I think i said this already but i dont post enough for y'all to remember that i never been inside a kingdom hall, never started a bible study. just have family in. I made lots of bad arguments in the beginning and so i backed off and tried to learn. From time to time i would like to test ideas
here so as to not get suprised anymore.
A group at my church want me to share with them a few thoughts on how to talk to a Witness at the door so today my request of you is to
critique this small handout i have prepared. I am going to talk for about hour to put some context around it. thanks for any ideas jerry
21 In 1918, when Jesus Christ inspected those claiming to be his slaves, he found an international group of Christians publishing Bible truths for use both inside the congregation and outside in the preaching work. In 1919 it truly turned out to be as Christ had foretold: "Happy is that slave if his master on arriving finds him doing so. Truly I say to you, He will appoint him over all his belongings." (Matthew 24:46, 47) These true Christians entered into the joy of their Master. Having shown themselves "faithful over a few things," they were appointed by the Master to be "over many things." (Matthew 25:21) The faithful slave and its Governing Body were in place, ready for a widened assignment. How glad we should be that this was so, for loyal Christians are richly benefiting from the devoted work of the faithful slave and its Governing Body!
This is cut and paste from the Watchtower magazine of 3/15 1990 Page 14 paragraph 21.
55 In the year 1943 the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society published the book "The Truth Shall Make You Free." In its chapter 11, entitled "The Count of Time," it did away with the insertion of 100 years into the period of the Judges and went according to the oldest and most authentic reading of Acts 13:20, and accepted the spelled-out numbers of the Hebrew Scriptures. This moved forward the end of six thousand years of man’s existence into the decade of the 1970’s. Naturally this did away with the year 1874 C.E. as the date of return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the beginning of his invisible presence or parousia.
This is a cut and paste from a Jehovah's Witness book entitled "God's Kingdom of a Thousand Years has Appoached" copyright 1973 page 209 paragraph 55.
Basic Premises...........Parousia is Greek and means "presence" especially pertaining to royalty at Matthew 24:46, no Greek dictionary or scholar says it means invisible presence. Parousia translated "cometh" in KJV. This is just infomation, if your conversation gets into the nuance of a Greek word you probably need to punt.
The coming ( parousia / presence ) of the Lord Jesus cannot be seperated from the appointment of the Servant / Slave in Matthew 24:45-47 as they are obviously described as being simultaneous. When the Master arrives the
the servant is "made ruler" KJV. The Watchtower was saying that Jesus was "present" since 1874 even up until 1943 according to these quotes from their own publications.
Basic questions..... Is Jesus in Heaven ? Is Heaven a long way off ? Can you see into Heaven ? What are they doing in Heaven today right now? Can your leaders see into Heaven? How did they know they were approved or appointed? When was the Slave ( your leaders ) appointed to feed you with Watchtower magazines,1874, 1918 or when? Who knew of the appointment first? Where was he/she/they? How was it made known, booming voice, still small voice, donkey talking, angel? Warm fuzzy feeling? Was someone ( who when where) reading Matthew 24 and just get a feeling that he was now in charge? The second coming of Jesus, the greatest most monumental event we can imagine, surely your leaders know all these basic details. Surely it was big news in the Watchtower of the day. 1874 1914 1918 or when ( also who, where how ).
Remember the important point is Jesus' approval. We all make mistakes but Jesus does not. If Jesus approved them OK, but we just need some more information.
When the Bible says that people worshipped Jesus, that is not the important point, because people will make mistakes and worship in error, see Exodus 32:4 Acts 14:11 or Revelation 19:10. What is important is that Jesus approved of people worshipping Him. This is not a small point. We are not so interested in what the Watchtower leaders were doing at any given time in history. They made mistakes and so do we, but they have made an extraordinary claim concerning Jesus, that they received his approval and appointment to be over His sheep.
We would need some more information.