I was baptized as a baby … some 53 years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n
I am too old to act on the thought now, but in my younger days I often considered getting “re-baptized”.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
I wanted to be baptized on the basis of my own choice. I wanted to make my own profession of faith.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Over the years I heard a few pastors say that getting re-baptized was not a problem, but most seemed to stand firmly against it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Your baptism was “a one-time thing” and is unrepeatable.<\/p>\n\n\n
It seems funny to me now, but I don’t remember anyone trying to make a Scriptural case for or against it. (Although I did hear arguments against infant baptism in general.)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Then I came across Acts 19:1-7.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
IF I desired to make a case FOR re-baptizing, this is the passage I would turn to.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Chapter 19 opens with Paul coming into Ephesus and finding a dozen disciples there. He asks if they have received the Holy Spirit and they reply, “Huh?”<\/p>\n\n\n
So Paul asks, “Then what baptism did you receive?”<\/p>\n\n\n
Their response? “John’s baptism”.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
Now John’s baptism would have been public and it would have involved getting dunked in water.<\/p>\n\n\n
But Paul says, “John’s baptism? That was about repentance. He told people to believe in the one coming after him, Jesus.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
THEN HE BAPTIZES THEM “into the name of the Lord Jesus”! (19:5)<\/p>\n\n\n
Afterwards, Paul lays hands on them and they receive the Holy Spirit and begin speaking in tongues and prophesying.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
So couldn’t one argue from this that in Paul’s mind it was essential that those being baptized understood what they were testifying to? It’s obviously more than water and more than ritual.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
And doesn’t Paul demonstrate that if those who have been baptized previously didn’t “get it” the first time a re-do is in order?<\/p>\n\n\n
What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was baptized as a baby … some 53 years ago. I am too old to act on the thought now, but in my younger days I often considered getting “re-baptized”.\u00a0 I wanted to be baptized on the basis of my own choice. I wanted to make my own profession of faith.\u00a0 Over the years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2613,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2612\/revisions\/2613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}