The apostles initially believed and taught that Christ would return before the last apostle died. For example, when discussing the heavenly resurrection, Paul included himself among the "we the living who survive to the presence of the Lord." Obviously, though, neither Paul nor any other 1st Century disciple survived until the expected "presence of the Lord."

Please recall that as a result of their misunderstanding Jesus' parting words to them, the apostles spread a rumor among the brothers to the affect that John would survive until Christ returned. Years later John set the record straight in the last chapter of John. Ironically, however, as the last surviving apostle, John did see the return of Christ—at least in vision. That's because John was privileged to experience the rapturous revelation vision; which capped the apostolic era, in which the aged apostle interacted with Christ during the Lord's Day.

But, the point is that the prophecies seamlessly link the apostolic era with the harvest period of the Lord's Day. So, from Paul's perspective he expected "that which is complete," meaning the full-grown body of Christ, to arrive during his lifetime. And, as pointed out, Christ did arrive, symbolically at least, when he gave the apocalypse to John. Apparently, by that time the gifts of the spirit were already being phased out.

It is worth taking note of the fact that Paul did not specifically say that tongues would continue all the way until anointed Christians have a face-to-face meeting with Jesus Christ. He merely said that until such time as we meet him we only have "partial knowledge and we prophecy partially." Obviously, the speaking in tongues and other gifts of the spirit were characteristics of the infant-like Christian congregation. But, even without those gifts the congregation still only had partial knowledge of Christ. That is the point: With or without the gifts of the spirit, Christ's anointed congregation still has not grown up into the full stature of Christ.

So, even though speaking in tongues and the gifts of prophesying are no longer in evidence today among true Christians, Jehovah's Witnesses ought to be acutely aware of the fact that our knowledge of the truth and understanding of prophecy is partial and will remain so until Jesus finally arrives and receives his disciples home to himself.

No one can really say with any certainty beforehand how they will react to any given trial. But, Jesus forewarned his apostles, and by extension his present day disciples, that "men will expel you from the synagogue." If that is what happens, then that is what some of us must endure for Christ's sake.

It seems that we are nearing the day when, as Jesus also foretold: "Then, also, many will be stumbled and will betray one another and will hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and mislead many; and because of the increasing of lawlessness the love of the greater number will cool off. But he that has endured to the end is the one that will be saved."

The Watchtower interprets Christ's prophecy as applying to the world in general. They point to crime stats and such as an indication of how lawlessness is supposedly increasing and people are becoming more loveless. However, Jesus used the term "lawlessness" in connection with religious hypocrisy. For instance: "Get away from me you workers of lawlessness." Paul also referred to a satanic man of lawlessness that would take over God's temple.

So, apparently, the many that will be stumbled and that will hate one another and betray one another, has reference to Christ's own disciples. Soberingly, enduring to the end is not going to be as easy as simply going to meetings and going out in field service. Enduring to the end will require that Jehovah's true witnesses endure the complete breakdown of the organization. We are going to need every ounce of faith we can muster.

In recognition of the fact that many of Christ's original disciples were killed by wild beasts in the Roman arenas, and many of Jehovah's modern-day witnesses have likewise suffered intense persecution at the hands of the Nazis and Soviets; we should not suppose that we shall be any better off when Satan actually comes down in a great rage. In comparison to such sufferings, it seems that being disfellowshipped for speaking the truth is a relatively light torture stake to bear.

Those are valid points. The Watchtower has always pointed out how unscriptural and unreasonable the Catholic practice of infant baptism is; yet we practice something similar in pushing our 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?"