Baptizing in the name of…?

Illustrations of baptism in the Jehovah’s Witness Organization, collage created by Miss Usato

Published by: Miss Usato, Written by: Larchwood on June 23th, 2025

“Go Therefore and Make Disciples, Baptizing Them in The Name of The Father, the Son, and the Organization.”

Is that how the scripture goes? This article is written by Larchwood, a respected advocate for showing transparency within the Jehovah’s Witnesses community, explores the deeper meaning behind what it truly means to dedicate one’s life, not to faith alone, but to an organization.

“I think the Governing Body might be wrong about some things but I don’t follow them, I follow scripture.”

Larchwood:

This has been said to me by JW’s more than once when discussing the shortcomings of the Governing Body. The last time it came up was after a discussion about Stephen Lett’s talk at the 2020 “Always Rejoice!” Convention, where he said homosexuals would be resurrected, still homosexual, and would have to change and adjust, or he would “justly” lose his life in the new world, quoting from a 1989 Watchtower to back up this thought.

The JW I was talking to conceded that what Lett was saying was not scriptural. They pointed out that all the doctrines come from the Governing Body (or the Faithful and Discreet Slave), and that JW must accept what they say. But when I added that this was following men, not scripture, the Jehovah’s Witness was adamant that they were not following men and that Jehovah would sort out any problems within the Governing Body in time. So that in the meantime, they would continue to follow scripture.

This conversation bothered me. After I got home, I thought about what a good response could have been. Then it dawned on me. I got to thinking about how my son, now an adult, was once almost baptized as a JW but has since left the religion. I thought of the following scenario I could put forward if the above conversation ever happened again.

-Start of Scenario:

Me: You know, my son has been studying with JWs again.

JW: That’s great!

Me: Yes. He got as far as becoming an unbaptized publisher. He even went through all the questions with the elders.

JW: This is so good to hear.

Me: Yes. His heart is in the right place, he loves the bible, he’s read it all, thoroughly, he’s especially studied the Greek scriptures deeply and wants to make sure he is following scripture, not men.

JW: He sounds like a very wise young man. So when is the big day? When is he getting baptized?

“Oh, he isn’t getting baptized.”

Me: Oh he isn’t getting baptized.

JW: What? Why?

Me: It’s the fact that he wants to get baptized scripturally that is the problem for him.

JW: What do you mean? Of course, it will be a scriptural baptism!

Me: On the baptism day, the questions he will have to say Yes to in a loud voice are these:

Have you repented of your sins, dedicated yourself to Jehovah, and accepted his way of salvation through Jesus Christ?

Do you understand that your baptism identifies you as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in association with Jehovah’s organization?

JW: What’s wrong with that?

Me: It’s that second question. He says it’s not scriptural. You see, he reads Matthew 28:19 where Jesus says that people have to be baptized ‘in the name of the Father, Son, and holy spirit’.

And that is not what happens at a JW baptism. And nowhere does it say in the Greek scriptures that people must be baptized in association with any organization.

JW: Oh, but you know what they mean!

Me: He knows from 1 Cor 4:6 (NWT) that we must not go ‘beyond the things that are written’.

JW: Errr. Ok.

Me: You see, he can’t get baptized scripturally if he gets baptized as a JW. So there’s a problem there…

JW……………………………..

-End of scenario

The evolution of the baptism questions

The latest baptism questions are found in Organized to Do God’s Will. They have changed a few times over the years, as shown in these Watchtowers.

WT Feb 1 1945 p. 44:

(1) Have you recognized yourself as a sinner and needing salvation from Jehovah God and have you acknowledged that this salvation proceeds from Him and through his Ransomer Christ Jesus?

(2) Based on this faith in God and his provision for redemption, have you consecrated yourself unreservedly to do the will of God henceforth as that will is revealed to you through Christ Jesus and God’s word as His holy spirit makes it plain?

-Hmm already not quite what Matt 28:19, 20 says, but the holy spirit gets a mention.

WT July 1, 1956 p.407

(1) Have you recognized yourself before Jehovah God as a sinner who needs salvation, and have you acknowledged to him that this salvation proceeds from him the Father, through his Son Jesus Christ?

(2) based on this faith in God and in his provision for salvation, have you dedicated yourself unreservedly to God to do his will henceforth as he reveals it to you through Jesus Christ and the Bible under the enlightenment of the holy spirit?

-Again not quite in the name of the Father, son and holy spirit but at least the latter is still there.

WT May 15, 1970 p.309

(1) Have you recognized yourself as a sinner and needing salvation from Jehovah God? And have you acknowledged that this salvation proceeds from him and through his ransomer, Christ Jesus?

(2) On the basis of this faith in God and in his provision for redemption have you dedicated yourself unreservedly to Jehovah God, to do his will henceforth as that will is revealed to you through Christ Jesus and through God’s Word as his holy spirit makes it plain?

-Here they change it from “…through the Bible under the enlightenment of holy spirit” to “…through God’s Word as his holy spirit makes it plain”- so back to the wording of the 1945 question.

I just realized as I type these out, that they have never actually said ‘in the name of the Father, Son, and holy spirit ‘as the scripture says!

WT May 1, 1973 p.280

(1) Have you repented of your sins and turned around, recognizing yourself before Jehovah God as a condemned sinner who needs salvation, and have you acknowledged to him that this salvation proceeds from him, the Father, through his Son Jesus Christ?

(2) On the basis of this faith in God and in his provision for salvation, have you dedicated yourself unreservedly to God to do his will henceforth as he reveals it to you through Jesus Christ and through the Bible under the enlightening power of the holy spirit?

-Interestingly, here they have removed the name Jehovah from this second baptism question and gone back to the “enlightening power” phrase as it was in 1966.

WT June 1, 1985, p.30

(1) On the basis of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, have you repented of your sins and dedicated yourself to Jehovah to do his will?

(2) Do you understand that your dedication and baptism identify you as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in association with God’s spirit-directed organization?

-Interesting, now holy spirit is missing but it kind of gets a mention as God’s spirit-directed organization. A bit of a push.

The latest change in the baptism questions came in 2019, and these questions can be found in the publication Organized to Do Jehovah’s Will, page 206, and also in a Watchtower.

WT, March 2020, p.10

(1) Have you repented of your sins, dedicated yourself to Jehovah, and accepted his way of salvation through Jesus Christ?

(2) Do you understand that your baptism identifies you as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in association with Jehovah’s organization?

-So, not only is there no holy spirit anymore, it’s not even a spirit-directed organization this time.

Following on from these questions, the book goes on to say this:

Affirmative answers to these questions constitute a “public declaration” by the baptism candidates that they have put faith in the ransom and have unreservedly dedicated themselves to Jehovah. (Rom. 10:9, 10) Baptism candidates will want to give prayerful thought to these questions in advance so that they can answer in harmony with their personal convictions.

So this says baptism candidates should give prayerful consideration to these questions in advance so they can answer in harmony with their personal convictions.

What do the baptism questions really mean?

What if your personal conviction is that you need to be baptized scripturally as per Matt 19:28?

This was the personal conviction of the Witnesses I have encountered who argue that they follow scripture and not men.

Can a person say for example: “I wish to be baptized scripturally so can you change the question for me to include by the authority of the Father, Son and of the holy spirit so that I can answer in harmony with my prayerfully considered personal convictions?”

The answer is No. Which means we have a problem. You can either get baptized according to scripture OR you can get baptized according to JW rules. This all goes to highlight that despite claiming not to go beyond the things written, that is exactly what the Watchtower through the Governing Body, and therefore Jehovah’s Witnesses do. To get baptized as a Jehovah’s Witness is to follow men, not scripture.

In a BBC Panorama documentary from 2002 Suffer the Little Children, Governing Body Member Ted Jaracz, said this to a reporter:

“You know, the bible says, ‘Do not go beyond the things written.” We do not go beyond the things written.”

(I could write about many instances of where they go beyond the things written, but I think I will save that for another article.)

Some of the Publications that contained the baptism questions throughout the years

A realization

Going back to the evolution of the baptism questions, up until writing this article, I was under the impression that Watchtower had previously been closer to the biblical instruction of being baptized as per Matt 28:19, with the holy spirit or spirit included in the questions up until 1985, with the latest change being the one that stood out as excluding it.

What stood out over the years is that there was an introduction to the need to be baptized in association with “Jehovah’s organization” which is not found in any scripture.

I wondered if perhaps when Charles Taze Russell was running the show, things were different. Maybe back then, the Bible Students, as the JW’s were previously known, had baptism questions that followed the bible more closely. Here is what I found.

The WT, May 15, 1913, p.5246

(1) Have you repented of sin with such restitution as you are able, and are you trusting in the merit of Christ’s sacrifice for the forgiveness of your sins and the basis of your justification?

(2) Have you made a full consecration of yourself with all the powers that you possess–talent, money, time, influence–all to the Lord, to be used faithfully in His service, even unto death?

-On the basis of these confessions, we acknowledge you as a member of the Household of Faith, and give to you as such the right hand of fellowship, not in the name of any sect or party or creed, but in the name of the Redeemer, our glorified Lord, and His faithful followers.

I was shocked. This was news to me! In the early days of ‘God’s Organization”, even Russell did not mention the holy spirit in the baptism questions.

So, has anything really changed? Baptism as a Jehovah’s Witness now “identifies” the person as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in association with Jehovah’s organization just as in Russell’s time, where one was acknowledged as a member of the “Household of Faith” in the name of the “…Redeemer… and His Faithful Followers”. At least in Russell’s questions, he does say in the name of Jesus.

The Scripture

Matthew 18:18,19 (NWT)

“Jesus approached them, saying: “All authority has been given me in heaven and on the earth. (19) Go therefore and make disciples…baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit,…”

-Many former JWs have pointed out the changes in baptism questions over the years and have argued that Matthew 28:19 is no longer reflected in the baptism questions now that “holy spirit” is omitted. As I write this article, I realize Watchtower are not and never were using this scripture as the basis for the baptism questions, even though it clearly lays out direction for how to baptize.

By reading verse 18 you can see the scripture is Jesus speaking. He is clearly saying that he has all authority in heaven and on earth and is authorizing baptism in his Father’s name, his name, and the holy spirit’s (note he does not say anything about baptizing in association with his Father’s organization).

The scripture is quoted in an article about baptism in the Watchtower and is not quoted but only referenced in Organized to Do Jehovah’s Will in the introduction to Part 2 of the main baptism questions.

Matthew 28:19 is not used in the actual baptism questions, and being baptized “in the name of”, according to Watchtower, means something entirely different.

WT, March 2020, page 10:

“Your decision to get baptized is also based on the Bible truths you have accepted. Consider what Jesus said when he gave the commission to make disciples. (Read Matthew 28:19, 20.) According to Jesus, those who get baptized must do so “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit.” What did this mean? You must believe with all your heart the Bible truths about Jehovah, his Son, Jesus; and the holy spirit…”

-The way Watchtower interprets that scripture is bizarre. “In the name of” is not merely about ‘believing with all your heart’ as Watchtower claims.

Put it this way, if I were to say, “Open up in the name of the law!” I don’t mean “open up because you believe in the law with all your heart”. I mean, open up because I have the authority of the law behind me. “In the name of” means a person is representing someone or something. Jesus made the “who” plain.

I simply do not see how Watchtower’s interpretation of baptizing “in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the holy spirit” as meaning ‘believing with all you heart in the Bible truths about, Jehovah, Jesus and the holy spirit’, and then adding “in association with Jehovah’s organization” can possibly be called scriptural. Do you?

A few more references:

(1) A video of a talk can be found on their site, by Governing Body M. Stephen Lett –“Making Disciples Now Prepares Us for New World Disciple Making”

(2)WT, 1989 2/15 p14, para 23.

“Approved association with Jehovah’s Witnesses requires accepting the entire range of true teachings of the Bible, including those Scriptural beliefs that are unique to Jehovah’s Witnesses…” –

-One of the unique teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses is that the Governing Body is the Faithful and Discreet Slave. In fact, this doctrine is referenced in one of the baptism questions:

(3) WT86, 4/1, p 31. (14)

“Do you believe that the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses is “the faithful and discreet slave” appointed by Jesus?”- Organized to Do Jehovah’s Will, p.189

(4) What Pastor Russell Said Q35:3 pg. 194

“Exactly what is meant by “Jehovah’s organization’ in the last reference is not clear. Baptism as a JW identifies a person as a “Jehovah’s witness in association with Jehovah’s organization,”

-So Jehovah’s organization is not the same as “Jehovah’s Witnesses”. So any JW who thinks they are part of the Organization may be wrong; they are actually only associated with it.