You don’t need to be baptized to be born again. You can and should fully submit to God before baptism, and if you do, you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, whether you are baptized or not. The gift of the Holy Ghost comes to those who are as aligned with God as they know how to be, whether they have had the opportunity to be baptized or not. Full submission to God is required in order for your baptism to be valid, and your spiritual rebirth is evidence of whether it is or isn’t.
There are multiple examples of people in the scriptures who were spiritually reborn independent of baptism. The Lamanite king was born again in the instant he proclaimed his willingness to give away all his sins to know Jesus.5 Alma was “redeemed of the Lord” and “born of the Spirit” after he “repented of [his] sins.” (Mosiah 27:24) King Benjamin’s people were born again as they responded to his sermon, independent of baptism.792 The Lamanite prisoners who witnessed angels ministering to Lehi and Nephi were born again as they cried to Jesus to save them.793 The disciples of the Lord in Jerusalem received the gift of the Holy Ghost after his resurrection when they repented, long after they were baptized.
Spiritual rebirth happens instantaneously in the moment you fully submit to God. If you have not experienced it, the only reason is that you have not yet fully submitted to God.
Footnotes
- 1. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. (Isaiah 59:2-3) ↩
- 2. And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. (Mark 7:20-23) ↩
- 3. For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. (Psalm 51:16-17) And Samuel said, What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites: for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. (1 Samuel 15:14-23) ↩
- 4. ...I have regard for those who are of a humble and contrite spirit and who are vigilant for my word. But whoever slaughters an ox is as one who kills a man, and whoever sacrifices a lamb, as one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever presents a grain offering is as one who offers swine’s blood, and whoever burns incense, as one who venerates idols. Just as they have preferred to go their own ways, their souls delighting in their abominations, so will I prescribe intrigues for them and bring upon them the thing they dread. For when I called, no one responded; when I spoke, none gave heed. They did what was evil in my eyes; they chose to do what was not my will. (Isaiah 66:2-4, Gileadi Translation) ↩
- 5. O God, Aaron hath told me that there is a God; and if there is a God, and if thou art God, wilt thou make thyself known unto me, and I will give away all my sins to know thee, and that I may be raised from the dead, and be saved at the last day. And now when the king had said these words, he was struck as if he were dead. (Alma 22:18) ↩