by truthseeker 30 Replies latest jw friends
I love this article!!
By making these statements the Society has put themselves in the same group with every other religion.
"Can't believe what we say? Don't leave because we are the only true religion"
So all the JWs who left Catholic, Baptist and other faiths because of hellfire and other unexplainable beliefs are now back at square one. Congratulations!
Captives of a concept .....actually should read: captives of a deception
No wonder they want a private for JW publisher in goodstanding only issue.....
I wonder if there will be a witnesses in goodstanding only directive on that first page of every issue.....
Cheers
Borgia
I love how we never actually learn what teachings these people have a hard time accepting. Instead they just act like their problems are their own and not the organizations.
Exactamundo drewsagan,
I've had this discussion with my aging father. Why don't they just come out with a point-by-point rebuttal of all the major apostate "lies and half-truths"? What are they so afraid of? If they really are lies and half-truths this should be painfully obvious to the r&f, thus bolstering faith that this is God's one and only organization and deepening the resolve to avoid apostate "propaganda".
Knowing it'll never happen,
Nvr
The individual might go off on his own or be associating with just a few others, but where is thearrangement for congregation elders and ministerial servants?
In other words WTS, where is the platform for your authority, for your mastery over our faith?
It's GONE, and that's how it SHOULD BE!
This just makes me sick. I think I feel the brainwashing.. I must quit reading before I loose another brain cell.
News Flash
For any apostates interested in starting their own group(that is the true agenda of all apostates) the society has explained the one all-important element that will legitimize said group. Give a bunch of guys the title of Elder. Give another bunch of guys the title of Ministerial Servant. Now you're ready to open shop!
Thanks for the tip WTBTS,
Nvr
At times, an elder may not do things as directed by the faithful slave class and its Governing Body. If he continues acting this way, he will have to render an accountto Jehovah
Truthseeker, I understand your point on this, but I would like to point out something from a different angle, if I may. Sure, there are bad elders out there. And some of them are just wing nuts. But the irony to me is that in my experience, the local level is where you find the brothers who seem to know what they are doing. Who have the most compassion, and can make descisions based on life experience in the real world. Sometimes what you need is for them to NOT do things as dictated by New York, where those making the descisions surround themselves only with people who will parrot back everything they say. As I have said before, when I was out at the edge, dealing with only local elders, the org almost made sense. I thought it would get clearer as I migrated towards the center, but it got worse. I was not a bethelite, but I think the experiences posted here by many ex-bethelites validate this feeling.
The point again is that what they call scriptural truths is often nothing but their erroneous interpretation of the corresponding scriptures eg taking the number 144 000 to be literal. nvrgnbk, do the GB really believe the lies they tell their followers? I doubt it, they just pretend they believe them as they so often are such transparent lies.
Interesting. I would like to point out that the argument in this paragraph:
Consider another possibility involving the congregation. Suppose that a person finds a Scriptual teaching hard to understand and accept. He may have done research in the Bible and in publications available through the congregation and sought help from mature Christians, even elders. Still, he has a hard time grasping or accepting the point. What can he do? Something similar developed about a year before Jesus died. He said that he was "the bread of life" and that to live forever a person had to "eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood." That shocked some of his disciples. Rather than seek an explanation or simply wait in faith, many disciples "would no longer walk with [Jesus]." Again, had we been there, what would we have done?
has been used by the Society many times in the past to mitigate the negative effects of "new light" and critical examination of Watchtower teachings, as if doctrines promulgated by the Society are comparable to Jesus' own words. Note how the same argument was used in Floyd Kite's "Enduring the Tests Within God's Organization" talk (which was damage control following the 1980 Bethel controversy):
Over the years I have been associated with God’s people, some of whom have had some very distinct views about the Bible. I have spent time with some of God’s people who have written literally reams to the Watchtower Society about certain controversial or difficult-to-understand passages of scripture. They’ve given me copies. I’ve studied what they’ve said. They’ve later received back from the Watchtower Society a rejection of their particular scriptural viewpoint. And I’ve seen those people quit associating with Jehovah’s Witnesses because their viewpoint was not accepted by the Governing Body. There were some in the 1940s, or rather during the early 1930s, who felt that the great crowd of Revelation chapter 7 was not a secondary heavenly class, but an earthly class. In 1935, the Watchtower Society published the fact that it was an earthly class. They were right. But were they still with the organization? Oh, you may get an idea every once and a while that is right. I mean, you know, a lightbulb goes on ten thousand times, you’re bound to get something right every once in a while, right? I’m bound to hit on something every once in a while. But, am I willing to wait? Are you willing to wait until God’s organization publishes it for the whole association of brothers? Or will we become disgruntled, and say, "Because my idea isn’t accepted, then I’ll join my own group, I’ll abandon the truth." That’s why I say "being in the truth" is the second biggest test. Will you continue to make the adjustments; it may be the very next issue of the Watchtower that’ll completely stun you. It could be! You open it up and say, “Oh! Look at what they’ve done!" What would you do? Will you test it, check it with the scriptures, pray on it, talk to other older ones in the congregation, the experienced ones, to get their feelings about it? Or will you reject it?John, chapter 6 seems to fit well here. This was in the year Passover of 32, and Jesus had been witnessing to the disciples for a number of years, and Jesus was not one to dump out some heavy truths on people in the early parts of their Christian development, and so a couple of years had passed, and in John, chapter 6, he talks about eating his flesh and drinking his blood if they want eternal life. Let’s remember that a couple of years had passed by and these disciples had been listening to Jesus regularly. By this time, Jesus feels that he can give this particular truth, even though it is a deep truth. Well, in verse 60 there, if you want to turn over there. John 6:60 says: "Therefore many of his disciples, when they heard this, said: ‘This speech is shocking; who can listen to it?’ " And then verse 66: "Owing to this many of his disciples went off to the things behind and would no longer walk with him.” Jesus was the perfect instructor and he knew that this was the right time to give them this truth. But they wouldn’t wrestle with it. They wouldn’t wrestle with it, they wouldn’t come to grips with it, they left. In verse 67: “Therefore Jesus said to the twelve: ‘You do not want to go also, do you?’ ” Simon Peter answered him in verse 68: "Lord, whom shall we go away to? You have sayings of everlasting life." Let that be our feelings, strong for God’s organization that’s brought us this far. When we’ve asked for bread, it’s never given us a scorpion, when we’ve asked for egg, it’s never given us a serpent. It has always provided that which is wholesome and beneficial. Thanks to Jehovah God and Jesus Christ for the faithful slave class that has brought us this far. May we continue to make the necessary adjustments.
Ugh...same o same o...
But there goes the the "tsk tsk" and tongue wagging again toward all those who used their brain.
