John the Baptist was a PIONEER!!! (contains scans)

by Finally-Free 1 Replies latest jw friends

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  Finally-Free

  I didn't go to work today because I was under the weather. So, being bored, I started looking through some books and found an old Watchtower book I didn't even realize I had. It was published in 1955, so it's even older than me! Here it is:
  

  
  
  

  
  
  I started leafing through it and found that it uses the NWT in many places, but it's the pre-1961 NWT. Cited scriptures using the NWT are shown with NW at the end.
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  While leafing through it I saw a quoted scripture from Luke 1:76-78, and it used the word "pioneer" in reference to John the Baptist. I was sure I never saw the word "pioneer" in the bible before, so I compared it to the 1961 NWT. (the green one). This one no longer used the word "pioneer".
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  I checked an interlinear, and it doesn't use the word "pioneer".
  

  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  It made me wonder why they used the word "pioneer" in the NWT and later dropped it. Was this around the time when they changed the titles from "colporteur" to "pioneer"? Was this insertion an attempt to justify their title for this unscriptural position in the congregation?
  

  colporteur

  
  

  
  One entry found for colporteur.
  Main Entry: col·por·teur
  
  Pronunciation: 'käl-"pOr-t&r, -"por-; "käl-pOr-'t&r, -por-
  
  Function: noun
  
  Etymology: French, alteration of Middle French comporteur, from comporter to bear, peddle
  
  : a peddler of religious books

  Is this one more example of the Watchtower Society bastardizing the bible to suit it's own ends?

  W
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  Leolaia

  *** w50 4/1 pp. 103-104 More and More Pioneers of Good News ***

  The Watch Tower Society classes Jehovah’s active ministers or witnesses in two groups: the group preaching only part-time and the other class on more of a full-time basis, preaching at least one hundred hours a month. This latter class the Society refers to as "pioneer ministers". From time to time special letters showing the urgent need for more to enter pioneer service are sent to all companies of Jehovah’s witnesses. The reason for continual pioneer calls by the Society can be better appreciated when one analyzes the contents of the inspired written records left for this generation.

  The sacred writings foretold a Messiah who would vindicate Jehovah’s universal sovereignty and provide a ransom for the dying human family. True to God’s written Word his firstborn Son appeared on earth to do his Father’s will. The same loving concern shown by God for suffering mankind was also shown by his Son in no uncertain way. While he did not appear dressed like an American pioneer in buckskin with a rifle swung over his shoulder, he was at first like a man breaking ground and blazing the trail through a religious wilderness; a wilderness of ecclesiastical traditions that had the people snared and alienated from true worship. With a hearty pioneer spirit Jesus cut a trail through the Jews’ religion that left a path out of it beaming with the light of truth. A straight and narrow path it was, when compared with the broad way that leads to destruction, but, nevertheless, it led to freedom and life eternal. Jesus Christ was a perfect example of a full-time pioneer minister.

  LMAO!!!