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baptism
Hi
thanks for your answer to my question on religion. now i was wondering about my son. I did not have him baptized or circumsized. He is under two. Have I put his chances of getting to heaven in jeopardy? And also, his father and I are not married, yet we are together. Is that sinful? Thank you
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Want to answer more questions in the Miscellaneous category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Spirituality?
You're very welcome. And I want to say how awesome it is and how proud of you I am that you took the responsibility to have given your son life. So many do the selfish abortion cop-out thinking life will be fine. From every woman I have talked to who has had an abortion, ended up an emotional wreak.
I was in a similar situation as you. I had my son when I was 17. When I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, I started praying for God to help me. Thanks to God intervening and me embracing that help, my son has made wise choices and is now a godly young adult. He's a Lieutenant in the army, has a beautiful wife and 2 great kids who he is raising in the ways of the Lord Jesus. Just wanted to encourage you with that.
Let's address circumcision first. Without getting to complex, I'll simply state it this way. Circumcision was a command given by God to Abraham for the Jewish people to show that Abraham and his descendants have kept the covenant of faith. (See Genesis 17) Whether you have your son circumcised or not, has no barring on his salvation. Circumcision is still done today as a hygiene issue, but the faith covenant is found in Christ.
Now baptism...Many believe that they're on their way to heaven because they were baptized as a baby. That belief is wrong. There were no babies baptized in the Bible. A person goes to heaven because they have repented and accepted God's gift of grace through faith. That means they have asked Jesus to be Lord and Savior by repenting (repent means to turn away from sinfulness)and accepting His sacrifice on the cross for their sins.
The bible says in Mark 16:15-16 "Then he told them: Go and preach the good news to everyone in the world. Anyone who believes me and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe me will be condemned." (CEV)
Baptism is not a requirement of salvation; belief is. This passage doesn't say "anyone who refuses to believe in me and is not baptized will be condemned". That's because belief (faith) IS the requirement for salvation. Baptism is the outward expression of an inward faith.
So not having your son baptized is not what would be putting him in jeopardy. What would put him in jeopardy is you not taking the responsibility of making sure he grows up knowing that he can have a personal relationship with God through Jesus. Then when he is at a place of accepting Jesus, he can make that decision. The first step is letting God work IN you so He can in turn work THROUGH you.
When you say your son's father and you are together, I'm going to assume you mean living together or, even if not living together in a physical sense, there is an intimate relationship going on. If this is the case, yes, it is sinful.
My advice to you is to seriously consider taking yourself out of the situation; to stop living together and stop sexual activity. If you're thinking about marriage, it's only a good thing if you both are on the same spiritual page. If you're reaching for Jesus and he isn't, you won't be in unity. God can change his heart too; it may just take some time.
As a side note, I'll tell you this, when I repented and accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior, I felt like a virgin again. Pure and clean before the Lord and I stayed that way until I got married. God is a God of second chances.
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