Since you are part of God’s family of sons and daughters, seek out a church where the Bible is preached and where you can make friends with other Christians. You should make this a matter of earnest prayer for God’s guidance, since many churches today have departed from biblical Christianity and are sadly little more than social organizations. Visit different churches and look for one where salvation and spiritual rebirth by grace through faith is emphasized and where you sense the love, joy, and enthusiasm that the Holy Spirit brings.
Then you should ask to be baptized as an expression of your faith in Christ. Although most of us are accustomed to infant baptism, that is not the biblical pattern. The New Testament pattern is that a person first believes in Jesus and then is baptized as a public expression of that faith. Your baptism as a believer is in a sense the climax to your becoming a Christian and therefore ought not to be delayed indefinitely.
Finally, may I suggest that you write to Moody Correspondence School (2101 W. Howard St., Chicago, IL 60645) and ask about “The Good News,” a home study Bible course to help you grow as a new Christian.
I wish you all God’s richest blessings in your new life, a life that is possible because in the midst of the darkness of the night of sin, the Son has risen. “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen” (Hebrews 13:20-21, RSV).
NOTES
1. David C. K. Watson, My God Is Real (New York: Seabury, 1970), p. 60.
2. William Hordern, gen. ed., New Directions in Theology Today, 7 vols.; History and Hermeneutics, by Carl E. Braaten (London: Lutterworth Press, 1968), 2:80-81. Happily the situation has improved since Braaten wrote.
3. Gerald O’Collins, The Easter Jesus (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1973), p. 134.
4. See James D. G. Dunn, Jesus and the Spirit (London: SCM, 1975), pp. 11-92.
5. Ibid., p. 60.
6. Ibid., p. 86.
7. Wolfhart Pannenberg, “Jesu Geschichte und unsere Geschichte,” in Glaube und Wirklichkeit (München: Chr. Kaiser, 1975), p. 92.
8. Ibid., pp. 93-94. Elsewhere he writes, “Jesus’ claim to authority, through which he put himself in God’s place, was . . . blasphemous for Jewish ears. Because of this, Jesus was then also slandered by the Jews before the Roman Governor as a rebel. If Jesus really has been raised, this claim has been visibly and unambiguously confirmed by the God of Israel, who was allegedly blasphemed by Jesus.” (Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jesus: God and Man, trans L. L. Wilkens and D. A. Priebe [London: SCM, 1968], p. 67.)
9. James D. G. Dunn, Baptism in the Holy Spirit (London: SCM, 1970), p. 93.
10. Ibid., p. 149.
11. Ibid., pp. 225-26.