Die Taufe stellt bei Zeugen Jehovas den totalen Übertritt zur Religionsgemeinschaft dar. Nun ist man an die Anweisungen der Wachtturmgesellschaft gebunden und ihrer Gerichtsbarkeit vollständig unterworfen.
Taufe der Zeugen Jehovas ungültig erklären lassen Bearbeiten
Um sich aus der Gerichtsbarkeit der Zeugen Jehovas und all den Folgen bei angeblichen Missetaten oder auch einfach nur dem Beenden der Mitgliedschaft zu entziehen, kann man versuchen die Taufe als Zeuge Jehovas für ungültig erklären zu lassen. Zeugen Jehovas haben zu diesem Thema einiges geschrieben. Die Quellen seien hier wiedergegeben.
Unter welchen Umständen würde jemandes Taufe als ungültig angesehen werden? Bearbeiten
Quelle: Königreichsdienst Januar 1985 Seite 3 Fragekasten
Unter welchen Umständen würde jemandes Taufe als ungültig angesehen werden?
Es geschieht manchmal, daß Personen erklären, sie hätten zur Zeit ihrer Taufe nicht den nötigen Erfordernissen für die Hingabe entsprochen und man sie aus diesem Grund nicht als eine Gott hingegebene Person betrachten sollte. Wenn jemand wirklich glaubt, daß seine Taufe ungültig war und er den Wunsch hat, noch einmal getauft zu werden, dann unterliegt das seiner eigenen Entscheidung. (Siehe Wachtturm vom 15. April 1964, S. 236, 237.)
Oftmals wird die Behauptung, daß die Taufe ungültig gewesen sei, vorgebracht, wenn irgendwelche rechtlichen Schritte von seiten der Versammlung zu drohen scheinen. Die Person behauptet dann, daß ein solches Vorgehen unberechtigt sei, da sie ja kein getauftes Glied der Versammlung sei. Unter solchen Umständen tragen die Ältesten die Verantwortung, die Faktoren abzuwägen und zu entscheiden, wie der Betreffende jetzt in der Versammlung angesehen werden soll.
Wenn eine Person eine Missetat begangen hat, die zu einem Gemeinschaftsentzug führen könnte, und sie jetzt zum ersten Mal behauptet, daß ihre Taufe ungültig gewesen sei, da sie ihre Bedeutung nicht verstanden habe oder ähnlich, würden wir sie als das ansehen, was zu sein sie bis zu dieser Zeit vorgab, nämlich als einen Gott hingegebenen und getauften Christen. Die Versammlung würde mit ihr entsprechend verfahren. (Siehe Wachtturm vom 15. Mai 1960, S. 319, 320.) Wenn es sich allerdings herausstellt, daß die Person getauft wurde, ohne sich dafür zu eignen, da genau die Situation, die die Versammlung jetzt veranlaßte zu handeln, damals bereits bestand, dann ist ihre Taufe ungültig, und man sollte mit ihr wie mit einem ungetauften Missetäter verfahren, der ein anerkannter Mitverbundener der Versammlung ist (Apg. 19:1-5; om S. 147, 148).
Hingabegebet ist immer gegeben Bearbeiten
Quelle: Wachtturm 1989 01.05. Seite 14 Absatz 21 Was hindert dich, getauft zu werden?
Wenn die Hingabe im Gebet vor Jahren, als du dich taufen ließest, noch nicht betont wurde, wird deine Taufe dadurch nicht notwendigerweise ungültig. Zweifellos verhielten sich zu jener Zeit viele ähnlich wie ein junger Mann, der sich niederkniete und sich in einem inbrünstigen Gebet Jehova hingab, woran er sich heute noch — über 40 Jahre danach — lebhaft erinnert. Und wer sich damals nicht schon vor der Taufansprache in einem formellen Gebet Gott hingegeben hatte, machte dies zum Gegenstand des Gebets, als die Taufbewerber und die anderen Anwesenden bei der Ansprache, die am Tag seiner Taufe gehalten wurde, gemeinsam beteten.
Wann darf eine Taufe für ungültig erklärt werden? Bearbeiten
Quelle: w60 3/1 pp. 159-160 Questions From Readers
What should a congregation committee do in the case of one who has committed acts deserving being put on probation or disfellowshiped and who now claims that in the light of what The Watchtower, August 1, 1958, had to say about valid and invalid baptisms, his baptism was not a valid one?
We well know that Christendom professes to be Jehovah's organization and in the new covenant with him. It has never renounced that relationship, although it is a false claim and pretense. Yet because of the appearance that Christendom puts on before the world and the demands that it makes according to its boastful claims, Jehovah God will judge Christendom just the same as if she were in actual covenant relationship with him. She will be judged unfaithful and punished accordingly because she has acted hypocritically and brought reproach upon his name.
Likewise, if an individual who has made a profession of dedication to God through Christ and after the baptismal talk submits to water baptism and then continues to associate with the congregation, even though spasmodically, claiming to be a dedicated, baptized member of the congregation and never renouncing that relationship with the congregation, then that individual has to be judged by the congregation according to the appearance of things that is being offered by this person.
The congregation credits the individual with honesty and with having intelligently entered into a full membership in the congregation by virtue of dedication and baptism. The congregation is not God, who is able to read the heart, nor does it have supernatural gifts as did Peter and other apostles so as to know whether the individual is earnest and sincere and is not dishonest and hypocritical. If the individual permits himself to be accepted by the congregation upon the basis of the congregation's own understanding and view of the matter, then this individual subjects himself to be judged and dealt with according to the standards that the congregation owns up to as found in the Word of God.
If, after the individual commits a wrong that deserves disfellowshiping, the individual first then disclaims having actually been what he has all along pretended to be and what he has let the congregation think he is, then he certainly is trying to take advantage of the congregation and is trying to crawl out from underneath responsibility and due consequences for his acts. He cannot now properly claim that he was not really dedicated and that his baptism was all a mistake and that in reality he never was a member of the congregation and of the New World society and so cannot be chastened by or expelled from it.
This particularly follows in the case of such a one's making a confession. If inside himself he did not count himself a member of the congregation, then why make a confession to the congregation in the first place? An undedicated, unbaptized person is not obliged to confess all his sins and wickedness that he committed before dedication to the congregation and ask their forgiveness. All that is necessary is that he clean up his life, then make a dedication and act in harmony with that dedication and present himself for baptism.
But whether confessing or not, when a person is found guilty of misconduct he must be dealt with according to the appearance he gave those of the New World society and must therefore be put on probation or disfellowshiped as the situation may call for. If after he has been reinstated he still is convinced that he had not made a dedication before his baptism and it therefore was invalid, he should, if he has not already done so, make an intelligent, binding dedication to God now that he has repented and proved his repentance by works befitting such and then he should be baptized. We cannot trifle with Jehovah God. This is a serious matter and should be treated seriously.
Täufer muss Zeuge Jehovas sein, ausreichendes Verständnis muss vorhanden sein Bearbeiten
Quelle: Wachtturm (englisch) 1958, 01.08. Seite 475 Absatz 11 Baptism
Any baptism other than a proper one performed by a dedicated person would be invalid. Also, it would be invalid if the individual did not have a proper understanding at the time of his dedication. This is illustrated to us by Paul when he went to Ephesus and found certain learners. He asked them: "Did you receive holy spirit when you became believers?" "They said to him: 'Why, we have never heard whether there is a holy spirit.' And he said: 'In what, then, were you baptized?' They said: 'In John's baptism.' Paul said: 'John baptized with the baptism of those repenting, telling the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.' On hearing this, they got baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul laid his hands upon them, the holy spirit came upon them, and they began . . . prophesying." This demonstrates to us that even John's baptism did not bring the holy spirit upon an individual, this fact showing the importance and necessity of being baptized in the name of the one coming after John, that is, Jesus. As an example, it shows that those sharing in John's baptism after Pentecost A.D. 33 of necessity had to repeat the baptism in order to receive the holy spirit.—Acts 19:1-7.
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Quelle: Wachtturm (englisch) 1964 15.02. Seiten 124-125 Did You Make an Acceptable Dedication to God?
Some state that they do not remember saying a specific, private prayer at the time of their dedication and wonder if such failure renders their baptism invalid.
It must be appreciated that not all prayer offered to Jehovah God needs to be offered on bended knee in the privacy of one's own personal room at home. Prayer can be offered up to Jehovah from the heart silently and unobserved by outsiders even while one is walking along the street or while one is standing in the presence of another person, as in the case of Nehemiah, who was the cupbearer for the king and was standing in his presence at the time he prayed. (Neh. 2:3-5) Consequently, just because one cannot recall a specific moment when he made a decision to be henceforth and forever Jehovah God's and whether it was made in one specific, private prayer, it does not mean that he did not make a direct dedication of himself to the Most High God before he was immersed in water.
Certainly before a person would be immersed in water in symbol of dedication he would have to make a decision to undergo such immersion. The very reason for making such a decision would be an understanding of what the water immersion symbolized and the obligations under which he understood himself henceforth to be because of making such a decision to be immersed. No individual walks into a water immersion of Jehovah's witnesses blindly just because he happens to be found in the crowd of candidates, being swept off his feet along with the crowd into the water and into the hands of the immerser.
Even while the individual is changing his clothing and is preparing himself to enter into the water to be immersed, he manifests to himself and to all observers that he has made a decision to be forever afterward dedicated to Jehovah God through Jesus Christ. Such a decision is a solemn thing and evidently it is made in a prayerful mood, with one's thoughts on the God who can read the heart. So whether one made such a decision of dedication long before the actual baptizing in water, or it was made during or after the baptismal talk, the incontrovertible fact remains that the individual made a dedication of himself from the heart in the presence of the Most High God, and that is the thing of primary importance.
On the day of Pentecost when the apostle Peter told the Jews, who had been cut to the heart by the words that he preached to them, what to do, they followed his advice, repented, and were baptized on that day. (Acts 2:37-41) They had little time in advance of their actual water baptism to make the decision to follow in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus. This decision they did not make on bended knee in prayer in the privacy of their homes, which were located in scattered parts of the Roman Empire and even outside of it. They made their decision just prior to the water baptism that Peter encouraged them to undergo. They evidently made their decision standing up in the presence of the apostles, upon whom the holy spirit had been poured out that day.
So one's physical attitude, or one's location at the time of making the decision of dedication, or whether it was done in one well-remembered specific prayer, does not determine the validity of the dedication vow that is thus made. The essential thing is that the dedication must be understood to be made to the Most High God through his Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Entsprechendes Alter notwendig Bearbeiten
Quelle: Wachtturm (englisch) 1986 15.03. Seiten 6-7 Should Babies Be Baptized?
Baptizing a small child does not help him develop in faith. In fact, it violates Jesus' command: "Go therefore and make disciples [or, "make learners"] . . . baptizing them." (Matthew 28:19) Baptism is meaningless unless one is old enough to be a disciple. True, there is an "immemorial tradition" for infant baptism. But did not Jesus condemn those who 'made the word of God invalid because of their tradition'?—Matthew 15:6.