{"id":98666,"date":"2026-10-23T19:28:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T00:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=98666"},"modified":"2026-10-23T19:28:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T00:28:49","slug":"i-thought-i-needed-to-say-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-thought-i-needed-to-say-more\/","title":{"rendered":"I thought I needed to say more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Hello,<\/p>\nI have been baptized into Christ. I have been taught the gospel and why I need to be baptized. Going into it, I fully believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and publicly confessed that. My dad asked me that question and quickly dunked me under. At the time, I thought I had to say more, like I had to confess more before the baptism. I got scared that I didn&#8217;t say enough, or that I doubted I said enough. Did I violate Romans 14, or am I just overthinking it?\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>There are numerous confessions of Jesus in the Scriptures:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Peter&#8217;s: &#8220;<em>You are the Christ, the Son of the living God<\/em>&#8221; (Matthew 16:16).<\/li>\n<li>Thomas&#8217;: &#8220;<em>My Lord and my God!<\/em>&#8221; (John 20:28).<\/li>\n<li>John&#8217;s: &#8220;<em>And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name<\/em>&#8221; (John 20:30-31).<\/li>\n<li>Nathanael&#8217;s: &#8220;<em>Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!<\/em>&#8221; (John 1:49).<\/li>\n<li>An angel&#8217;s: &#8220;<em>For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord<\/em>&#8221; (Luke 2:11).<\/li>\n<li>The eunuch&#8217;s: &#8220;<em>I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God<\/em>&#8221; (Acts 8:37).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Even though the wording is different in each confession, the confessions are all essentially saying the same thing:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jesus is the Son of God &#8212; He is deity who came in the flesh to live among men.<\/li>\n<li>Jesus is the Anointed of God (the Christ or Messiah) &#8212; He fulfills all the prophecies concerning God&#8217;s plan to save mankind from their sins.<\/li>\n<li>Jesus is our Lord (or our King) &#8212; The Messiah was the heir to David&#8217;s throne and would establish a never-ending kingdom. As King, he holds complete authority over our lives. He is not <em>just<\/em>\u00a0King of the Jews, but King of all kingdoms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Confession starts with a public statement about what you believe, but confession is not a one-time act. It is a way of life. Asking a person before baptism ensures they are willing to continue confessing Christ throughout their life. In both Matthew 10:32-33 and Romans 10:9-10, confess is in the present tense in Greek. It means it is ongoing and not a one-time event in the past.<\/p>\n<p>Before baptism, I prefer that people state in their own words what they believe; however, I recognize that many people are nervous when they decide to be baptized into Christ, so I&#8217;ll ask if they believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Some will only say &#8220;yes,&#8221; but others will state their belief in greater detail. Since this is just the beginning of living a life that proclaims the Savior, either is acceptable. After all, Jesus&#8217; confession before the Jews and before Pilate was merely an affirmation of what they stated.<\/p>\n<p>Your doubts about whether it was enough at the moment of your baptism don&#8217;t invalidate what you affirmed in your confession. Your confession of belief still continues to this day.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Hello, I have been baptized into Christ. I have been taught the gospel and why I need to be baptized. Going into it, I fully believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and publicly confessed that. My dad asked me that question and quickly dunked me under. At the time, I thought&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,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[52,51],"class_list":["post-98666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-baptism","tag-confession"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":24222,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-dont-think-i-understood-what-i-was-confessing-well-enough-before-my-baptism-so-am-i-saved\/","url_meta":{"origin":98666,"position":0},"title":"I don&#8217;t think I understood what I was confessing well enough before my baptism. So am I saved?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 9, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am wondering if I am saved. I was baptized in a Church of Christ and since learning more about it I have questions. First I don't think I understood the confession part. I thought it was confessing to God that you are a sinner and in need 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":69116,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-can-i-say-to-someone-who-frequently-says-i-swear-to-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":98666,"position":1},"title":"What can I say to someone who frequently says, &#8220;I swear to God&#8221;?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 30, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What can I say to someone who says \"I swear to God\"? Thanks Answer: The goal should be to get the person to think about what they are saying. Often, people use catchphrases without much thought. Thus, I would ask, \"Do you think so little of the truth 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":37916,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-ask-god-to-give-people-his-complete-knowledge\/","url_meta":{"origin":98666,"position":2},"title":"Should I ask God to give people His complete knowledge?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it worthwhile to ask God in prayer to give confused or unbelieving people His complete knowledge of what is expected of them and a chance to accept it and be saved right before they would otherwise be damned?\u00a0 An example of what I mean by a confused person\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":32989,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-found-the-material-on-your-site-that-i-needed-for-a-class-i-was-teaching\/","url_meta":{"origin":98666,"position":3},"title":"I found the material on your site that I needed for a class I was teaching","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Thanks for taking the time to post all the material found on your website. I am teaching a class in the Lord's church and needed some additional information that I found on your site. I know that it takes time and effort to organize and post that data for\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":34887,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-repented-of-a-foolish-vow-and-broke-it-anyway-so-what-do-i-do\/","url_meta":{"origin":98666,"position":4},"title":"I repented of a foolish vow and broke it anyway. So what do I do?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am having real trouble with something at the moment, I fear that I have made a vow\/oath to God that I really don't want to keep. The vow does not contain anything sinful, I fear I said \"I would give up my hobby.\" The hobby is not\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":40000,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-found-some-much-needed-answers-on-your-site\/","url_meta":{"origin":98666,"position":5},"title":"I found some much-needed answers on your site","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I just wanted to say many thanks to your website's question section. Not only did I find some much-needed answers but also someone had the same exact question regarding if God is hearing my prayers or not. It gave me my zeal back. As a young Christian of only\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":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98666","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=98666"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98675,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98666\/revisions\/98675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}