Well, we understand. Here are some quotes that reflect what Ihave heard over the last 50 years. The key scripture is Ezekiel 9:6. If he is an old-timer, it explains his cruel comments. This is definitely something people don't tell Bible students until they are baptized.
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w87 4/15 pp. 12-13 Gaining Peace With God Through Dedication and Baptism ***Should even youths consider baptism? Well, recall that Jehovah told the six armed men in the vision: "Old man, young man and virgin and little child and women you should kill off?to a ruination. But to any man upon whom there is the mark do not go near." (Ezekiel 9:6) Of course, children too young to make a dedication would be protected by a parent?s "mark" if that parent is striving to bring the children up to love Jehovah and if they are obediently responding. (1 Corinthians 7:14) Yet, if a child is intelligent enough to make a personal decision and has reached the point where he "knows how to do what is right," do not presume that he will continue indefinitely under the merit of his parent?s "mark."?James 4:17.
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w72 1/15 pp. 51-52 Completing the Work of the King?s Secretary *** 11
Let us not egotistically presume that we, if with unmarked foreheads, shall be able somehow to go unnoticed by the armed "six men." When ancient Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 607 B.C.E., then, a
ccording to the hard facts, little children as well as virgins, women, young men and old men were destroyed. If the little babies did not die from hunger or pestilence or at the hands of the cruel Babylonian soldiers, then they died at the pitiless hands of their own starving mothers, who ate them like cannibals. The prophet Jeremiah, who was a prisoner inside Jerusalem until it fell to the besiegers, tells us so. (Lam. 2:20, 21)
What about your children who are too young today to make an intelligent dedication and get baptized in symbol of becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ? They may be too young to get the mark in the forehead personally. 12
But are you yourself marked with that mark of dedication and of Christian personality? Are you striving to do as the Christian apostle Paul admonishes a parent to do, namely, bring them up in the discipline and the mental-regulating of Jehovah, and are they obediently responding to your loving efforts? (Eph. 6:1-4) Only if this is the case can you trust that the merit of the "mark" in your own forehead will extend to your minor children and that they will be mercifully spared with you from execution or destruction in the oncoming "great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world?s beginning until now, no, nor will occur again." (Matt. 24:21) Now in the short time that remains is the time to do this, before the modern-day "man clothed with the linen" finishes his marking of all worthy foreheads and the symbolic "six men" start using their smashing weapons on all unmarked foreheads that they discover.
You parents, do you want your little children to be considered, not "unclean," but "holy," because of your marked forehead in Jehovah?s day for executing vengeance? Naturally you should. But do not presume that your children who are intelligent enough to make a decision and personally dedicate themselves to Jehovah through Christ will come under the merit of your marked forehead.
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w68 2/1 pp. 83-84 Parents? Moral Responsibility *** 20
By all the evidences this system of things is hastening to its final confrontation with the God of justice at Armageddon.
Parents and children who fail to gain the "mark on their foreheads," that is, an adequate appreciation of God?s moral standard, are sure to suffer. Parents will be held accountable for their children, and children will suffer for the failure of their parents. The prophet overheard the instruction issued to the angelic executioners: "Do not feel any compassion. Old man, young man and virgin and little child and women you should kill off?to a ruination. . . . Their way I shall certainly bring upon their own head."?Ezek. 9:4-6, 10.
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w65 3/15 p. 176 Our Own Twentieth-Century Generation and the Resurrection ***The undedicated children of goatish people will not be spared from execution and being sentenced to Gehenna just because they are themselves minor, unresponsible children. This hard fact is illustrated in the orders that Jehovah God issued to his executioners when apostate Jerusalem was to be destroyed. To his executioners he said: "Pass through the city after him [the man who marked the ones to be spared] and strike. Let not your eye feel sorry, and do not feel any compassion. Old man, young man and virgin and little child and women you should kill off." And that is what they did, as illustrated in Jerusalem?s destruction, 607 B.C.E.-Ezek. 9:5-7.
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w62 8/15 pp. 494-495 Children, Do You Obey Jehovah? ***We are living in a momentous time in human history, not from the standpoint of the remarkable inventions man has produced, but from the standpoint of Jehovah?s purposes. It is the long-foretold time of the end for the present wicked world. Shortly Jehovah will terminate its existence in the battle of Armageddon and usher in a new world of righteousness. It is a serious time for children as well as adults, because children that do not obey Jehovah will not be among the survivors of that battle. God will not preserve them into his new world merely because they are children. This is evident from the fact that he did not preserve the young children through the flood of Noah?s day just because they were children. It is also shown in the book of Ezekiel that just because you are young is no reason for God?s keeping you alive. Ezekiel wrote: "Slay utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark." (Ezek. 9:6, AS) Your being children who worship and serve Jehovah as he has commanded and who have the mark of protection?ah yes, that will mean preservation and life for you.
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w62 10/1 p. 582 How to Keep Delinquency Out of Your Home ***Make it crystal clear that no thief, greedy person or rebellious boy or girl will get into God?s kingdom.?1 Cor. 6:9, 10; Ps. 37:9; Ezek. 9:6.
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w60 1/15 p. 55 This Is a Time of Judgment ***Parents who reject the good news of the Kingdom and who ignore the good principles and wonderful purposes of Jehovah God cannot expect their minor children to survive the execution of divine judgment. Until a child reaches the age where it can be held responsible for its actions, it is under family responsibility. Divine punishment or blessing that comes to its parents automatically falls upon it. This principle is seen at Ezekiel 9:6, where God?s command was to "slay utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark."?AS.
The unresponsible children of the people who perished in the flood were not preserved with Noah in the ark, but were destroyed with their wicked parents. The same was true with regard to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. If those cities had contained ten righteous persons they would have been spared. Certainly there were more than ten unresponsible children in them; nevertheless, God destroyed the two cities.
