Q: During spring this year [my younger brother] read something about the UN affair and it got him thinking. Since he knew that I was already aware of this for some time he asked me some advice and help. So I provided him with some translated essays from you and e-watchman to help him to see why things are happening in the WT org today.

Now he is having a bit of a problem regarding baptism. He never got baptized and with the things he knows, it has given him more faith. So, he would be interested in going towards baptism, but then first he should become unbaptized publisher (which will be difficult for him) and then there are the questions, which will also be difficult to answer honestly. Since his father in law told him that it is important to be baptized before the GT starts, my brother doesn't know what to do now. He is afraid to wait too long, but with the current conditions it might also be impossible to be honest.

Would you have some advice regarding this problem? Would he still have time to wait until the WT is really cleansed and the true worship is possible? Or should he try to find someone who is willing to baptize according to bible standards? Or could he try to get baptized in the congregation and try to get around the more difficult baptism questions?
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A: You must be very encouraged by the fact that your brother did not stumble over the UN NGO affair, and still wants to worship Jehovah. This indicates that he cares more about Jehovah than what the organization does. It's good to keep reminding ourselves that we need to differentiate between what Jehovah requires of us and what has been loaded on us by the Society's corporation and its governing body. For example, the preaching work is from Jehovah and no man, organization of men, or governments, can forbid or hinder us from sharing in it. We do not need anyone's permission, including the Society's and their elders, to do what God has commissioned us to do. (Acts 5:29) That includes baptism.

Baptism is a necessary step in having a relationship with God! Jesus included everyone of his disciples when he commanded them: "Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them." (Matt. 28:19) It is at the point of baptism that a person becomes a member of God's household and the benefits of the ransom are applied to him. (1 Cor. 6:11; 2 Cor. 6:18) The apostle Paul parallels baptism with the cleansing waters of the red heifer under the Mosaic law. It was a sin offering, which has been replaced with Christ's sacrifice: "If the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who have been defiled sanctifies to the extent of cleanness of the flesh, how much more will the blood of the Christ, who through an everlasting spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse our consciences from dead works that we may render sacred service to the living God?" "Therefore, brothers, . . since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with true hearts in the full assurance of faith, having had our hearts sprinkled from a wicked conscience and our bodies bathed with clean water." (Num. 19:2,9; Heb. 9:13,14; 10:19-22) Matter of fact, we just had this in our weekly Bible reading at the meeting. According to the Mosaic Law, in order for an unclean man to be made clean, a clean man would spatter the cleansing water with the ashes of the heifer upon the unclean person. If the unclean person refused to submit to this requirement, "well, that soul must be cut off from the midst of the congregation." (Num. 19:19,20) The great crowd of true worshipers, that comes out of the great tribulation, survives because "they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb," which indicates that they were baptized. (Rev. 7:14; compare Acts 22:16)

Yes, baptism is a requirement from God and not man! Therefore, no one has the authority to restrict, attach rules, or in any way hinder or prevent anyone from getting baptized, such as first having to meet with the elders to ascertain whether the person qualifies by answering correctly a number of questions based on the teachings of the Society. "Our being adequately qualified issues from God," and therefore entirely between the person and Jehovah. (Acts 4:19; 5:29; 2 Cor. 3:5,6) So, if your brother does not want to submit to the Society's traditional way of going about getting baptized, from Jehovah's standpoint he doesn't need to in order for his baptism to be valid. He can do, for example, what I did, and many others have also done, namely this: Take a towel and bathing suit to the next convention, sit with the baptismal candidates in the designated section and follow them to the baptismal pool. A brother will baptize him, and in Jehovah's eyes it will be perfectly valid, for he is now a member of God's household. (1 Tim. 3:15) He can worship Jehovah with a "cleansed conscience" and "render sacred service to the living God" no matter what anyone else might say in protest about this after the fact. (2 Cor. 6:17,18)

If he does not want to wait until the next Assembly he can also have any baptized brother baptize him in any body of water deep enough for immersion, including a large enough bath tub. It does not need to be an elder or someone recognized by the Society who performs the baptism, as long as the person himself is a worshiper of Jehovah. His baptism will be valid in Jehovah's eyes, and that is what really counts. That's how it was done in the first century, long before a corporation was formed to control all aspects of our worship. Look at how simple it was for the Ethiopian eunuch to get baptized, according to the account in the book of Acts. And also note how Jehovah's spirit was involved. (see Acts 8:27-39)

I agree, it may seem strange, or foreign, to do it different from the norm of what we are so used to, but we need to be concerned only with what Jehovah requires of us, even if it necessitates making mental and emotional adjustments in our thinking and attitudes. (Rom. 3:4) The time is fast approaching when doing things Jehovah's way will be the only way, for Jehovah will have set us free from the slavery to laws and decrees of a corporation, just as he has promised: "And they will have to know that I am Jehovah when I break the bars of their yoke and I have delivered them out of the hand of those who had been using them as slaves." This is in connection with when he holds an accounting with the wicked shepherds of his sheep. (Ezek. 34:10-12, 15,16, 27)


 

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