Question: Dear Greg,

I have recently found your site and LOVE it! I like the way that you are able to answer questions by keeping the “main things the plain things.” You also allow for alternative views as long as they don’t contradict scripture. I have found your answers to be insightful.

My situation: when I was 10 years old a man came to my door and witnessed to me. As a result, I accepted Christ (or rather, he accepted me). It wasn’t a highly emotional situation. The guy explained the gospel and I understood that I needed a Savior. I was baptized and started going to church. I didn’t know anything about discipleship and Bible study, etc. Throughout my teenage years I rebelled against God on and off, and in my 20’s became an alcoholic, bouncing in and out of church.

During this time I became married, and my wife and I (along with our 3-year old daughter) have found a church and my faith is renewed to greater heights than it was before when I first found Christ. I believe that regardless of the past, I am now being discipled into a follower of Christ. Early on I only knew about Jesus the Savior and didn’t fully understand what it meant to be discipled. When I look back on the past and the sins that I repented of then, I still have a hatred for those sins. The sins stopped immediately at the time and I never went back to them. However, while I was a practicing alcoholic (this sin wasn’t in my life at the age of 10), I bought into Satan’s lie that God hated me. Because of this and what I viewed at the time as a church that let me down in a time of need, I quit attending church and became rather lax in my walk (to put it lightly). Since then, by the grace of God, through AA, I have repented of drinking (which in my case was a clear sin but I don’t believe that it is a sin in and of itself) my faith has been restored.

My question: How do I determine when I was saved? Was it originally? Some would say no, because I fell into a lifestyle marked by alcoholism. Some would say yes, but that I “fell away for a time” and God brought me back. I believe that now I am a follower in Christ, which is the most important thing. I am wondering how I should handle baptism. Should I do it again “just in case” I wasn’t truly saved the first time? I seem to be beating this issue to death, but I want it resolved. Every indication that I get from God seems to be “relax, you had it covered the first time.” I just want to make sure that this is of God.

Sorry to be so longwinded. God bless you and your ministry.

Jeff

Answer: Dear Jeff,

Great to hear that you are profiting from our web site and ministry. You are not alone; many people have similar questions as you do because of similar situations.

On the one hand, there are individuals who get re-baptized (if the church or pastor allows it or if they even tell the church or pastor performing the baptism that they have already been baptized) many times in their lives. Most common are those who were baptized as an infant, then become baptized as an adult. Then there are situations like your own, when the commitment, baptism or profession of faith was around about the age of 12—followed by teen years that did not characterize the life of a Christian.

We have to realize than many of our questions about salvation—whether we have been saved, when we were saved, whether we need to make a re-commitment, etc.—focus on our past and on our deeds (what we do and don’t do). However, the central issue in salvation is what God has done and is doing and what Jesus has done and is doing on our behalf. Salvation is not, as you know, about us—it is all about Jesus.

So, we often become discouraged because we look at the evidence of our imperfection, our sinful human nature, and we see that we have been less than faithful and dedicated to following Christ. But that’s precisely why we are saved. We are saved because we are lost and unable to be the kind of person God can make us.

We also need to keep in mind that baptism—or any external act—does not save us. Baptism is an outward statement on the part of the individual in obedience to God’s direction that we be baptized. Baptism points to what usually has already happened—that is, that we have already been saved. So there is no need to be re-baptized—with the possible exception of someone who has been:

1.     Baptized as an infant and now believes that adult baptism is a personal and individual profession of faith.

2.     Baptized for the wrong reasons—to please a friend or family member—andnow realizes that the statement they made at that time was meaningless. The meaningful part of our commitment to God is our personal relationship with him and with the heartfelt repentance and change of heart we have. It is with our desire to spend time with him in prayer and study rather than a specific ritualistic act of baptism—whether it was at a specific age or whether it was by immersion, pouring, sprinkling, etc.

We should also realize that there are two ways of answering the question, “when was I saved?” The first is more popular in evangelical circles—pointing to a specific date and time when we accepted Jesus Christ. Another answer is equally valid—that one’s conversion has deepened over time. While there was a general time in life when we started to listen to God speak to us in the Bible and when we started to talk with him in prayer, there is no specific date in the past that we can point to.

I give you this background to help you understand that I would tend to agree that you may well be “beating this issue to death”—to use your words.

In Christ,

Greg Albrecht