slug":"is-a-baptism-valid-if-the-church-believes-only-jesus-is-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-a-baptism-valid-if-the-church-believes-only-jesus-is-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Is a baptism valid if the church believes only Jesus is God?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Hello,<\/p>\n<p>I am a member of the church of Christ and have a question for you. My mother-in-law recently started attending the church, and I am concerned about her baptism being scriptural. She was baptized in a non-denominational &#8220;Jesus Only&#8221; church for the forgiveness of sins. What I mean by &#8220;Jesus Only&#8221; is this church believes that Jesus is the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. This concerns me as I am not sure if her faulty beliefs about the Godhead at the time of her baptism would interfere with her baptism being scriptural. My concern stems from these two verses:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ<\/em>&#8221; (I Peter 3:21).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>and<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;<em>Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age<\/em>&#8221; (Matthew 28:19-20).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In both of these verses, it says <b>God <\/b>is involved. If you are in the Jesus-Only church, you would think that <b>God <\/b>is actually Jesus in I Peter 3:21, and in Matthew 28, it would be saying &#8220;baptizing them in the name of Jesus, Jesus, and Jesus&#8221; in my opinion.<\/p>\n<p>I have one minister telling me <strong>yes<\/strong> her baptism would be scriptural, and another minister telling me <strong>no<\/strong>, it would not be scriptural, so I would really like your opinion on this.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you very much for your time!<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>We need to make sure some terms are understood. &#8220;In the name of&#8221; means &#8220;by the authority of.&#8221; See\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/all-in-a-name-2\/\">All in a Name<\/a>. Thus, when Matthew 28:19-20 says to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, this is exactly the same as being baptized in the name of Jesus (Acts 2:38; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5). The Godhead is completely unified, so the authority of one is the same as the authority of all. Thus, I agree that &#8220;Jesus Only&#8221; fails because it makes Mathew 28:19-20 redundant.<\/p>\n<p>The second point to be clear is that Jesus is God, just as the Father is God, and the Holy Spirit is God.<\/p>\n<p>You haven&#8217;t mentioned anything that was done wrong other than that those involved in the baptism did not have a good understanding of who God is. Yet, perfect understanding is not required to be baptized or required of the person doing the baptism.<\/p>\n<p>As your mother learns more about the Bible, she will realize that the group she was with is far off from the truth, and she may decide that she doesn&#8217;t want her baptism connected with that group. Or she may decide that she did what was right even though the group was wrong in its beliefs.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\t<h2>Response:<\/h2>\n<p>Thank you, Jeffrey. I really appreciate your timely response.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Hello, I am a member of the church of Christ and have a question for you. My mother-in-law recently started attending the church, and I am concerned about her baptism being scriptural. She was baptized in a non-denominational &#8220;Jesus Only&#8221; church for the forgiveness of sins. What I mean by &#8220;Jesus Only&#8221; is this&hellip;<\/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":[52,1578],"class_list":["post-55800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-baptism","tag-jesus-only"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":52771,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-jesus-baptism-save-before-his-death\/","url_meta":{"origin":55800,"position":0},"title":"How could Jesus&#8217; baptism save before his death?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 12, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a member of the Church of Christ. My son-in-law has decided to follow the Baptist teachings. I have done much study on baptism since his decision. I have studied many questions on your site. I am perplexed by your responses on one set of verses: John 4:1-2.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":745,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-baptism-be-done-only-in-jesus-name\/","url_meta":{"origin":55800,"position":1},"title":"Should baptism be done only in Jesus&#8217; name?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 24, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: For many years the churches of Christ have used Matthew 28:19 as a baptism that adds to the church that was built by the word of the Lord that went forth from Jerusalem, a baptism that was not present when Israel was told to repent and be baptized in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12164,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-jesus-the-father-and-the-spirit-three-manifestations-of-the-same-one-spirit\/","url_meta":{"origin":55800,"position":2},"title":"Are Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit three manifestations of the same one Spirit?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 7, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I see that you believe in the water baptism and the necessity of that being the remission of the sins that are forgiven. I note that in the Book of Acts, and God showed me this at 16 years old, that the apostles always baptized in the name of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50382,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-all-believe-the-only-way-to-be-saved-is-through-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":55800,"position":3},"title":"Do you all believe the only way to be saved is through baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was reading more on the La Vista Church of Christ website, and I was a little confused about something. Do you all believe the only way to be saved is through baptism? Answer: I have a question for you: Can a person be saved by ignoring what God\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":43323,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-belief-and-confession-mean-that-baptism-is-unnecessary\/","url_meta":{"origin":55800,"position":4},"title":"Do belief and confession mean that baptism is unnecessary?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, Thanks for your web site. It has been a God-send to folks like me who are relatively new in our walk with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. I have been trying to find a Bible-believing church to attend, but there are so many\u00a0false teachings and\u00a0divisions in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10450,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/am-i-doing-the-right-thing-by-getting-baptized-again-after-being-baptized-as-a-child\/","url_meta":{"origin":55800,"position":5},"title":"Am I doing the right thing by getting baptized again after being baptized as a child?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am getting baptized in a couple of days and I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing. The problem is that I was baptized as a toddler in a Catholic Church. I am not Catholic and the baptism meant nothing because I lived a life\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","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\/55800","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=55800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}