When I got baptized, I was being baptized not necessarily wanting forgiveness but more about keeping myself from going to Hell. I was sincere in my commitment to God giving Him my life, but I was baptized out of fear of going to hell. This burdens my conscience every day and I don’t know what to do. Please don’t rebuke me harshly. I’m not trying to worry or upset anyone, I just don’t know what to do.<\/p>\n
Whatever advice you can give me, I’ll take and I won’t bring this up again. My heart keeps condemning me, and I just feel lost.<\/p>\n\t
There is no problem with your baptism. Like many people with OCD, you search out reasons not to be confident about who you are and where you are going. It isn’t that God said that there is only one valid motivation required in order to be properly baptized. You have imposed on yourself a requirement that God did not make and that is why you are miserable.<\/p>\n
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction<\/em>” (Proverbs 1:7).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
When Peter preached his first gospel sermon, his audience was motivated to be baptized to avoid the wrath of God.<\/p>\n
“‘Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ — this Jesus whom you crucified.’ Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart<\/strong>, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?<\/strong>‘ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.’ And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, ‘Be saved from this perverse generation!<\/strong>‘ So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls<\/em>” (Acts 2:36-41).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Fear of the consequences of not obeying God is a perfectly normal reason to decide to submit to God.<\/p>\n
“Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and consider whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace<\/em>” (Luke 14:31-32).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: When I got baptized, I was being baptized not necessarily wanting forgiveness but more about keeping myself from going to Hell. I was sincere in my commitment to God giving Him my life, but I was baptized out of fear of going to hell. This burdens my conscience every day and I don’t know…<\/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":[52],"class_list":["post-64220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-baptism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":53283,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-didnt-i-have-a-desire-to-study-and-go-to-church-after-i-was-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":64220,"position":0},"title":"Why didn’t I have a desire to study and go to church after I was baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is the act of baptism because of not wanting to go to hell the result of repentance? I can't say that I had a strong desire to live godly before my baptism, but at the same time, I can't say that I was planning on continuing to sin or\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":44531,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-was-baptized-by-a-female-priest-was-it-legitimate\/","url_meta":{"origin":64220,"position":1},"title":"I was baptized by a female priest. Was it legitimate?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I was baptized a year ago. Since then I've been a bit worried about something. My question might sound a bit silly, but the Bible tells us that women must keep silent in church. I was baptized by a female priest. Have I been 'officially' baptized? Am I\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":92756,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-one-go-to-hell-because-he-is-not-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":64220,"position":2},"title":"Will One Go to Hell Because He Is Not Baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 23, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Thomas Thornhill In studying with people about God's plan of salvation, the title question has been asked more than once. How would you answer the question? My answer has always been \"No!\" Are you surprised? You may be thinking, \"Doesn't one have to be baptized to be saved?\" \"Yes,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":64379,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-baptism-give-continual-cleansing\/","url_meta":{"origin":64220,"position":3},"title":"Does baptism give continual cleansing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I hope you are well. I have a question for you. I was baptized several years ago and when I was baptized I felt like my heart was not into it completely. I went into the baptism knowing that there were sins that I was not going 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":2440,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-want-to-be-baptized-but-how-can-i-find-a-true-believer-to-do-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":64220,"position":4},"title":"I want to be baptized, but how can I find a true believer to do it?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I recently came across the fact that baptism is a necessary step for the forgiveness of sins. If this interpretation is true, it means that I've never met a Christian in my whole life. Most people I know who are or claim to be a Christian were baptized because\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":22956,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/you-shouldnt-condemn-those-who-believe-baptism-is-unnecessary-for-salvation\/","url_meta":{"origin":64220,"position":5},"title":"You shouldn’t condemn those who believe baptism is unnecessary for salvation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a Christian, a part of the Church of the Nazarene. I myself have been baptized, but it becomes a concern to me when many others find it absolutely necessary to be baptized with water to be saved. I am very open to the consideration of the doctrines\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\/64220","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=64220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}