Jesus Name Baptism

I have been a Christian since my birth. I have studied with most denominations including those that are considered cults. Among those are the Jehovah Witnesses, and the Mormons. My family’s denomination is Episcopalian. I was born in White Earth Minnesota, a 40 square mile Indian reservation. My family, on my mother’s side, the Rocks, were the priests for our local township, Pine Point (population 300). There, as a baby, in 1955, I was baptized using the formula in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. As a boy of eight years, I visited a Baptist church and was saved by accepting Jesus as my personal savior. Then as a teenager, I was baptized again in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of my sins. When I was a young adult, I received the gift Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues with the Pentecostals. I was a preacher and pastor in a Pentecostal denomination for fifteen years. I left my organization because of their perspective on grace. I became convinced that our legalism was taking from God’s glory as we established our own righteousness. I am saved by Grace through faith. I now pastor a nondenominational church. We are independent from organizations of men, but we are very dependent on God. I say this as a testimony of my sincerity in seeking the truth. Having covered the full gambit of denominations and their various beliefs, I feel compelled to speak on the subject of baptism. This question of baptism cuts to the very foundation of the Christian church and marks a division that is nearly two thousand years old.

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