PJ54
Well-known member
Saturday, March 11 2023Whoever loves God must also love his brother.—1 John 4:21.
After a person gets baptized, we must continue to love and respect him. (1 John 4:20) What does this involve? For one thing, we give him the benefit of the doubt whenever possible. For example, we would not impute bad or selfish motives to him. Instead, we would show honor for our brother, considering him to be superior to us. (Rom. 12:10; Phil. 2:3) Actually, we should show mercy and kindness to all people. If we want to be among those who can rightly call Jehovah their Father forever, we must apply God’s Word in our lives. For instance, Jesus taught that we should show mercy and kindness to all people, even our enemies. (Luke 6:32-36) We may find that at times this is difficult for us to do. If so, we must learn to think and act like Jesus. When we do our best to obey Jehovah and imitate Jesus, we show our heavenly Father that we want to be part of his family forever. w21.08 6 ¶14-15
Examining the Scriptures Daily—2023
How can the baptism of a child be considered valid?
In secular law a person is not able to sign a contract unless he is of age, in most areas 18. Jesus was baptized when he was 30, the...
questions-4jehovahs-witnesses.blogspot.com
How can the baptism of a child be considered valid?
In secular law a person is not able to sign a contract unless he is of age, in most areas 18. Jesus was baptized when he was 30, the age that was then recognized as being an adult. Today many underage youths are baptized because of peer pressure or trying to make their parents happy, even parent pressure: ‘Hey little Johnny, your 14 and little Billy just got baptized and he is 10, what is the matter with you?’ Even though elders do their best in trying to find out a child’s heart and knowledge by meeting with the youth prior to baptism, in reality how can a person truly be bound to Jehovah and the Organization by a decision made (a contract signed in essence) when they were 10 years old? |
Those are valid points. The Watchtower has always pointed out how unscriptural and unreasonable the Catholic practice of infant baptism is; yet Jehovah's Witnesses practice something similar in pushing their pre-teen children into baptism. Of course, children mature at different rates, but generally it seems that baptizing children should be the exception rather than commonplace, such as it has become. As for whether any pre-mature baptism is valid in God's eyes is ultimately for Jehovah himself to determine. However, baptism is essentially a vow to God. The verse comes to mind at Ecclesiastes that warns us against taking our vows to God lightly—even if the one vowing did so rashly or mistakenly. Ecclesiastes 5:4-6 reads: "Whenever you vow a vow to God, do not hesitate to pay it, for there is no delight in the stupid ones. What you vow, pay. Better is it that you vow not than that you vow and do not pay. Do not allow your mouth to cause your flesh to sin, neither say before the angel that it was a mistake. Why should the true God become indignant on account of your voice and have to wreck the work of your hands?" |