{"id":60317,"date":"2023-04-15T14:49:56","date_gmt":"2023-04-15T19:49:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=60317"},"modified":"2023-04-15T14:49:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-15T19:49:56","slug":"do-i-need-to-get-baptized-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-need-to-get-baptized-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Do I need to get baptized again?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Hello,<\/p>\n<p>I grew up in the church of Christ. I was first baptized around age 12. I later was baptized again because I became unsure if I did it for the correct reasons the first time. I thought I did it more out of fear of hell than belief and love of God. I still have doubts about my baptism. I have been baptized 4 times. Yet I still come up with doubts or reasons as to why I may need to do it again. I even wrote down why I wanted to be baptized the last time so I could reference it when\/if doubts arose. After the last time, I started wondering what if I didn&#8217;t go entirely under the water, what if my arm came up? Then most recently after reading about Philip and the eunuch I started doubting again. He told the eunuch &#8220;If you believe with all your heart, you may.&#8221; So I wonder did I believe with all my heart? I believed, yes, but my belief has definitely grown.<\/p>\n<p>I wanted to reach out and seek your direction. Thank you for what you do.<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>You are suffering from scrupulosity, a form of OCD. In reality, all OCDs are an unreasonable aversion to risks. You have convinced yourself that you have to be absolutely perfect because that is the only way God would accept you. Thus, to make sure there are no risks to being saved, you add rules for yourself to various tasks, such as baptism, and then analyze every moment to make sure you did the tasks perfectly. See <a href=\"https:\/\/lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/tag\/scrupulosity\/\">Scrupulosity<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The facts are that you were baptized, just as God said was needed to be done. You had faith because you volunteered to be baptized. No one forced you to be baptized.<\/p>\n<p>Deciding you had a flawless baptism doesn&#8217;t make you more of a Christian. Making up rules that God didn&#8217;t say is adding to His word (Proverbs 30:6). God is not looking to keep you out of heaven. He wants everyone to be saved (I Timothy 2:4).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment<\/em>&#8221; (Hebrews 6:1-2). Because you are stuck reviewing your past, you are not maturing as a Christian.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Hello, I grew up in the church of Christ. I was first baptized around age 12. I later was baptized again because I became unsure if I did it for the correct reasons the first time. I thought I did it more out of fear of hell than belief and love of God. I&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","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":[248,965,966],"class_list":["post-60317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-baptized-again","tag-ocd","tag-scrupulosity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"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":60317,"position":0},"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":[]},{"id":29264,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-having-doubts-about-my-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":60317,"position":1},"title":"I&#8217;m having doubts about my baptism","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I hope you are well. I have a question about baptism. When I was 13, I was baptized into Christ. However, I later realized I had only done it out of pressure. I was baptized into Christ when I was 19. Not long after, I began to have\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":39470,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-my-baptism-valid\/","url_meta":{"origin":60317,"position":2},"title":"Is My Baptism Valid?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Periodically, someone will approach me concerning his baptism. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Doubts have crept into his mind as to whether his baptism was valid \u2013 whether he really was a Christian or only pretending to be one. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Generally those with doubts were baptized young in life. Events have happened\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sermon&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23002,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-i-dont-remember-making-a-confession-do-i-need-to-be-baptized-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":60317,"position":3},"title":"If I don&#8217;t remember making a confession, do I need to be baptized again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello! First and foremost I want to offer my appreciation for your website and the encouragement it brings to many. I have been struggling with doubts about my personal salvation over the last few years and was hoping you could bring me some clarity\/advice on what my next step\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":44070,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-i-didnt-say-jesus-is-lord-do-i-need-to-be-baptized-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":60317,"position":4},"title":"If I didn&#8217;t say &#8220;Jesus is Lord,&#8221; do I need to be baptized again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello there, Thank you for the articles and answers on your website.\u00a0 I believe they stand on good biblical ground and are a blessing to Christians and the world. I have a question about Romans 10:9.\u00a0 Many years ago, I was immersed in water for the remission of my\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":17425,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-beginning-to-doubt-my-baptism-whether-i-really-understood-that-i-was-to-die-to-sin-should-i-be-rebaptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":60317,"position":5},"title":"I&#8217;m beginning to doubt my baptism, whether I really understood that I was to die to sin. Should I be rebaptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have heard of many people who have questioned their salvation because they didn't know a particular scripture at the time. I have learned through the years that there will always be something you don't know at the time of your baptism. A person does not need to know\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\/60317","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=60317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}