What does it MEAN, to be Baptised.... (page 2)

Mac

to me...now... it's just a voluntary act of hydration born of hallucination

Do jw's understand how drastically the change is when they get baptized? Husband says he is getting bapatized this summer. I am just sick about it. I don't think he realizes just what this means for him. From my research it appears that, now the hammer really comes down. Work, Work, Work! never enough. I don't think he has any concept of grace. It seems there are almost two sets of rules in the hall, one for baptized and one for those who are not. carla

zaphod

if you didn't answer the two questions is your baptism valid?

i remember i was really nervous and had a dry mouth and one of the yeses did not come out.

did my baptism count?

zaphod

Sunspot

Good topic, LT, and with so many layers!

When I was supposed to get baptized as a JW, I asked why it was necessary. I had already been baptized into one religion and had made my confirmation into another. I was told that I wasn't baptized into the religion that Jehovah approved of, so that I needed to be re-baptized.

Knowing that God reads hearts, and knowing that He knows how duped we were by a manipulative cult, I consider my baptism to the WTS to be just a formality that I was told I must do in order to be recognized as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Basically it has little or nothing to do with sincerity or worship or obedience of God and Jesus (although I was sincere at my baptism) but as an outward "public" demonstration of a newly chosen religion, just as the WTS claims.

Annie

Deputy Dog

LT Baptism for me, is an act of obedience, it is symbolic of the gospel and has nothing (literally) to do with washing away of sins. If it did, why was Jesus baptized? D Dog

AshtonCA

Baptism for me, is an act of obedience, it is symbolic of the gospel and has nothing (literally) to do with washing away of sins. If it did, why was Jesus baptized?

You are absolutely correct. Baptism is mearly a symbol to show that you have been saved. It isn't what saves you. If you were to pass away before you were able to be baptized after you had been saved, you would still go to heaven, even though a baptism has not been performed first.

Ash

SixofNine

Baptism is a silly ritual for silly people.

Midget-Sasquatch

A serendipitous thing happened to me today. I had read all these great posts this morning and was later cajoled to go to the sunday meeting. When I wasn't daydreaming and actually flipping through the bible, I came across Ezekiel 36:25-26. These verses made me think about that second Essene quote that Narkissos posted.

It made me think that maybe baptism (on top of the mystery religion parallels that paul was fond of) is also about being given a fresh heart, thats brought alive by allowing ourselves to be washed inside by God.

P.S. I think all of us here agree that the ritual itself on the outside does nothing. Whether there's anything really happening internally, and what that exactly is, is useful to discuss though, at least to try and help us understand people's motives.

SixofNine

:people's motives

It's a 2500 year old gang initiation tradition.

LittleToe

Life is full of symbols, at so many different levels.

As Six so rightly expresses, it's an initiation ritual, and not an original one at that.
As for it's level of silliness, there are far more elaborate ones than a splash of water.

What does it MEAN, to be Baptised....

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