How can we be sure??

[Jaxxi]

How can we be sure that we were baptized correctly and what if we weren't? What if we were baptized by a church that has fallen short of the glory of God, by a doubting Pastor, or if something was compromised unknowingly by Satan? I am asking because in this day and age I cannot see Satan just allowing perfect and holy baptisms to take place without trying to interfere somehow. I am to the point now that here at the last stretch I think satan has his hand in everything we do and use- I put nothing past him. But something as important as baptism- they say you only need to be baptized once- but it is being done by man so what if it is done wrong?

 

[GallagherM]

Hello Jaxxi; am going to be leaving shortly

How can we be sure that we were baptized correctly and what if we weren't?

One way is to learn from the bible and what it says about baptism. A short version is that God made a promise in Joel that He was going to pour out his spirit upon people. Jesus Christ Himself that the Father was going to bring for us an Advocate the spirit of truth to us, by and through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and John the baptist said that there was one who came mightier than (John) that He was not able to even tie his shoe, (meaning Jesus); and that Jesus would baptize a person in the holy spirit and fire.

These are all found in scripture and biblical.

What if we were baptized by a church that has fallen short of the glory of God, by a doubting Pastor, or if something was compromised unknowingly by Satan?

To me Jaxxi the church is a building; and God and the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God are far much more powerful than a building; and even much more powerful than man.

The question is what do you believe when it comes down the biblical text and what God has allowed to be for us (the bible) to learn from and grow in knowledge by using it.

Is man over God? No. If God can be for us who can be against us? Ourselves and our own ways of thinking, is the answer to that question.

When it comes to Satan I believe biblically that He has been done away with by and through being cast into the lake of fire in (Revelation 20:10) : So no one can place blame on the devil or anything. We are all responsible for our walk in this life with God and the Lord Jesus Christ and we have a bible that we can use and learn from. There are also external sources you can compare for with the internal evidences that are in the bible.

If you have any thoughts, questions or insights feel free, to ask. Will promise that there will be somethings that I may not be able to answer; that it is possible for me to be wrong, and never believe me but go check the bible out for yourself.​

 

[Neogaia777]

How can we be sure that we were baptized correctly and what if we weren't? What if we were baptized by a church that has fallen short of the glory of God, by a doubting Pastor, or if something was compromised unknowingly by Satan? I am asking because in this day and age I cannot see Satan just allowing perfect and holy baptisms to take place without trying to interfere somehow. I am to the point now that here at the last stretch I think satan has his hand in everything we do and use- I put nothing past him. But something as important as baptism- they say you only need to be baptized once- but it is being done by man so what if it is done wrong?

Anyone can baptize you, the bum on the street corner all drunk and reeking of alcohol can do it, what is most important is what it means, or has meant to you, and it should be also seen or witnessed by a few witnesses also, etc, but again, no particular kind, etc, they can be anybody who is just seeing what you are doing, whether they fully understand it or not, is not at all important, etc, just that they see you doing it, etc, but and/or also, etc, I think you are giving Satan way too much credit, and way too much power, etc, and yes, that can be given to him from you, etc, (and can also be taken back away from him by you, etc) (most of it anyway, etc) but, baptism is just between you and God for the most part, apart from what I have already said or told you, etc, you need to know what it meant to you if you have already been baptized, etc, and if you have not yet, then you need to know when you do, etc, and if the prior baptism that you maybe did maybe didn't have the right meaning for you when you did it in the past, but you feel like it would a lot, lot more so now, then maybe you need to do it again, etc, and there is nothing wrong with that, etc, it is primarily only what it means to you that is most important, etc, but it should have great meaning, etc...

And I'll leave others to try and fill you in as to what specifically it maybe may supposed to mean to you or for you or not, or what it represents or is symbolic of, etc, as I'm sure they can give you a lot of ideas about that, etc, but you can also do your own research also, etc...

I know a lot of the atypical answers already, but want to leave some of the work for others to do, etc, that I know they can do, etc...

Some may speak of "two baptisms" maybe also, etc, but again, I'll leave that for them to get into with you, etc...

Anyway,

God Bless!

 

[Rescued One]

When it comes to Satan I believe biblically that He has been done away with by and through being cast into the lake of fire in (Revelation 20:10) : So no one can place blame on the devil or anything. We are all responsible for our walk in this life with God and the Lord Jesus Christ and we have a bible that we can use and learn from. There are also external sources you can compare for with the internal evidences that are in the bible.

Are you saying that Satan doesn't have power to influence non-Christians anymore?

​

 

[Lawrence87]

As far as I understand it, if you were baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit then your baptism was legitimate irrespective of anything else.

If you had a non-trinitarian baptism it is, so far as my tradition goes, not valid and you would need to be baptized again.

 

[SabbathBlessings]

How can we be sure that we were baptized correctly and what if we weren't? What if we were baptized by a church that has fallen short of the glory of God, by a doubting Pastor, or if something was compromised unknowingly by Satan? I am asking because in this day and age I cannot see Satan just allowing perfect and holy baptisms to take place without trying to interfere somehow. I am to the point now that here at the last stretch I think satan has his hand in everything we do and use- I put nothing past him. But something as important as baptism- they say you only need to be baptized once- but it is being done by man so what if it is done wrong?

God knows your heart, so if you took a vow and that commitment to live a new life with Christ as your center than I do not need to think you need to be re-baptized. I agree with you that Satan has his hands in everything and has deceived the majority into believing God's commandments that He personally wrote we no longer need to keep . The solution to this is to keep your focus on Jesus. Find a church that is teaching God's Word and not traditions of man that we were warned about from Jesus. Matthew 15:9 God bless

 

[HTacianas]

How can we be sure that we were baptized correctly and what if we weren't? What if we were baptized by a church that has fallen short of the glory of God, by a doubting Pastor, or if something was compromised unknowingly by Satan? I am asking because in this day and age I cannot see Satan just allowing perfect and holy baptisms to take place without trying to interfere somehow. I am to the point now that here at the last stretch I think satan has his hand in everything we do and use- I put nothing past him. But something as important as baptism- they say you only need to be baptized once- but it is being done by man so what if it is done wrong?

Read the story of Phillip and the men of Samaria beginning at Acts 8:5. That will help you find the answer to your question.

 

[Confused-by-christianity]

How can we be sure that we were baptized correctly...
what if we weren't? ...
What if we were baptized by a church that has fallen short ...
...if something was compromised unknowingly by Satan? ...
...so what if it is done wrong?...

Your post sounds like it has a lot of fear religion in it.

Personally, I would focus on really getting to "know" God to the best of your ability. By this I mean "personal experience" with God.
Prayer, listening to answers and being self aware of what you think, feel and what motivates your thoughts.
For example - repetitive thoughts like the following,
How can I be sure .......
What if I misunderstood a .......
What if I made a mistake on .......

Seem to add up to believing in a God that doesn't care for your acts of worship which are done in "good faith".

I would ask myself;
- Does God care about worship done in "good faith" or methodical worship performed technically correctly?

- What if I misunderstood something? Does God consider my good faith or does He only care if my knowledge is technically correct?

I read somewhere that the opposite of fear is faith. Trust God, believe He is good and honours your sincerity.
p.s. I'm no expert - just my opinion.

 

[com7fy8]

But something as important as baptism- they say you only need to be baptized once- but it is being done by man so what if it is done wrong?

God does the baptism He wants, and He includes people in doing it.

Paul says, "we who first trusted in Christ," in Ephesians 1:12. So, what matters is if I have trusted in Jesus. And Jesus does say >

"'Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.'" (Matthew 10:32)

So, in being baptized you can be confessing Jesus before people.

And I would say God wants an approved person to baptize you, a person whom God trusts, and this with others of His family, so this is a Jesus family occasion, for your support plus their encouragement.

So, you have trusted in Jesus and name Him before people as your Lord and Savior and you have the people God gives you to trust to help you live and love the way God wants.

So, it is a love blessing, not only a proper procedure. But God's name is not only about what label you call Him. What names Him is His family caring and sharing love in His people.

 

[Jaxxi]

Hello Jaxxi; am going to be leaving shortly

How can we be sure that we were baptized correctly and what if we weren't?

One way is to learn from the bible and what it says about baptism. A short version is that God made a promise in Joel that He was going to pour out his spirit upon people. Jesus Christ Himself that the Father was going to bring for us an Advocate the spirit of truth to us, by and through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and John the baptist said that there was one who came mightier than (John) that He was not able to even tie his shoe, (meaning Jesus); and that Jesus would baptize a person in the holy spirit and fire.

These are all found in scripture and biblical.

What if we were baptized by a church that has fallen short of the glory of God, by a doubting Pastor, or if something was compromised unknowingly by Satan?

To me Jaxxi the church is a building; and God and the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God are far much more powerful than a building; and even much more powerful than man.

The question is what do you believe when it comes down the biblical text and what God has allowed to be for us (the bible) to learn from and grow in knowledge by using it.

Is man over God? No. If God can be for us who can be against us? Ourselves and our own ways of thinking, is the answer to that question.

When it comes to Satan I believe biblically that He has been done away with by and through being cast into the lake of fire in (Revelation 20:10) : So no one can place blame on the devil or anything. We are all responsible for our walk in this life with God and the Lord Jesus Christ and we have a bible that we can use and learn from. There are also external sources you can compare for with the internal evidences that are in the bible.

If you have any thoughts, questions or insights feel free, to ask. Will promise that there will be somethings that I may not be able to answer; that it is possible for me to be wrong, and never believe me but go check the bible out for yourself.​

The Antichrist has yet to come to power and satan is not thrown into the lake of fire until Christ returns so to say he has already been thrown into it is erroneous and misleading since we can see the uprising in crime around us and we know that simply is not true. To act like satan is not at work doing everything he can to get his minions into our churches to make them undesirable to Christ when He returns is kidding yourself. I believe satan has assigned a demon to every Christian to record all of his unrepented sins to blame him before God to try and claim their souls. This is why daily repentance is so important right now.

 

[Jaxxi]

As far as I understand it, if you were baptized in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit then your baptism was legitimate irrespective of anything else.

If you had a non-trinitarian baptism it is, so far as my tradition goes, not valid and you would need to be baptized again.

So if you were sprinkled water on and the wording was trinitarian it would be valid? Is that what you are saying? It is my belief it needs to be full submersion like Jesus' was but I know some churches merely sprinkle with water.

 

[Jaxxi]

Anyone can baptize you, the bum on the street corner all drunk and reeking of alcohol can do it, what is most important is what it means, or has meant to you, and it should be also seen or witnessed by a few witnesses also, etc, but again, no particular kind, etc, they can be anybody who is just seeing what you are doing, whether they fully understand it or not, is not at all important, etc, just that they see you doing it, etc, but and/or also, etc, I think you are giving Satan way too much credit, and way too much power, etc, and yes, that can be given to him from you, etc, (and can also be taken back away from him by you, etc) (most of it anyway, etc) but, baptism is just between you and God for the most part, apart from what I have already said or told you, etc, you need to know what it meant to you if you have already been baptized, etc, and if you have not yet, then you need to know when you do, etc, and if the prior baptism that you maybe did maybe didn't have the right meaning for you when you did it in the past, but you feel like it would a lot, lot more so now, then maybe you need to do it again, etc, and there is nothing wrong with that, etc, it is primarily only what it means to you that is most important, etc, but it should have great meaning, etc...

And I'll leave others to try and fill you in as to what specifically it maybe may supposed to mean to you or for you or not, or what it represents or is symbolic of, etc, as I'm sure they can give you a lot of ideas about that, etc, but you can also do your own research also, etc...

I know a lot of the atypical answers already, but want to leave some of the work for others to do, etc, that I know they can do, etc...

Some may speak of "two baptisms" maybe also, etc, but again, I'll leave that for them to get into with you, etc...

Anyway,

God Bless!

I am not the one who gave satan that power. Satan is the most powerful created being in existence. To undermine his capabilities is not very smart as you need to know your enemy without giving him place. He has the power to deceive the world and look what he had the power to do to Job. You need to know what he is capable of so you can recognize his works more clearly. Otherwise he can show up and fool us fairly easily. He is called " The prince of this world" for a reason. I did not give him that label.

 

[GallagherM]

The Antichrist has yet to come to power and satan is not thrown into the lake of fire until Christ returns so to say he has already been thrown into it is erroneous and misleading since we can see the uprising in crime around us and we know that simply is not true. To act like satan is not at work doing everything he can to get his minions into our churches to make them undesirable to Christ when He returns is kidding yourself. I believe satan has assigned a demon to every Christian to record all of his unrepented sins to blame him before God to try and claim their souls. This is why daily repentance is so important right now.

That is a view.

Repentance is change of mind.

 

[Albion]

Hi, Jaxxi. Unless there's some definite reason to think that a baptism performed in a church was defective for not including an invocation of the Triune God and the use of water, you shouldn't worry. If the church in question has gone off the deep end with some doctrinal aberrations lately, the question still is on the original baptism.

However, there are "conditional baptisms" if your current church has reason to doubt the validity of your original baptism. These are not done casually or often, and there is really no such thing as a "re-baptism," but you should leave the decision in the pastor's hands.

 

[Albion]

So if you were sprinkled water on and the wording was trinitarian it would be valid? Is that what you are saying? It is my belief it needs to be full submersion like Jesus' was but I know some churches merely sprinkle with water.

Almost certainly.

 

[Lawrence87]

So if you were sprinkled water on and the wording was trinitarian it would be valid? Is that what you are saying? It is my belief it needs to be full submersion like Jesus' was but I know some churches merely sprinkle with water.

As I understand immersion is preferable, but sprinkling is permissible if there's no access to a large body of water. I've even heard it said that pouring sand is permissible if there is absolutely no water available such as in the middle of a desert.

 

[Albion]

So if you were sprinkled water on and the wording was trinitarian it would be valid?

If you had a serious, conventional baptismal ceremony AND it included the invocation of the Triune God and the application of water, there's no real reason to worry about its validity. Is there anything else about the ceremony that you think could have been "off?"

It is my belief it needs to be full submersion like Jesus' was but I know some churches merely sprinkle with water.

Some churches baptize by immersion but most baptize by pouring water upon the candidate as most likely was the way Jesus himself was baptized. Very few literally do it by "sprinkling."

You will have to follow your conscience and your church's advice with this, but the Protestant churches which baptize by immersion usually do not consider the baptisms of the other churches to be valid, YET the churches which baptize by pouring do accept the baptisms performed in the other churches which did it by immersion.

 

[coffee4u]

How can we be sure that we were baptized correctly and what if we weren't? What if we were baptized by a church that has fallen short of the glory of God, by a doubting Pastor, or if something was compromised unknowingly by Satan? I am asking because in this day and age I cannot see Satan just allowing perfect and holy baptisms to take place without trying to interfere somehow. I am to the point now that here at the last stretch I think satan has his hand in everything we do and use- I put nothing past him. But something as important as baptism- they say you only need to be baptized once- but it is being done by man so what if it is done wrong?

Baptism is what you do as your public confession of faith, it is between you and God. While ideally the person who baptises you should also be a born again Christian, but the person doing the baptism doesn't convey anything to you nor does their church. It is your faith, your commitment that God sees.

 

[Albion]

As I understand immersion is preferable, but sprinkling is permissible if there's no access to a large body of water.

Immersion is preferable only in the sense that it carries with it some good symbolism of burial and then resurrection.

But it is not preferable otherwise, not unless the person belongs to one of the denominations which stipulate that immersion be used. In general, if water is used and it's applied to the candidate as part of the ceremony, it doesn't make much difference how it hits him.

 

[GallagherM]

I would just like to add to all of these comments one more mention,

Baptism by John in the river; when it was prophesied for John to baptize in the Jordan River of the Lord Jesus Christ from the Old Testament.

During this John at first tried to deter Jesus. Saying I (John) need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? Matthew 3:14

Then in verse 15: Let it be so now Jesus said. It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness in this way - Then John permitted Jesus.

The baptism in the river done to Jesus by John; was a showing of a cleansing before sacrificing. In I believe Exodus you can see that back then they would was their hands in water (Baptism) to clean and wash their hands before placing a sacrifice on the alter for God.

So this is something I learned not to long ago when going through Mark. Was really curious of what baptism was, this is something that was learned by and through the scriptures themselves of course did look what baptism was in the Greek to get an understanding.

The baptism of Jesus Christ is what most Christians will or at least should be looking for; you can most certainly be baptized by someone in water for a signal for outside expression of your decision to sacrifice your own life towards Loving God and Loving Others, maintaining your life, be creative and enjoy life and when you come home take rest some and enjoy your time home.