How did you feel when you got baptized?

by Schnufti 45 Replies latest jw experiences

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  Schnufti

  Back in 2005, I remember sitting in the stadium in the special rows with 42 others. 8000 people were looking at us - maybe even with a binocular - while listening to the speech. My family and my friends among them, being all proud of me.

  I don't remember being enthusiastic. The most exciting thing was that someone I had a crush on was sitting only two rows behind me and soon I got to see his half naked body. Instead I felt somewhat empty and scared. It just had to be done and there was no turning back. When the elders had gone through the questions with me I felt the question "Do you really want to become one of Jehovah's Witnesses?" very uncomfortable.

  Were you happy when you got baptized? Did you feel particularly "close to Jehovah"? Or did you want to stand up and hide in the toilet like me?
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  freddo

  Flat.
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  Normalfulla

  I was 16, felt sick with nerves had to do the huge(fast) walk to the toilets and puked up, no good memories there
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  Ucantnome

  I feel happy to get baptised although it is a long time ago now and I can't remember what year it was. I felt nervous and would rather have done it privately in the bathtub. I hated the thought of having to say prayers at the hall and stuff like that. I feel I was already a JW before I was baptised.
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  pale.emperor

  Im glad you asked this, when i was about to get baptized i was told that right afterwards you feel different. A clear sign that the holy spirit is upon you etc. After i got dunked i felt no different. Then as i was getting dressed, one of the brothers who did the baptizing said over the cubicle doors "can you feel the holy spirit resting upon you brothers?" to which the other brother who had got baptized along with me said enthusiastically "YES!"... i felt no different.

  So i went through my JW life assuming that my baptism didn't count, that Jehovah hadn't accepted or recognized my dedication. Years later i asked a very knowledgeable brother who was very approachable and loving to the congregation if he felt different after his baptism. He replied "Yes! But then, i also felt the same right after i was baptized into the Worldwide Church Of God as a youth".

  So i understood that that "feeling" the JWs were striving for was nothing more than a placebo. Like when you see faith healers making people feint off a single touch.

  P.S. That day only three people, including myself, got baptized. All of us have since left the Watchtower. The man who was in the cubicle who shouted "yes!" was a zealous pioneer but left after his brother went through depression and the elders berated him for his ministry hours going down. The girl who got baptized that day left after her elder father ran off with his 19yo secretary. Both are living happy, fulfilled lives out of the borg.
  
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  respectful_observer

  I felt guilty.

  I intellectually "knew it was the Truth(TM)", but when the speaker said how each of us candidates had already made a personal dedication to God in prayer before getting dunked, I thought, "Oops! Not me!" Then proceeded to make a "prayerful dedication" right there on the spot while he wrapped up his talk. Real sincere! Felt super guilty about it.

  Of course how serious could it have been, coming from someone who wasn't even yet a teenager.
  
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  zeb

  Some guy came into the change rooms and asked if anyone was being B for the second time. Me and one other indicated yes. "Ooh" was his reply and I think he had some notebook in his hand. and he left.

  Yes I had been baptised into the Church of Christ as a young person but no one asked me any details.
  
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  stillin

  I remember thinking "what am I getting myself into?"
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  a watcher

  I was thrilled. I was hoping it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship with Jehovah and Jesus; and it was.
  
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  punkofnice

  It was 1973. I can't remember.