Baptism............and the war and stuff.

Knoxville

OK.I have just joined tonite....is there a time-scale or limit as to when u can get baptized. I have nearly finished the Knowledge book, getting to all meetings.....want to be an unbaptized publisher. Our assembly is in July,,,,is that too soon? Views please.....thanku!!!!

Ps. this war is scary stuff.

Celia

..................scratching my head....................

Hi Knoxville... Have you asked these questions to the dubs you're studying with ? Or someone at the Hall you go to ?

How old are you ? Why is it so important to you to become an unbaptized publisher?

...and yes, this war is scary, and awful.... oh ! is that the reason ? do you maybe believe that this war is the beginning of something else ? like the Tribulation or Armageddon ? and that's why you want to be "in the ark" before it is too late ?

Gamaliel

Knoxville,

I got baptized at 10 and it always sounded young to everyone at the time. Had to get a special dispensation, lol. But I hear that there are more and more getting dipped at under 12. There is a tendency to think of 12 as young/old enough based probably on bar-mitzvahs and Jesus example in the Temple.

Just curious, did you notice the differences in the the baptismal questions from back when I got baptized and the new set of questions. There is quite an interesting story behind the differences.

Gamaliel

JamesThomas

OUTLAW

Hey Knoxville,it`s not a good idea to jump into baptisim..Theres a lot of JW`s on this board..Hang out with us..Get to know us..Then you decide when you should be baptised...OUTLAW

Maverick

If you are being told that, "You better get on board the truth wagon, or you will be outside God's protection!" don't believe it! They use this every time there is some conflict to social upheavel! To be an unbaptized publisher just go and kneel before the PO an kiss his ring. He'll have you kissing his a** soon enough! Maverick

Gamaliel

Knoxville,

I have a strong suspicion you're not coming back, and you probably won't even see this post. But in case you do, I hope this helps. It seems pretty clear you jumped in here without looking where you were going. (Unless you did know and hoped to use the "war cry" as a subtle warning call to exJWs.) Please, do look before you let the JWs dupe you and baptize you into their organization. Look at those "baptism questions" carefully and see if you find something odd about them (compared with say, Matt 28:20)

I implied you might be very young, even though my real guess is that you're more likely older, but perhaps naive, and you're just wondering if you've studied long enough to get into the "ark of salvation" before world events force the door to shut. It's sad that people are led to believe there is a God who is petty enough to look at an outward sign and treat the water symbol like some kind of magic to decide your chances of survival when 99% of the world might otherwise get slaughtered forever, according to JWs.

Hurtful things have happened to a lot of JWs and former JWs that has finally forced them to realize that the JWs do not have true love amongst themselves, because the "love" is conditional. It can turn to hatred and shunning when you question one of their false doctrines. There are some good and useful truths you can learn from JWs, but the primary foundation of the religion is not even based on the same Christian principles generally promoted by the Christian scriptures. In many cases it promotes just the opposite. Rather than wait until something happens that jolts you into seeing this after much time has been wasted, or when it's too late to get out without getting hurt, why not look at some things you can verify right now?

If the JW "Truth" is so "true" it should easily stand up to a little bit of criticism. You may not be allowed to criticize after July. I hope you don't get baptized to do the will of these men, but if you do, please remember this simple test: Note the difference in the type of supportive, yet evasive answer you will get now if you ask about certain subjects that the JWs are embarrassed about. Compare that answer to type of suspicions you will raise if you were to dare ask these same questions after you are baptized. There are literally hundreds of possible questions already covered on this board. I'd recommend any of the following subjects in no particular order:

JW blood policy inconsistencies, and hypocrisy about blood issue for PR purposes
pedophilia issues (current "spiritual paradise" versus currently "no worse than any other religion")
hypocrisy about Watchtower Society's association with UN
hypocrisy about previous political status of JWs in Mexico, Malawi, current status on voting, etc.
hypocrisy about the shunning policy
finally being forced admit that the previously held definition of "the generation" was wrong (false). (Matt 24,25) This was after literally publishing the admittedly false teaching in about 500 different books, booklets, tracts and magazines over a 40 year period. (Now, multiply those 500 instances by an average of 10,000,000 copies each, in many languages. In addition to published statements, it was being repeated weekly from JW "pulpits" and millions more times individually by JWs at the homes of anyone who would listen.
lying in court cases to protect the JW Organization's reputation
coverup of evidence about prophetic dates and fulfillments (They still claim 607 BCE as the date of the destruction of Jerusalem and unofficially imply that historical evidence exists.)
some very silly official explanations of prophetic fullfilments that even most JWs wouldn't believe if they thought about them for even a few minutes, which is why those things won't be included in the "Knowledge" book
the importance of distributing books and magazines for Christian salvation versus other forms of service and worship
the promotion of service based on the nearness of Armageddon
the promotion of a two-class earthly and heavenly with misused scriptural justification
teachings that are clearly false from a scientific, archaeological or historical perspective (many)
many teachings that are clearly unscriptural
several teachings that JWs have once believed but now admit were unscriptural, even admitted they were of "demonic" origin in a couple cases
several teachings that JWs have held but changed because they were evidently unscriptural, but which they have gone back to believing are scriptural again.

Some of the mistakes the JWs admit they are most embarrassed about are trivialized or covered up. The JWs have often published revisions and reviews of their history that emphasize dates they still claim were "prophetic" 1914 and 1919, but they never tell the truth about what was actually being preached during those dates (1914 - 1919) and what they've taught since then about dates and prophecies. Here are some examples:

That the Great Pyramid was "Jehovah's witness" in stone, a kind of "Bible in stone".
That the pyramid proved that Jesus presence began in 1874.
That Russell alone was the "faithful and discreet slave" that it was not a "class" as they say now.
That the Society (and/or Russell) was chosen around 1914 to 1919 as God's only channel through which this faithful and discreet slave could dispense spiritual "food at the proper time." (Even though, at the time, they were still preaching unfaithfully and indiscreetly about dates like 1874, 1878 and 1881 (right up into the 1920's and 1930's).
That Jehovah and Jesus were especially blessing them with specific accurate knowledge about his "plan," claiming in print, that some of these dates could not be changed by even a year because they were "God's dates, not ours." It was surely the "height of indiscretion" to broadcast dates like: 1799, 1840, 1872, 1874, 1878, 1881, 1914 (100% of the Society's predictions for 1914 turned out to be wrong), 1915, 1918, 1925, "the few remaining months" in 1940's and 1950's, 1975, "before close of the 20th century" (=1999/2000).

The Bible tells you to "make sure of all things" and "carefully examine these things" and "always be ready to give an answer to him who asks about the hope within you" etc, etc, etc. You will find that the JW indoctrination process won't allow for you to question certain things even now. Note the discouragement you will get if you try to look up the original source material for the issues listed above, even though it's right there in almost any Kingdom Hall library. You will find that later you will finally stop questioning and will begin believing that everything is good enough. It's a subtle process, but it is very natural with all highly controlling groups. They start out providing all the support you need to conform, but it subtly changes from "support" to "pressure" based on the JWs expectations of you after you have conformed. Yet, the change will seem so natural that you will hardly realize when you have started applying the same pressures to others.

There is still hope, of course. You'll find that many on this board would happily answer and discuss any sincere questions about JWs.

Gamaliel

MacHislopp

Hello Knoxville,

thanks for the post. II 'm sure you'll quite interesting,

one of my latest posts, addressed to all those ...who

have to take a decision for baptism as JW. Read all

the implications...which are never explainedto the

"bible student".

I do believe that Gamaliel gave a lot of material to

thinks about. Please don't hesitate if you have any

question.

Greetings, J.C.MacHislopp

Swan

Welcome Knoxville!

OK.I have just joined tonite....is there a time-scale or limit as to when u can get baptized. I have nearly finished the Knowledge book, getting to all meetings.....want to be an unbaptized publisher. Our assembly is in July,,,,is that too soon? Views please.....thanku!!!!
Ps. this war is scary stuff.

Yes, war is always scary and that's a good thing, but don't let it scare you into something you are not ready for. There were conflicts with the Romans in Jesus' day, but he didn't get baptized until age 30. That's a good age to make a mature decision. I would wait until then if I were you.

Tammy

Joker10

If you meet the requirments you can be baptized after 6 months of study. Keep in mind that most people in this site are opossers. Good wishes.

Baptism............and the war and stuff.

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