This is a hypothetical question, so there are no "right" or "wrong" answers.
Let's suppose that the WTS wanted to test the loyalty of current baptized members. In particular, the ones who were baptized before the new baptism questions that were introduced in 1985.
What if it became a requirement for people to re-submit to baptism using the new "vows" whenever they modified the baptism questions. If anyone declined, they would be considered "disassociated", with all the consequences incumbent with that.
How many dubs would follow through??
(and boy, wouldn't the WTS love to use that statistic to show "growth" of membership??)
Scully, I would have to imagine that hard liners would just blindly go along with it. A few might not, but they are so brainwashed that anything that comes from the GB is so beneficial, they would simply line up and get re-dipped.
If they so easily write off family, why wouldn't they also blindly follow such a request?
Scully, what an interesting question. I have a feeling most would blindly do it without even questioning it. When you are that brainwashed, you don't question...you just do it. Sad isn't it. My daughter tried to point out the difference to her father and he just didn't want to question it.
I am TRULY glad that when I was baptized in 1962 there were no such "terms of loyalty" to the Org. Heck, they didn't even have pre-baptismal questions then, just a nod from the congregation servant.
OTOH, I don't think that very many JWs would have a problem with re-baptism under the "new" terms. No JW I have talked with even knew that the terminology had changed!
Lambs to the slaughter, on the altar of "new light."
For any who do not know the changes in the baptismal questions over the years, here are the questions as recorded in the pages of the Watchtower magazine:
1942
(1) Do you believe in Jehovah God the Father, that "salvation belongeth unto Jehovah", and that Christ Jesus is his Son in whose blood your sins are washed away and by whom salvation comes to you from God?
(2) Have you therefore confessed your sins to God and asked for clensing by Christ Jesus, and therefore turned away from sin and the world, and consecrated yourself without reservation to God to do his will? Watchtower Oct. 1 1942 page 302
1956 through 1984
(1) Have you recognized yourself before Jehovah God as a sinner who needs salvation, and have you acknowledged to him that this salvation proceeds from him, the Father, through his Son Jesus Christ?
(2) On the basis of this faith in God and in his provision for salvation have you dedicated yourself unreservedly to God to do his will henceforth as he reveals it to you through Jesus Christ and through the Bible under the enlightening power of the holy spirit? Watchtower July 1 1956 page 407
1985
(1) On the basis of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, have you repented of your sins and dedicated yourself to Jehovah to do his will?
(2) Do you understand that your dedication and baptism identify you as one of Jehovah's Witnesses in association with God's spirit-directed organization WT 6/1/85 page 30
Watchtower July 1 1955 page 411
"A Christian, therefore,
cannot be baptized in the name of the one actually doing the immersing or in the name of any man, nor in the name of any organization"
Watchtower Oct. 1 1966 page 603,4
"This is what we mean when we dedicate our lives to Jehovah.
We do not dedicate ourselves to a religion, nor to a man, nor to an organization. No, we dedicate ourselves to the Supreme Sovereign of the Universe, our Creator, Jehovah God himself."
