- May 17, 2011
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So this Wednesday I am getting baptized again, and by again I mean for a fourth time. Now let me explain.
As a young boy I grew up in church. It was an Independent Fundamental Baptist church where I was heavily soaked in the KJV and memorization. At the age of 10 or 11, I was baptized in this Baptist church. I had prayed the sinner's prayer much earlier in my life, but never baptized. Well I was told being baptized was my next step in obedience so I did it.
Well a few years passed and at the age of 16-ish I began to feel I wasn't truly saved. So I remember wrestling with this feeling for quite some time, and it all came to a head one day as I watched a documentary on the Columbine massacre. Something about that show hit me with the realization that if I were to die, I was separated from God, so I called my church and "rededicated" myself to Christ, followed by another baptism the next week.
Well I joined the Army at the age of 18 after wrestling with that or going to Bible College. My faith wasn't strong enough to endure much and by the age of 19 I was basically a backslidden Christian. I lived like this for many years until the age of 33 when I began to view salvation and baptism differently than before.
This thread isn't about that necessarily, so I will keep this brief. The way of the cross to me is the way of salvation. Jesus said I am the way... no one comes to the Father but by me. He died, was buried, and rose again, that is the gospel. He told Nicodemus unless one is born of water and the Spirit they cannot enter the kingdom of God. In 1 John 5:7-10, John writes that the water, the blood, and the Spirit all testify about Jesus and those who believe have that testimony as well. In Acts 2:38 Peter told the first crowds to respond to the gospel that they must repent and be baptized to receive the Holy Spirit. Repentance is the blood, dying to ourselves, crucifying the flesh to live for God (Galatians 2:20, Luke 9:23-24). Baptism is the watery grave where we are buried with Christ, burying the old sin nature so that we can be reborn to new life in the Spirit (Romans 6:3-4, Titus 3:5)
Well at the age of 33, I began to view my first two baptisms as illegitimate for the theology I was baptized under I didn't agree with any longer. So I arranged to be baptized a third time. Well the day of my baptism came and when given the chance to confess my sins, I didn't do so out of pride really, some fear. But I didn't. Because I held onto those things, my old nature was not put to death and I held onto it making my baptism invalid. I fell away not long after again. I made a quite dramatic post here on CF about that time too back in 2017-2018. From that time until about 2 months ago I remained separated from God by my sins.
Well a couple months ago around the time of my birthday, I woke up one morning and just felt different. Can't explain it, just did. My lustful desires were gone and my heart was tender in a way it has never really been if I'm being honest. So almost immediately I knew the Holy Spirit was working on me. He began to reveal things to me, some of which I knew about myself, some of which I was shocked to find out. All things that were hindering my relationship. He brought to my remembrance my last baptism and how I kept hidden these issues that I knew then were problems, but out of pride and arrogance I kept them to myself and told me to not be so. So that leads me to Wednesday. I am getting baptized again, a fourth and final time. There is nothing I want more than Jesus. Nothing. I'm upset it's taken me 38 years to reach this point, but I am finally ready to give myself up for him.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading, just felt like sharing this. I humbly request if you don't agree with my statement on salvation to not try and convince me otherwise or log this thread with your disagreement. We can discuss that somewhere else if you'd like. Love you all, God bless!
As a young boy I grew up in church. It was an Independent Fundamental Baptist church where I was heavily soaked in the KJV and memorization. At the age of 10 or 11, I was baptized in this Baptist church. I had prayed the sinner's prayer much earlier in my life, but never baptized. Well I was told being baptized was my next step in obedience so I did it.
Well a few years passed and at the age of 16-ish I began to feel I wasn't truly saved. So I remember wrestling with this feeling for quite some time, and it all came to a head one day as I watched a documentary on the Columbine massacre. Something about that show hit me with the realization that if I were to die, I was separated from God, so I called my church and "rededicated" myself to Christ, followed by another baptism the next week.
Well I joined the Army at the age of 18 after wrestling with that or going to Bible College. My faith wasn't strong enough to endure much and by the age of 19 I was basically a backslidden Christian. I lived like this for many years until the age of 33 when I began to view salvation and baptism differently than before.
This thread isn't about that necessarily, so I will keep this brief. The way of the cross to me is the way of salvation. Jesus said I am the way... no one comes to the Father but by me. He died, was buried, and rose again, that is the gospel. He told Nicodemus unless one is born of water and the Spirit they cannot enter the kingdom of God. In 1 John 5:7-10, John writes that the water, the blood, and the Spirit all testify about Jesus and those who believe have that testimony as well. In Acts 2:38 Peter told the first crowds to respond to the gospel that they must repent and be baptized to receive the Holy Spirit. Repentance is the blood, dying to ourselves, crucifying the flesh to live for God (Galatians 2:20, Luke 9:23-24). Baptism is the watery grave where we are buried with Christ, burying the old sin nature so that we can be reborn to new life in the Spirit (Romans 6:3-4, Titus 3:5)
Well at the age of 33, I began to view my first two baptisms as illegitimate for the theology I was baptized under I didn't agree with any longer. So I arranged to be baptized a third time. Well the day of my baptism came and when given the chance to confess my sins, I didn't do so out of pride really, some fear. But I didn't. Because I held onto those things, my old nature was not put to death and I held onto it making my baptism invalid. I fell away not long after again. I made a quite dramatic post here on CF about that time too back in 2017-2018. From that time until about 2 months ago I remained separated from God by my sins.
Well a couple months ago around the time of my birthday, I woke up one morning and just felt different. Can't explain it, just did. My lustful desires were gone and my heart was tender in a way it has never really been if I'm being honest. So almost immediately I knew the Holy Spirit was working on me. He began to reveal things to me, some of which I knew about myself, some of which I was shocked to find out. All things that were hindering my relationship. He brought to my remembrance my last baptism and how I kept hidden these issues that I knew then were problems, but out of pride and arrogance I kept them to myself and told me to not be so. So that leads me to Wednesday. I am getting baptized again, a fourth and final time. There is nothing I want more than Jesus. Nothing. I'm upset it's taken me 38 years to reach this point, but I am finally ready to give myself up for him.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading, just felt like sharing this. I humbly request if you don't agree with my statement on salvation to not try and convince me otherwise or log this thread with your disagreement. We can discuss that somewhere else if you'd like. Love you all, God bless!
