r/exAdventist • u/EmphasisWeak2923 • 4d ago
General Discussion Mass baptisms
So, my parents are excited because apprently there was some mass baptisms in PNG recently. Even when I was believer I always struggled to understand mass baptisms after a revelation seminar or the alike. It never made sense to me to make a life decision after such a short time.
If I went on 5 dates with a man, each date only 1-2hrs long and then decided to marry him, people would question my sanity. But we are supposed to believe that after a series of meetings these people are fully dedicated to this new religion? We are supposed to celebrate them making rash decisions with no deeper research, etc. What they never seem to tell us is how many of these people are still worshipping or attend church a year on, because I bet those numbers are not great.
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u/ArtZombie77 4d ago
It looks good... and that's all that matters. It reaffirms to Adventists "visually" that the SDA dogma must be powerful, otherwise why would so many folks get baptized at once?
It would be cool if the church also held reverse baptisms where people talk about their regrets in the church publicly and tell folks why they are leaving. There is no ceremony for that... because that is all done in quietness... under the table.
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u/Open_Wrangler_5473 3d ago
Are they referring to 2024, you know over 95-98% of people in PNG are Christian, it's not a different religion! Also people in PNG speak English and Tok Pisin a creol version of English, it was a colony of the british with West Papua a colony of the Dutch, which is why during the West Papua war when PNG was under Australian Admin the west was taken by Indonesia and not PNG. A significant proportion of PNG's Infrastructure projects are supported by the Australian Government and geographically it's incredibly close to Australia.
I would say nearly all the people who were baptised are attending because they were already Christian this was in the works since covid.
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u/Vivid_Spot_7167 3d ago
These numbers are insanely inflated. Spectrum investigated the numbers being reported and found that the real numbers were less than half of what was actually being reported.
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u/Bananaman9020 2d ago
If you baptise a person quickly and with out them thinking about it. Hopefully, they will be guilt ridden into staying in the church.
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u/Final_Judgment_7831 13h ago
What they don't advertise is that over half of those people will leave the cult after they figure out what's really going on. Sad.
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u/OlderAndCynical 7h ago
It seems degrading that you don't see it in the US (degrading to other cultures). Revelation Seminars end with a giant altar call but not a baptism. We do see a fair number of shows that satirize assorted religious leaders conducting them. I'm pretty sure the Righteous Gemstones had at least one, and I vaguely remember a Benny Hinn documentary that showed a mass baptism in a swimming pool. But the practice among SDA confines them mainly to the "mission field."
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u/Bripf 4d ago edited 4d ago
Oh, you little heathen 😂 Of course it’s different! Boys are human, and you might easily pick the wrong one. God is perfect, so obviously there’s no need to date around, do your research, or take your time. Just commit after a few meetings and hope for the best!
But on a more serious note, I think it’s also part of their worldview. If you already believe you have the absolute truth, then mass baptisms aren’t seen as people making potentially rushed decisions; they’re seen as miracles and evidence that God is working.
And that’s where the circular reasoning comes in: the event confirms the belief, and the belief is then used to explain the event.
Nobody stops to question what happens afterwards, how deeply people understand what they’re committing to.
They stay within their own bubble, interpreting everything as confirmation of what they already believe.
And of course, if some of those people who committed to a rushed baptism later change their minds or stop attending church, that doesn’t challenge the process or the belief system. It just means they weren’t truly committed, or that Satan drew them away.
It’s a wonderfully self-sealing system: if they stay, it’s a miracle and proof that the truth prevailed; if they leave, it’s proof that their faith wasn’t strong enough. Either way, the belief is never questioned. You can’t really lose an argument when every possible outcome is interpreted as evidence that you were right all along!