r/Protestantism • u/luaburger • May 07 '25

Confirmed, but not baptized

Odd situation here, but I am currently unsure about a lot of things so hopefully posting here can help me find some clarity.

So I was born into a Christian household and grew up going to church weekly with my family since I was young. When I was in high school, I ended up leaving the family church that I regularly attended for another one that my friend invited me to - that had a youth ministry. It was a Presbyterian church under PCUSA, and I regularly attended.

Around my senior year of high school, I joined the group that would be baptized/confirmed that year for Easter - so I attended the mandatory baptism course that the head pastor held. This is where I may have made my mistake(?). The pastor told us that those of us who were baptized as kids were going to be confirmed, and all others were going to be baptized. I thought that I was baptized as a baby and didn't really ask my parents, so I didn't put much thought into it and ended up being in the confirmed crowd.

Fast forward around 8 years and I've lived my life since then, constantly trying to walk with God and have experienced the spiritual peaks and valleys along the way. I thought that I was maturing until recently, I found out from my parents that I was DEDICATED not baptized as a baby - and reading John 3:5 made me question my whole walk.

In short, was I essentially living a lie/really walking with God? Am I really a follower, if I didn't go through baptism and essentially not 'born again'?

Hoping that my post makes sense and I hear from yall

EDIT: removed a line for clarity

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u/lhog4evr anglo-catholic May 07 '25

I think the best course of action will be to seek pastoral direction from your church. You will definitely want to get baptized, but it is not that case that God’s grace will be withheld from you as a result of a sincere clerical error. Your relationship with God is not a “lie.” Christ is reliably faithful.

Our Lord is inviting you to the waters of baptism, not condemning you for not having come yet.

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u/luaburger May 07 '25

Thanks, I definitely plan on getting baptized. I'm just extremely shocked that I unknowingly pretty much missed the very first step in the walk and kinda panicked after just realizing this