How Do You Become a Jehovah’s Witness? Study, Then Baptism

You become one of Jehovah’s Witnesses by being baptized as one. Before that day comes a path the Witnesses set out in their own books: a free Bible study, regular meetings, a changed life, preaching as an “unbaptized publisher”, a private promise to God in prayer, and two long talks with the elders. There is no form to sign.

The Witnesses take the whole path from the last words of Matthew’s Gospel, which every church reads. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20). Teach, then baptize. With adults who come to faith, the churches keep that order too. Where they part from the Witnesses is over what the name in that verse means, and over what a person joins when they come up out of the water.

What are the steps to becoming a Jehovah’s Witness?

jw.org gives three steps, “Learn what the Bible teaches”, “Put what you learn into practice” and “Get baptized”, and the Witnesses’ handbook for congregations, Organized to Do Jehovah’s Will, fills in what happens along the way. In order, the path runs like this:

1. A Bible study. A Witness teaches you, usually once a week, from the course book Enjoy Life Forever!
2. Meetings. You attend the congregation’s meetings at the Kingdom Hall, held twice each week.
3. Changes in your life. You bring your life into line with what you are learning, including the standards listed below.
4. Unbaptized publisher. Two elders talk with you and your teacher. If they agree you qualify, you begin preaching with the congregation and reporting it each month.
5. Dedication. You promise yourself to Jehovah in private prayer.
6. The baptism questions. Two elders go through the book’s “Questions for Those Desiring to Get Baptized” with you.
7. Baptism. You are immersed in water, usually at one of the Witnesses’ assemblies or conventions.

Each step is a test the Witnesses take seriously. The study “must be more than an intellectual exercise”, jw.org says; “it may call on you to make significant changes in your thinking and behavior.” Those who keep on “are then moved to make a personal decision to follow him by dedicating their lives to Jehovah God.” The dedication itself, says the handbook, “is a personal, private matter. No one can do it for you.”

Is the Bible study free, and do you have to join?

It is free. The Witnesses quote Jesus’ words to his disciples, “You received free, give free,” and they give the course book and a Bible at no charge. The full course is 60 lessons, at whatever pace suits the student, in person or by phone, video call, mail or email. You may use your own Bible and bring your family or friends.

Nor does studying commit you to anything. “No, you are not obligated in any way,” jw.org answers, and it adds, “We recognize that faith is a personal matter.” “Millions enjoy our Bible study program without becoming Jehovah’s Witnesses,” it says. In 2025 the Witnesses held 7,603,182 Bible studies each month, “many of these with several people at once. Yet only 304,643 people were baptized as Jehovah’s Witnesses that year.” There are more of their yearly numbers in how many Jehovah’s Witnesses there are.

The meetings are open to anyone. “You don’t have to be one of Jehovah’s Witnesses to attend our meetings,” the Witnesses say. “Seats are free. No collections are ever taken.” Most of their services include audience participation, much like a classroom discussion, and every meeting begins and ends with song and prayer.

In Russia, joining is not only a personal matter. The country’s Supreme Court banned Jehovah’s Witnesses as an extremist organization on 20 April 2017 and ordered their Russian headquarters and local chapters closed.

What rules do you have to follow to become a Witness?

The Witnesses’ handbook lists ten things that “must be true” before a student may preach with them as an unbaptized publisher. In their words, the student:

1. “believes that the Bible is the inspired Word of God.”
2. “knows and believes the basic teachings of the Scriptures.”
3. attends congregation meetings “if he is able to do so.”
4. “knows what the Bible teaches about sexual immorality, including adultery, polygamy, and homosexuality, and is living in harmony with those teachings.” A couple living together must be married.
5. avoids drunkenness and “is free from all nonmedical use of addictive or mind-altering natural or synthetic substances.”
6. “sees the value of avoiding unwholesome association.”
7. “has definitely broken off membership in all false religious organizations with which he may have been affiliated.” He no longer attends their services.
8. “is free from all involvement in the political affairs of the world.”
9. lives by Isaiah 2:4, where the nations “shall beat their swords into plowshares”, so he takes no part in war.
10. “really wants to be one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.”

The seventh is the hardest for many who come from another church. Leaving your old congregation is part of the way in, before baptism. Other changes follow from Witness teaching itself: they keep no Christmas, Easter or birthdays, and they refuse whole blood.

What happens at a Jehovah’s Witness baptism?

When a publisher wants to be baptized, he tells the coordinator of the elders, who arranges for two elders to go through the baptism questions with him, one part each. The two parts “can usually be covered in two sessions of about one hour each,” the handbook says, and each session opens and closes with prayer. The elders want to know that the person understands what is involved, is living by it, and has dedicated himself to God of his own free will.

The baptism usually takes place at an assembly or a convention. At the end of the baptism talk, the speaker asks the candidates to stand and answer two questions aloud:

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?

Then they are baptized by “complete water immersion”. The Witnesses see in it what Paul saw, a burial and a rising: “we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). They ask for modest clothes, and for joy “expressed in a dignified manner”.

Can children become Jehovah’s Witnesses?

Yes, but not by being born to Witness parents. Children of Witnesses walk the same path. “As they grow, they must make a personal decision to learn, accept, and apply what the Bible teaches before they can qualify for baptism,” jw.org says. A young child who knows the basic teachings and wants to preach may become an unbaptized publisher after two elders meet with the child and the parents. The Witnesses do not baptize infants.

What happens if a Witness stops or is removed?

Anyone thinking of joining should know this before the water, and the Witnesses explain it themselves. For a Witness who drifts away, their first answer is gentle: “If one of Jehovah’s Witnesses has slowed down or stopped in his worship, we reach out to him … reassure him of our love, and try to rekindle his spiritual interest.” A baptized Witness who commits a serious sin and does not repent is “removed from the congregation”, the term that has replaced “disfellowshipped”. The elders announce “that the person is no longer one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Witnesses then “do not socialize with someone who has been removed,” though he may still come to meetings, and within his home “his marital relationship and normal family affections and dealings continue.” “In extreme cases”, toward someone who leaves and works to “undermine” the congregation, they follow 2 John 9–11 and do not greet him at all. There is more on life after leaving in what happens after leaving Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Is a Jehovah’s Witness baptism a Christian baptism?

The Witnesses say yes. “We follow the teachings and example of Jesus Christ and honor him as our Savior and as the Son of God,” jw.org says, “Thus, we are Christians.” The same page goes on, “we have learned from the Bible that Jesus is not Almighty God and that there is no Scriptural basis for the Trinity doctrine.”

That is where the historic churches part from them. When Catholics, Orthodox and most Protestants baptize “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”, they mean one God in three persons, the faith of the Nicene Creed. The Witnesses reject that faith, and their candidates are told that baptism “identifies you as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in association with Jehovah’s organization”. The Catholic Church does not recognise such a baptism. The tribunal of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, for one, lists Jehovah’s Witnesses among the “Baptisms NOT Considered Valid”. So a former Witness who becomes Catholic is baptized. The question underneath is the one in whether Jehovah’s Witnesses are Christian.

Still, much is shared at the water’s edge. A Witness and a Baptist both wait until a person can choose, and both go fully under. Both remember the Ethiopian on the road to Gaza, who heard Philip preach Jesus and called out, “See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?” (Acts 8:36). And both hear the promise Jesus gave with that commission, the last words of Matthew’s Gospel: “lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).

Related reading

• Do Jehovah’s Witnesses get baptized?
• What do Jehovah’s Witnesses believe about Jesus?
• What is salvation for Jehovah’s Witnesses?
• Do Jehovah’s Witnesses celebrate Christmas?
• Why do Jehovah’s Witnesses refuse blood transfusions?
• Why do Russians hate Jehovah’s Witnesses?