Should I Be Baptized Again?
I emailed a few years ago about leaving the Adventist church; Colleen was so helpful and encouraging in answering my questions and guiding me. God has been so good, and I’m very grateful that I’m finally able to go to new church. I’ve started attending a new church that upholds the gospel and Christ at the centre. It is a nondenominational evangelical Protestant church. After much prayer and careful consideration, I felt that the Lord was calling me to this church. I found it to be the best option among the churches in my area because of their statement of faith, dedication to expository preaching and biblical leadership. I have been to three services so far, and I plan to continue going. I am also seriously considering becoming a member there. I know that I need to be among believers in a church community and submit to the authority of qualified leaders that God has placed in the church, but three services in and a few conversations later with some of their pastors, I now feel like I’m getting cold feet.
I hesitate because they uphold believers baptism. One of their pastors explained to me that they require baptism for membership. Is this a red flag? I’m not familiar with whether or not a majority of evangelical churches practice this, but when I learned of this at the church, I felt the trauma from Adventism come to mind about how they typically require baptism for membership. I must admit I haven’t done a deeper study in Scripture on believers’ baptism and I know that if I truly read and prayed about it I can trust that the Lord would move my heart in the direction he is leading me to go.
For more background, I was baptized at 7 years old at an Adventist crusade event. At the time I was not fully aware of the gospel, of course, but I had the best understanding of what Christ had done for me and was just in awe that He would die for my sins. I left Adventism when I was 21 years old after being born again at 20 years old. I’m now 25 years old and the only one in my family and among the peers I was raised with who has left Adventism for the gospel.
I’ve come to realize that although I’ve untangled from pretty much all of my Adventism roots and the false doctrines, my baptism is dear to my heart, so my heart feels hard toward being baptized again. It feels that my baptism at seven years of age, which was a sentimental moment that reminds me that the Lord was with me even at a young age and would eventually lead me out of Adventism, is getting replaced by this new baptism, and the first is getting taken away from me. I feel a sense of grief if I were to be baptized again, and I’m trying to process through why that is.
I think being baptized again feels like it was my fault that my first baptism was not valid even though I didn’t want it to be. Was my first baptism valid? I was not born again at 7 years old and I did not know the gospel. I also feel that the Lord is really leading me to be at this church, so I don’t know what to do. The pastors are not pushy or forceful at all at this church but very kind and encouraging—they have been very encouraged by my journey of leaving Adventism when I’ve told them about it—a reaction which is truly a blessing. I just can’t point to why I feel so much resistance towards being baptized again; I feel some grief and also anxiety/ trauma about joining a new church because what if down the line their false too.
Is this common among other formers? What advice would you give me regarding baptism? Is there any other advice you could give me regarding forming a relationship with a new church and their leaders and what I should be asking them moving forward into potentially becoming a member? Where can I study more about believer baptism?
—VIA EMAIL
Response: I’m so happy to hear that you are finally able to attend a good church and that you have found one.
I understand how you feel about your baptism.
Here is the fact, though, about Christian churches. Baptism is not an “entrance rite” as it is in Adventism. Some Christian churches ask that people coming out of unbelief and heretical groups be baptized as a public statement that they are being baptized into Christ alone. A true Christian church asks potential members for their personal statement/story of faith, and some feel that if a person has been baptized into Christ alone, that was a public declaration of one’s loyalty and commitment to Jesus. If, however, a person has not been baptized into Christ alone apart from a cultic group, they feel that the person hasn’t publicly acted on their faith.
You and I both understand that baptism doesn’t guarantee salvation (as it does not in Adventism) or church membership, and it can even be done for personal reasons apart from Jesus. Jesus alone is my guarantee of salvation! Yet if a church was teaching Scripture well, honoring Jesus and His finished work as central, and acknowledging the Trinity—and if they required baptism of a potential member, that does not seem like a “deal breaker” to me. Being baptized into Christ alone does not negate the fact that the Lord Jesus gave you something to hold onto through your years growing up Adventist. He let you know that you were His, and He would lead you. I believe, though, that you would experience a wonderful freedom and joy at being baptized into Christ alone. Such a baptism would not be a negating of Jesus but a losing of your early ties to Adventism. Jesus asks His followers to be baptized into Him.
Joining a church through membership is not a once-for-all commitment for the rest of your life. Local congregations can change over time, and if the church subtly changes into something less Christ-honoring, then I would feel free to leave and find another church. In other words, don’t feel as if joining a church is an “identity” and must be one you “keep” loyally. It is not the same as joining an Adventist church. The local church is a member of the body of Christ, and you are able to love the people in it for Jesus, but if the church develops false teaching or practices, you need to be able to leave. Membership is not like the expectation of Adventism.
Former Adventists have a hard time in general with a church that requests a person be baptized in order to become a member. While I would consider that requirement carefully, I would also know that it is not a negation of your early desire to serve Jesus. Rather, being baptized into Christ alone is a wonderful thing! Here is a link to a YouTube page where we have posted some former Adventists’ baptisms for you to see: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2087BFADA34C12FA
Source for EGW’a Investigative Judgment Teaching
I’m a former Adventist. My mother and her mother were Adventists. Last year I started listening to the Former Adventist Podcast. I found out from a pastor who knows your podcast about Ellen White’s investigative judgement. I was appalled and distressed! I met with a pastor about it, and he taught me the Bible’s version of God’s judgment.
Please send me the name of the book and the reference of Ellen White’s writing on this topic!
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Thank you for writing! Yes, the investigative judgment is the core of Adventist theology. It is explained in various places throughout Ellen White’s books. The idea of the Great Controversy is built entirely around the premises of this doctrine.
I believe the best way to give you the core teaching about this doctrine is to give you a link to an article that discusses the investigative judgment and explains it. Here it is: Your Questions Answered.
Here is a video explaining how the doctrines implicit in the investigative judgment impact and destroy the gospel:https://youtu.be/5De3ZPPhrKc
Here is an article outlining how the great controversy worldview (with its implicit investigative judgment) contradicts a biblical worldview: What Is Seventh-day Adventism?
Where Did EGW Say We Are Judged by Works?
I am watching the two-hour-plus Youtube of you, Nikki, and Myles Christian. Way to go. Good stuff for sure; it is helping me.
You quoted EGW, Testimonies volume 1, referring to her saying we are justified by works. What page in that volume? Thanks!
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Here is the quote:
“I saw that it is no light thing to be a Christian. It is a small matter to profess the Christian name; but it is a great and sacred thing to live a Christian life. There is but a little time now to secure the immortal crown, to have a record of good acts and fulfilled duties recorded in heaven. Every tree is judged by its fruit. Everyone will be judged according to his deeds, not his profession or his faith” (Testimonies vol. 1, p. 454).
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