by ChrisVance 10 Replies latest jw friends
This is what someone asked on the leftbehind thread. I'm not a believer and I never read the bible anymore, but didn't jc supposedly say: "Let the dead bury the dead?" Couldn't that be interpreteded to mean that xtians should treat certain people as dead?
On another note, my x-mother-in-law said that when she told an elder she would be out of town for a while because a relative had died, he told her to "let the dead bury the dead." One of the reasons she left the lie many years ago.
(Matthew 8:21-22) . . .Then another of the disciples said to him: "Lord, permit me first to leave and bury my father." Jesus said to him: "Keep following me, and let the dead bury their dead."
Actually, Jesus was not telling his disciple to treat other living human beings as though they were dead. That's not what was meant by the above scripture. While scholars vary on their interpretation of the above verse, you have to know a bit about the burial customs back then. When a family member died, their body was laid in a cave for a year while the flesh fell off. Then the bones were collected and placed in an ossuary. There was quite the controversy a couple of years ago about an ossuary that was inscribed "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus", but this was a Jewish custom which lasted from about 30 BCE to about 70 CE.
Therefore, the conversation Jesus had with the disciple could be understood to mean the following: The disciple says "Look, I'd like to follow you, but it's going to be a while before I can travel with you---at least a year because my father just died and I have to put him in the tomb for a year and then we can "bury" his bones." In response Jesus basically said "....Look, I'm not going to be around in another year, your father's already died and there's nothing you can do for him right now----you'd be better off following me rather than worry about burying the dead all over again in a years time."
So anyone who tells you that Jesus is telling his disciples that they should treat others as though they were dead, doesn't know what they're talking about.
Mary, you're explanation makes sense; however, how many bible believers have this background knowledge? Also, that's not the explanation the dubs would prefer.
You're right but a Professor who has studied the bible for decades gave me this explanation during class. It makes far more sense to me than what the Witnesses teach. Actually, I've never really heard of a logical explanation by the Dubs-----what a surprise! I actually gave this explanation to a friend of mine who is an MS and he was really impressed and thought it made alot of sense. He asked me which WT magazine I found this information in. I said I didn't----I learned it at university. Suddenly he wasn't so keen on my interpretation and stressed that I should "wait on Jehovah" to clarify these things. He then urged me not to "run ahead of the Organization."
I told him God gave me a brain and I use it and I don't need to see it written in the WT before I believe something.
Actually Chris.....witnesses go a bit further. If they could, the'd kill ya and bury yer arse!
Nov 15, 1952 Watchtower pp.703-704
• In the case of where a father or mother or son or daughter is disfellowshiped, how should such person be treated by members of the family in their family relationship?—P.C., Ontario, Canada.
We are not living today among theocratic nations where such members of our fleshly family relationship could be exterminated for apostasy from God and his theocratic organization, as was possible and was ordered in the nation of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai and in the land of Palestine. "Thou shalt surely kill him; thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him to death with stones, because he hath sought to draw thee away from Jehovah thy God, . . . And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is in the midst of thee."—Deut. 13:6-11
Gumby
I re-read that post and realized that when I'm angry, I sound just like Napolean Dynamite.
Nowhere in the scriptures does it say to treat the living as if they were dead. Jesus taught us to love one another as we love ourselves, which is just the opposite of treating them as if they were dead. Although I have been told by my dub family that they will figure me as dead, and I returned the reply "OK"
I'm sure your view of that scripture is the wider more correct view.
Jesus was encouraging his follower to do the better thing, to stay with him and see the many miracles first hand that God would perform through him, rather than go and support family for a year.
I have shared before the first hand experiences of dfing I witness in my own cong.
A certain family lost 5 members at various times to dfing.
But each time the family defied the elders and gave the member alot of love and support along with pleas to return to Jehovah. They were invited to dinners, they went on vacations together...etc.
I was an elders wife at the time and thought they were all crazy dirt!
But the proof is in the results!!!! Everyone of them became reinstated. And even one couple re-married!
So, which is the better way to treat family members who have left?
I think shunning if at all should have a time limit..........but I dont know how long.
What do you think?
all disfellowshipping rules come from Paul
I think shunning if at all should have a time limit..........but I dont know how long. What do you think?
I'm not sure----the Amish practice shunning, but they only shun for a few weeks; certainly not for years like they do in Dub-dumb-land. There are certain people who most certainly should be disfellowshipped: pedophiles and wife/child beaters, but ironically, these are the two groups that are rarely ever DF'd in the Borg. What a joke.
