Why did you get rebaptized???

[Sam]

I was saved on March 28, 1955 when I asked Jesus to come into my heart. He accepted my invitation and came in to dwell as the Holy Spirit. My life was changed as I became a new creature in Christ.

I started going to the Baptist church in our small town. Later that summer the church was going to have a baptizing. Four of us applied for baptism. We were all accepted for baptism and church membership and were baptized by immersion in a nearby lake.

Through reading the Bible and listening to some ministers on the radio and reading some other literature, I realized that there was more available to me than what that Baptist church preached. The official stand of the church was cessationist. We were taught that the gifts of the Spirit had all ceased when the written Word was complete during the first century.

I began praying that God would baptize me in His Holy Spirit. There were no churches in our town that taught that the gifts of the Spirit were still available. I did get to attend a couple of UPC churches a couple of times. I read in a couple of tracts about baptism in Jesus' name. One tract published by the UPC at that time said that the name of the Father is Lord, the name of the Son is Jesus, and the name of the Holy Ghost is Christ and therefore the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is "Lord Jesus Christ." That really didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, that it took three separate words to make up one name.

On October 27, 1955 I attended a service at Elim Tabernacle in Milwaukee, WI. I don't remember if it was a conference or what but there were people there from several churches. I went to the altar and was "seeking for the Holy Ghost" (a term they used back then) and the person I came with asked me if I wanted to get baptized. I figured I was going to get baptized in the name of Jesus Christ sooner or later so I just went ahead and did it that night.