BLONDIE’S highlights FROM the 02-22-2015 WT Study (DECEMBER 15, 2014)
Facing the End
of This Old World Together
“We are members belonging to one another.”—EPH. 4:25.
http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/?contentLanguageFilter=en&pubFilter=w&yearFilter=2014
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Not only are many young people being baptized, they are 1) children of jws 2) almost the only ones being baptized
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Why the jump from wanting to recreate with like age people to being “united”?
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Are jw children that different from non-jw children? I know many non-jw people who listen to their parents, don’t use drugs, wait until marriage to have sex. I also know jw children who do use drugs, lie and deceive their parents, have sex without being married, etc.
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“As we approach the end of this old world,”
The WTS has been approaching the “end” since 1879, with varying dates, 1914, 1925, 1940’s, (1984), (1994), 136 years and still waiting.
Bible examples, OT examples, no examples in the NT?
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Lot and his family…did Lot depend on God, if so why did he offer his daughters as sex toys to the crowd? Did he really believe that these were angels visiting him, did he not know the power God gave angels?
Did his daughters trust God to continue their family line without the daughters getting their father drunk and having sex with them…conception in one try?
Did Lot and his family really heed this on their own or did the angels have to take them by the hand and take them outside the city?
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Moses and Israelites “Did not leave as independent groups….”
But it took 10 plagues, the parting of the Red Sea and then just a month later, they were making a golden calf with Aaron’s help and worshiping it. At least they were united.
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King Jehosophat
Did not conquer on own strength…but many times Israel did depend on human soldiers
Follow Jehovah’s direction or what the WTS/GB says is God’s direction?
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Were the early Christians united? Did the Jewish Christians associate with the Gentile Christians? How many times did Paul write that they should get along?
(Galatians 1:6, 7) . . .I marvel that YOU are being so quickly removed from the One who called YOU with Christ’s undeserved kindness over to another sort of good news. 7 But it is not another; only there are certain ones who are causing YOU trouble and wanting to pervert the good news about the Christ.
(Galatians 2:11-14) 11 However, when Ce′phas came to Antioch, I resisted him face to face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before the arrival of certain men from James, he used to eat with people of the nations; but when they arrived, he went withdrawing and separating himself, in fear of those of the circumcised class. 13 The rest of the Jews also joined him in putting on this pretense, so that even Bar′na·bas was led along with them in their pretense. 14 But when I saw they were not walking straight according to the truth of the good news, I said to Ce′phas before them all: “If you, though you are a Jew, live as the nations do, and not as Jews do, how is it that you are compelling people of the nations to live according to Jewish practice?”
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Look back on the congregations you were part of. Did the elders get along, their families? With the CO or DO? With other congregations?
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“coming time of trouble for this system” 136 years and still waiting
Physical closeness: jws that won’t go door to door with some, sit near them, talk to them at the KH, don’t know where the jws in their congregation live, close?
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Not let anything divide us – listen to the GB even if you don’t understand what they are saying or worse yet you can see that the Bible does not support it.
“is it reasonable to think that those who have not maintained unity as
part of God’s flock—those who have strayed off on their own—will be saved?”
strayed off = inactive
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Separate into own isolated world = into the WTS isolated world
Can we depend on men who hide pedophiles and tell elders not to go to secular authorities?
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Working united with an organization or with God? Then if that organization does not use the scriptures correctly as the religious leaders did not in Jesus’ day…what do you put first?
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Do jws have mutual concern for each other, those not in good standing? Are jws any different than non-jws?
(Matthew 5:46, 47) . . .For if YOU love those loving YOU, what reward do YOU have? Are not also the tax collectors doing the same thing? 47 And if YOU greet YOUR brothers only, what extraordinary thing are YOU doing? Are not also the people of the nations doing the same thing?
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And how encouraging are those meetings if few if any talk to you, encourage you, know your name and the names of your family. Or worse yet, only talk to you to complain or correct you?
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So at 12 Jesus went off not telling his parents and then chastised them for not knowing the only place he could be? Should 12 year olds wander off at regional conventions expecting their parents to know where they are?
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Be specific in your prayers—how often do you hear individuals mentioned in congregation prayers (has to be cleared through the COBOE and the one giving the prayer probably had 60 seconds notice).
How about getting close to your parents and siblings first.
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Have you observed any special closeness between jws that are not naturally drawn to each other? What value is it to like your friends, so do non-jws?
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Why wait for an unusual disaster? What about an older sister who needs help moving or going to the doctor during a weekday when you work? Perhaps a brother says he can’t but takes off and goes to Japan to help……..
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Is the “end very close”? 136 years and counting
And if you are not working unitedly with the WTS you will die.
Love, Blondie