DID YOU DEDICATE YOURSELF BEFORE BAPTISM OR DID YOU LIE? (page 3)

jayhawk1

I was very sincere when I wanted to be baptized. I must have said in prayer to Jehovah repeatedly how I wanted to serve him with all my heart. In reality, I was just afraid of the Watchtower version of Armageddon and really didn't dedicate myself to anything more than free labor and wasting my time.

helncon

I basically said the words that they wanted to hear.

I was only doing it so i would be more accepting of me as i had been branded as a certain person due to who i used to hang out with.

I should have known better at 17 1/2 but the saying goes you live and learn.

I never really believed but just so wanted to be accepted.

Helen

fullofdoubtnow

I did, but I was 23 when I got baptised, having not been brought up as a jw. It meant a lot to me at the time.

bernadette

I remember being quite puzzled re the need for dedication because it seemed to me that only the 144,000 should be dedicated and the rest of us should just be baptised.

nvrgnbk

I was just wondering when you where going through the questions for baptism did you know you had to dedicate yourself to Jehovah before hand or did you lie?
I didn't know i had to so when i went through the questions I had to lie and say i had. I always felt bad about it afterwards and quickly did a little prayer that night. Oops.

BIG FAT HUGE FREAKIN' DITTO HERE f2t! Guess that means it never counted!

free2think

wow thank you for all the replies.

I agre with what a lot have said. I was fearful of the big A and I know it definitely made me feel more pressured, i thought if i got baptized i would be closer to being saved when the time came.

Marcel

i dedicated me several times 'cos it never felt appopriate... not sacred enough... me on a chair (i used it as some kind of altar lol) in my room at the age of 14.

additionally i had a big problem with my raging hormones back then. praying a life dedication and doing the wrong, wrong, wrong within the next 24hours didnt felt right to me. i managed to be abstinent for a long period before baptism which costed all my strength but got weak again 2 days before baptism. i felt so sick on that day getting baptized. ive a recording of my baptism talk but i NEVER listened to it. i have almost only bad feelings about that day.

BUT, i had dedicated myself.

i always wondered why you can be dfed when you NEVER dedicated yourself in the first place. when the elders try to shun someone he could lie and say he wasnt never dedicated. lol. would be chaos :D

Bumble Bee

It was a dedication based on false pretenses.

BB

free2think

Very true Marcel, i think it's ridiculous to put so much pressure on young people to get baptized especially when there are so many others things happening in their lives during those formative years.

BB good point. I agree with you completely.

Regretful_J

looking back on it I know I was pressured into getting baptized and Its hard to believe I could be so naive. I somehow felt
"joy" afterwards but again looking back on it it was a sham. today I am 23 going to be 24 in a few months and I wasted my childhood and allowed myself to be manipulated for so many years.....

DID YOU DEDICATE YOURSELF BEFORE BAPTISM OR DID YOU LIE?

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