by JH 11 Replies latest jw friends
Well, that's what they teach !!!
Just because they go to 5 meetings a week, and try to dish out magazines, when themselves don't read half of it.
I know people of other religions, who have more love than many of the JW's have. I know people who don't have a religion, who have more heart than many of the JW's.
So, why do they think that they alone will be saved?
"Because Jehovah's Witnesses alone are making Jehovah's name known throughout the entire world."... ... ... Right?
Good conditioning. You know what happens when people are under the influence!
Golf
Don't most jw's in talking with non jw's say the party line which is, 'nobody knows who will be saved but.....join God's org. blah, blah,..." I find this such a frustrating conversation with my jw as he will not admit that jw's do infact believe that only they will survive and be saved. Yet, every exjw board I have ever been on all say the same thing, yup, only jw's will be spared.
As for 'only we make jehovah's name known....'. That is another odd conversation. You tell them that even their own literature has admitted that Yaweh is more correct and they only use jehovah because people were more used to it and you get the glazed eyes and the usual, 'uh uh, yes'. What's with that? I find that you show them something and the response is 'yes'? and then a switch of conversation that goes off onto another tangent. With most people a 'yes' would indicate agreement, not so with jw's. To outsiders it just looks like they did not hear a single word you just said. Simply thinking of what to say next. Bring them back to the original conversation and remind them that they just agreed with you and you get something like 'only in a sense'. Non jw's do not realize that a conversation between a jw and a non jw is actually two different languages. They redefine so many words most non jw's walk away scratching their heads. When first learning about jw's one must not only know their own bibles, jw doctrine, history, and even a 'different' language. Most frustrating. No wonder the churches are not really prepared to deal with them. You need a degree in jwese.
What's the use of knowing the bible, and using God's name, but ignore your brothers and sisters when they need support.
Often witnesses go in the FS, where not many open their door, instead of helping some in their own congregation who are depressed, sick, poor, and demoralized. Ok they help some, but certainly not all !!!
Only baptized, dedicated JWs are marked for survival according to the WTS. Ezekiel chapter 9 has long been applied to the WTS doing the marking.
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w88 9/15 p. 14 Listen—Jehovah’s Watchman Speaks! ***/Marked for Survival17
Next, we note seven men—one a linen-clad secretary and six others with smashing weapons. (Read Ezekiel 9:1-7.) The "six men" represented Jehovah’s heavenly executional forces, though he could use earthly agents. Those whose foreheads the ‘man in linen’ marked would experience God’s compassion because they were not in sympathy with the detestable things done at the temple. Execution by the "six men" began there with the 70 idolatrous elders, the women weeping for Tammuz, and the 25 sun worshipers. These and others disloyal to God were killed by the Babylonians in 607 B.C.E.
18
The antitypical ‘man in linen’ is the class of anointed Christians. They go from house to house to put a symbolic mark on those who become part of the "great crowd" of Christ’s "other sheep." The "mark" is the evidence that such sheep are dedicated, baptized individuals with a Christlike personality. They ‘sigh and groan over detestable things’ done in Christendom, and they have come out of Babylon the Great, the world empire of false religion. (Revelation 18:4, 5) Their "mark" will make it plain to God’s executional forces that they should be spared during the "great tribulation." They can retain that "mark" by sharing with the anointed ones in marking yet others. So, if you have been ‘marked,’ share zealously in the ‘marking’ work.—Ezekiel 9:8-11.
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w72 10/15 p. 638 Are You a Supporter of Divine Rulership? ***If you are one of the unnumbered "great crowd" you will cooperate side by side with the anointed ones. You will be a full advocate and supporter of Divine Rulership. You will see that you maintain the "mark," which is the evidence that you are a dedicated, baptized disciple of Jesus Christ and that you have a Christlike personality that differentiates you from all hypocritical "Christians." You will aid others to get and retain the "mark." This will make you an integrity-keeping slave of the Almighty God, with sure prospects of entering into Jehovah’s further service in His new system of things under the Lamb Jesus Christ.
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kl chap. 18 p. 180 Make It Your Aim to Serve God Forever ***A dedicated, baptized person faithfully endeavoring to follow Jesus is special to God. Jehovah examines all the billions of human hearts and knows how rare such individuals are. He considers them to be treasures, "desirable things." (Haggai 2:7) Bible prophecies show that God views such ones as marked to survive the execution of his judgment soon to come upon this wicked system of things. (Ezekiel 9:1-6; Malachi 3:16, 18) Are you "rightly disposed for everlasting life"? (Acts 13:48) Is it your earnest desire to be marked as one serving God? Dedication and baptism are part of that mark, and they are essential for survival.
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su chap. 12 pp. 96-97 Identified for Destruction or Survival? ***14
Many people are disillusioned with the churches and no longer attend. They may also be greatly disturbed about the violence and dishonesty in the world. But that does not necessarily mean that they are marked for survival. They must be marked by the ‘man with the secretary’s inkhorn.’ The facts show that "the faithful and discreet slave" class is doing that marking work today.—Matthew 24:45-47.15
All who want to be marked as having God’s approval must accept the instruction that Jehovah is providing through that "slave" class and become true worshipers of Jehovah. They must not be persons who honor Jehovah with their mouths but who really love the world’s ways. (Isaiah 29:13, 14; 1 John 2:15) They must love Jehovah and his standards and feel grieved at heart, "sighing and groaning," over teachings and practices that dishonor him. No one will put a literal ink mark on their forehead. But when they have the symbolic mark it will be obvious to all that, as dedicated, baptized Christians, they have put on the "new personality" described at Ephesians 4:24. They have a living faith. Publicly and privately they endeavor to do what will honor Jehovah. Not only persons who have come out of Christendom but all, regardless of background, who hope to survive into the "new earth" as associates of the anointed class must have this mark.
Because that is the way cults work.
..
baptized individuals with a Christlike personality.
Sorry, that made me laugh...
They believe only JW's will be saved because they're more of a cult than a religion because of their exclusivity teaching of salvation. Saying you don't need to be a JW is something of a fallacy cos their teaching is that only those doing what JW's do are going to be saved.... which are JW's obviously
They claim exclusivity in doing a preaching work but there were missionaries from other religions all round the world hundreds of years before the WTS was set up. The preaching of the 'good news of the kingdom' was the only pre-requisite in the bible and not of the old hebrew god YHWH.
Interesting article Blondie. I might be wrong but didn't the org change their policy on the faithful and discreet slave doing the marking from the secretary's inkhorn? Also that the preaching work wasn't 'marking' people for destruction or salvation?
I can't look things up at the moment cos my main PC is being repaired so my memory could be wrong.
*** w04 3/15 pp. 11-12 "Do the Work of an Evangelizer" ***
God has given Jesus’ anointed followers the responsibility to proclaim the good news throughout the earth. At their side in this evangelizing work is the growing number of Christ’s "other sheep." (John 10:16) Prophetically, this lifesaving work is likened to putting a mark on the foreheads of those sighing and groaning over the detestable things now taking place. Soon, the wicked will be destroyed. Meanwhile, what a privilege it is to carry lifesaving truths to earth’s inhabitants!—Ezekiel 9:4-6, 11.
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w04 11/1 pp. 9-10 Happy Servants of Jehovah ***Jesus’ statement also includes those who mourn because of the detestable conditions that prevail in the earth. Jesus applied to himself the prophecy of Isaiah 61:1, 2, which states: "The spirit of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah is upon me, for the reason that Jehovah has anointed me to tell good news to the meek ones. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, . . . to comfort all the mourning ones." That commission also applies to anointed Christians yet on earth, who carry it out with the help of their companions, the "other sheep." All share in the work of symbolically marking the foreheads of "the men that are sighing and groaning over all the detestable things that are being done in the midst of it [apostate Jerusalem, picturing Christendom]." (Ezekiel 9:4) Such mourning ones are comforted by the "good news of the kingdom." (Matthew 24:14) They are happy to learn that Satan’s wicked system of things will shortly be replaced with Jehovah’s righteous new world.
But sighing and groaning is not the end of it...they have to become baptized JWs to survive.
Blondie
