Particular Baptist
Puritan Board Freshman
One thing that I've been asking myself is:
Does a person who has been baptized by a confession of faith and by immersion need to be rebaptized later if they feel that their conversion took place later on in life? Does this baptism become un-baptism or no-baptism if the person is regenerated later on in life after the ordinance has been done?
Personally, I believe that when I was baptized at age 16 I wasn't truly converted until I had been in college and then fell in love with the scriptures and desired a life of holiness that I hadn't desired before. The problem that bothered me at first when I came to this realization was whether I should be baptized again. After prayer and much reading, I don't believe that my baptism was undone by my conversion later on in life. I nowhere find that anyone who underwent a Trinitarian baptism was rebaptized. I could be mistaken, it's just that I've seen so many people who, when they believe that they've not experienced conversion until after their baptism they get rebaptized and rebaptized, which, in my opinion, diminishes the finality and the meaning of baptism. I've wrestled the baptism issue alot in the past as well, in regards to paedo and credo, and I still find myself in the credo camp but with a belief that a person should only be baptized once after a confession of faith.
Does a person who has been baptized by a confession of faith and by immersion need to be rebaptized later if they feel that their conversion took place later on in life? Does this baptism become un-baptism or no-baptism if the person is regenerated later on in life after the ordinance has been done?
Personally, I believe that when I was baptized at age 16 I wasn't truly converted until I had been in college and then fell in love with the scriptures and desired a life of holiness that I hadn't desired before. The problem that bothered me at first when I came to this realization was whether I should be baptized again. After prayer and much reading, I don't believe that my baptism was undone by my conversion later on in life. I nowhere find that anyone who underwent a Trinitarian baptism was rebaptized. I could be mistaken, it's just that I've seen so many people who, when they believe that they've not experienced conversion until after their baptism they get rebaptized and rebaptized, which, in my opinion, diminishes the finality and the meaning of baptism. I've wrestled the baptism issue alot in the past as well, in regards to paedo and credo, and I still find myself in the credo camp but with a belief that a person should only be baptized once after a confession of faith.