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What about this man who was baptized in Jesus name?

Submitted: 3/18/2008
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Question: I am curious about a situation. About eight years ago I witnessed to a young man (he was 18 at the time) who attended a Charismatic church. He did not have the Holy Ghost at the time. I did finally persuade him to come to church and get baptized in the name of Jesus. He stated at that time before he came to church that he did not understand the oneness thing and the baptism...but he would obey because he loved God. He did not receive the Holy Ghost at the time and I never saw him again. He would not come back to church. I recently found out he is working for the Christian Broadcasting Network/700 Club. Anyway what is your opinion in this matter since he did not have a revelation of the name?

Answer: We are not sure what you are asking, but it sounds to us as though this man, though he agreed to get properly baptized, had neither repented nor believed, both of which are prerequisites of baptism. This is why you never saw him again. We believe that in our zeal we sometimes push people too hard to get baptized, as though that is the only thing that matters. Before anyone is baptized at our assembly, we do our best to determine if the person has really repented and really believes. We have occasionally refused to baptize a person because of some obvious sin that he was not willing to give up. We may be hurting more than helping when we baptize people who have not really bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus.