You have just described quite well the Papacy at its rise to power.
Our Watchtower Study On obedience & submission
by dark angle 64 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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greendawn
They have a smooth cunning way with mental manipulation, the way they talk is as if obeying them is equivalent to obeying God for example just as Peter obeyed God so should the R&F obey the FDS. It's all about twisting the Bible to control and exploit their followers.
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Borgia
It seems apropriate to now to quote Freddy Franz on this matter. Although his intention was different, for he wanted to show that a GB did not exist, the same argument goes for any self proclaimed and imposed agency, especially for WTBS appointed men (talk of september 7th 1975 Gilead graduation):
....and then all of a sudden as he {Paul} was serving in Antioch, in Syria, not in Israel but in Syria, why God's spirit spoke to that congregation there in Antioch, and said: "now of all things you set aside, YOU, this congregation in Antioch, you set aside these two men, Barnabas and Saul for the work I have commissioned them". And so the Antioch congregation did that and laid their hands upon Paul (or Saul) and Barnabas and send them forth...and they wnet forth through the holy spirit operating through the Antioch congregation and they went out on their first missionary assignment. So, you see, the Lord Jesus Christ acting as the Head of the congregation and taking action directly without consulting anybody here on earth what he could do and what he could not do ...................
......and where did they go, where did they report?there's the record, you read it for yourself in the closing verses of the fourteenth chapter of Acts. they went back to ANTIOCH, to the congregation there, and the account says that they related things in detail to them; to this congregation that had committed them to the undeserved kindness of God for the work they had performed. So, there's where they reported.
So the record also says they stayed in Antioch not for a little time. Now what happened? All of a sudden something occured and Paul and Barnabas, they go up to Jerusalem. Well, what's the matter? What brings them up to Jerusalem? Well, it's the body of apostles and of other elders of the Jerusalem congregation that summoned them up there and say: "Look here! We have heard that you two men have gone out on a missionary tour and finished it and haven't come up here to Jerusalem to report to us. DO YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE? We are the council of Jerusalem. DON'T YOU RECOGNIZE THE HEADSHIP OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST? if you don't get up here in a hurry, we are going to take disciplinary action against you"!(and now: bring it home Freddy)
Is that what the account says? Well, if they had acted that way toward Paul and Barnabas because they had reported to the congregation by means of which the holy spirit sent them out, then this council of apostles at Jerusalem and other elders of the Jewish congregation would have put themselves above the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ.......
Although he was clear on this point, he did not follow logically the line of thought through. And on the same basis, the whole WBTS mandatory org structure is placing themselves above the headship of the Lord.... This particular piece still makes me smile!
Notice how easy it was in them days to say: the spirit says I should do this that and the other and let's go! How different a spirit from that WT study article....
Cheers
Borgia
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Sarah Smiles
How many times have you sit there at the KH and found problems with the WT or
book study books?I am not going back! in fact I am going to cleanse my house of anything regarding the WTBTS.
NEVERGOBACK! NEVERLOOKBACK!
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purplesofa
another exerpt from CoC.....
Similarly, I did not object to "organization" in the sense of an orderly arrangement, for I understood the Christian congregation itself to involve such an orderly arrangement. But I believed that, whateever the arrangement, its purpose and function, its very existance was only as an aid for the brothers; it was there to service interests, not the other way around. Whatever the arrangement, it was to build men and women up so that they would not be spiritual babes, dependent on men or on an institutionalized system , but able to act as full-grown, mature Christians. I was not to train them to be simply conformists to a set of organizational rules and regulations, but to thlep the to become persons "having their perceptive powers trained to distinguish right and wrong."
purps
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Scully
"It is easy to obey when everything is clear and we agree, but we will show that we are trully submissive if we yeild even when we do not personally understand the direction provided.
This is the whole idea behind the obedience studies done by Stan Milgram in the 60s. It demonstrated that people will generally yield to authority figures (genuine or otherwise) even when they realize that the outcome will be negative.
Phillip Zimbardo's prison simulation study went even further with the idea and showed the extreme levels of cruelty that people were willing to perpetrate when placed in an authority position over others, with no guiding principles or training to direct their behaviour.
With this one sentence, the WTS is trying to wipe out any true conscientious ethical beliefs and values that their followers hold. It's totally disgusting.
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TD
Does anyone remember (Blondie?) a convention drama around '73 or '74 that specifically contradicted the notion that one should go along with the elders even when they're wrong?
The setting was after the nation had split into the two tribe and ten tribe kingdoms (Judah and Israel respectively)
Jeroboam (King of the ten tribe kingdom) had set up calf worship as a national institution because he didn't want his subjects traveling to Jerusalem.
Anyhow, the two protaganists were sons of a priest. They ended up standing up to their father, defied him (And by extension, the king as well) and fled to Jerusalem, the center of "True worship."
The message was that one should obey God rather than men even when those men are in positions of authority.
I guess that ideal has been relegated to the scrap heap of "Old Truth"
LOL
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BizzyBee
I am not going back! in fact I am going to cleanse my house of anything regarding the WTBTS.
NEVERGOBACK! NEVERLOOKBACK!
Congratulations, Sarah! May you enjoy a long life and your new freedom!
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ssrriotsquad
that is why they never released that as a drama tape.
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dark angle
you guys are great! thanks for the ideas.