reading another thread in this forum set me wondering about the baptism of one of my boys.
He was baptised in the Episcopal church as an infant. At the time, his father was a lapsed Catholic and I was a sort of nominal, church-going, not yet converted protestant, but with enough belief to teach them all to read the Bible and pray. My son professed faith from childhood, and never really departed from it.
At University, though, he began attending a Baptist church, found deep fellowship with other believers and came to a much more mature and "owned" faith. That made him feel that his original baptism, happening without any conscious participation from him and long before he had any idea what it meant, was an inadequate witness. He wanted to confess his Lord as a man before men, and so he was baptised by immersion, aged 21, in the church he was attending.
If you can't be baptised twice, which was his real baptism? Or does the answer simply depend on the beliefs of the person answering?
He was baptised in the Episcopal church as an infant. At the time, his father was a lapsed Catholic and I was a sort of nominal, church-going, not yet converted protestant, but with enough belief to teach them all to read the Bible and pray. My son professed faith from childhood, and never really departed from it.
At University, though, he began attending a Baptist church, found deep fellowship with other believers and came to a much more mature and "owned" faith. That made him feel that his original baptism, happening without any conscious participation from him and long before he had any idea what it meant, was an inadequate witness. He wanted to confess his Lord as a man before men, and so he was baptised by immersion, aged 21, in the church he was attending.
If you can't be baptised twice, which was his real baptism? Or does the answer simply depend on the beliefs of the person answering?