by questionnaires 5 Replies latest jw friends
Hi,
I am not a Jehovah's witness, but I do want to know something.
Why do Jehovah's Witnesses call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses?
and
Why do they (in this country anyway, UK,) go from door to door?
I have never heard a Jehovah's witness explain why they go around house to house.
I hope someone can answer these questions for me.
Here it is in their own words from one of their publications:
Why do Jehovah's Witnesses preach from house to house?
Jesus foretold for our day this work: "This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations; and then the end will come." He also instructed his followers: "Go . . . and make disciples of people of all the nations."-Matt. 24:14; 28:19.
When Jesus sent out his early disciples, he directed them to go to the homes of the people. (Matt. 10:7, 11-13) The apostle Paul said regarding his ministry: "I did not hold back from telling you any of the things that were profitable nor from teaching you publicly and from house to house."-Acts 20:20, 21; see also Acts 5:42.
The message that the Witnesses proclaim involves the lives of people; they want to be careful to miss no one. (Zeph. 2:2, 3) Their calls are motivated by love-first for God, also for their neighbor.
A conference of religious leaders in Spain noted this: "Perhaps [the churches] are excessively neglectful about that which precisely constitutes the greatest preoccupation of the Witnesses-the home visit, which comes within the apostolic methodology of the primitive church. While the churches, on not a few occasions, limit themselves to constructing their temples, ringing their bells to attract the people and to preaching inside their places of worship, [the Witnesses] follow the apostolic tactic of going from house to house and of taking advantage of every occasion to witness."-El Catolicismo, Bogotá, Colombia, September 14, 1975, p. 14.
-Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it-
Jehovah's Witnesses were not always known as such. As a matter of fact, the movement did not begin with the intention of becoming a religion, strange as this may seem. It began with one man who was dissatisfied with the churches that he had attended. His search led him to form a small group of people with similar sentiments and the group grew into an association which did not consider itself a religion. In time this group grew and began to be organzized into smaller groups. Here is how one of their publications describes their acquiring the name they now use:
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Sunday afternoon, July 26, 1931, at the international convention held in Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A. At 4:00 p.m., there was presented and read to the thousands of conventioners a resolution, the fourth, fifth and sixth paragraphs of which we are here pleased to quote:
NOW, THEREFORE, in order that our true position may be made known, and believing that this is in harmony with the will of God, as expressed in his Word, BE IT RESOLVED, as follows, to wit:
THAT we have great love for Brother Charles T. Russell, for his work's sake, and that we gladly acknowledge that the Lord used him and greatly blessed his work, yet we cannot consistently with the Word of God consent to be called by the name "Russellites"; that the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society and the International Bible Students Association and the Peoples Pulpit Association are merely names of corporations which as a company of Christian people we hold, control and use to carry on our work in obedience to God's commandments, yet none of these names properly attach to or apply to us as a body of Christians who follow in the footsteps of our Lord and Master, Christ Jesus; that we are students of the Bible, but, as a body of Christians forming an association, we decline to assume or be called by the name "Bible Students" or similar names as a means of identification of our proper position before the Lord; we refuse to bear or to be called by the name of any man;
THAT, having been bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ our Lord and Redeemer, justified and begotten by Jehovah God and called to his kingdom, we unhesitatingly declare our entire allegiance and devotion to Jehovah God and his kingdom; that we are servants of Jehovah God commissioned to do a work in his name, and, in obedience to his commandment, to deliver the testimony of Jesus Christ, and to make known to the people that Jehovah is the true and Almighty God; therefore we joyfully embrace and take the name which the mouth of the Lord God has named, and we desire to be known as and called by the name, to wit, Jehovah's witnesses.-Isa. 43:10-12; 62:2; Rev. 12:17.
62 The eighth and last paragraph of the Resolution said:
We humbly invite all persons who are wholly devoted to Jehovah and his kingdom to join in proclaiming this good news to others, that the righteous standard of the Lord may be lifted up, that the peoples of the world may know where to find the truth and hope for relief; and, above all, that the great and holy name of Jehovah God may be vindicated and exalted.
-Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it-
Does this answer your questions?
-Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it-
questionnaires,
Frenchy pretty much gave a good run down of why JWs go door to door and call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses. A few thoughts on this, I will leave with you.
Another reason the second President of the WTBTS, Joseph Rutherford called themselves Jehovah's Witnesses in 1931 is to isolate themselves by name in a sense from the International Bible Students. The Bible Students are active today and many still hold to Charles T. Russell's works Studies in the Scriptures. The Watchtower today looks at the Bible Students as basically the evil slave. Some more educated JWs I deal with have become friends to many Bible Students and swap material such as the older publications of the WT.
Excuse my rambling, back to the subject. To isolate from the name Bible Students gave the WT a new start in a sense from the false predictions and nonesense Russell taught. Unfortunatly Rutherford taught his own nonesense and false predictions. With time people foreget what was taught from year to year especially when teachings change as much as the Watchtowers.
A few things Frenchy left out why JWs go door to door, they are under a sense of guilt that the WT has imposed upon them to go door to door. Every cult or controling religion for that matter seems to put the rank and file under its thumb to perform. The WT has many free salesmen and ladies going door to door pushing what they believe to be a life saving message. Remember, the life saving message taught today could very well be the teachings from demons tommorrow. This has been the case with the WT.
Also another reason JWs go door to door is because afterwards they congregate at the donut shop and swap stories of how many magazines they placed at the door and how many new prospects for converting they met at the door, not to mention munching out on them there goodies and swilling down coffee and juice. I knew some that count their time while sitting at the donut shop eating donuts, I was one. Got to get them hours in!
That reminds me, another reason JWs go door to door is because they have what is considered a time sheet, did they do away with that?
Anyway, JWs had to count their time each week that they went door to door and turn it into the congregation as well as what they sold door to door. It is a way to keep tabs on the rank and file to keep them active in the preaching work. I remember fudging on my time sheet all of the time to make it look like I was doing what a good JW does, put in the hours selling literature for the Society. Of course they do not look at it that way.
Anyway, I am sure there are a few other reasons why JWs go door to door but I cannot think of anymore right now.
OH, I thought of another, there was a guy in our congregation (when I was still active) that on occasions went door to door by himself. He was busted a few times for looking through peoples windows. One of the windows he was looking through was in the back of a womans house. How he mistaken the front door for this womans bathroom window in the back of her house I will never know. Anyway, the lady of the house was taking a shower and saw this representative for Gods organization peeking in on her. Well, this guy was finally disfellowshipped after having this happen more than once.
If I can remember anymore why JWs go door to door, or bathroom window to bathroom window, I will post it. :-)
Quesionaires:
I'm sure by now you realize that this is not a site 'friendly' to Jehovah's Witnesses. Most of those who post here, including myself, were once active members of the religion. Some of us here have been officially 'removed' or disfellowshipped from the religion and as such are shunned by former friends, familiy, and associates which remain as members in good standing. Others of us have chosen to 'fade out' slowly in order to avoid this shunning since many of us have family members and life-long friends who remain and we do not wish to be separated from them. Some of us here still attend meetings occasionally for various reasons. I am not aware that anyone here is still going door to door.
JW's go from door to door out of a sense of obligation to do so. Few actually enjoy (I did!) doing it because much meeting time and space in the publications is devoted to promoting it. However, if you were to ask one that comes to your house if they enjoy what they are doing they will, almost without exception, tell you that they do. This is because JW's are instilled with a sense of the importance of absolute loyalty to the 'mother organization'. They are made to feel that they are part of a 'universal family' and that all the forces of evil in the world, spirit and human, has singled them out and are hell-bent to destroy them. This has a strong galvanizing effect on the membership. The 'organization' tells them that all JW's are delighted to be privileged to be doing this work therefore they reason that they, being JW's are therefore happy with the work. They are taught that theirs is the one, true religion and that they alone, as an organization will escape God's fury at Armageddon when God wreaks havoc on a world now in the grips of Satan and his demons. They are convinved that the door to door work is a work of salvation and that each person that they 'bring into the truth' (their faith is often simply referred to as 'the truth' among themselves) is one plucked out of the fire, so to speak. The expression: "lives are at stake" is a common one used in their 'Service Meetings' where they are continually trained and conditioned for this work. Given the importance that is attached to the door to door work it is understandable why JW's are out in this work. Without engaging in this 'life saving work' there is no salvation to a JW. They are told that unless they 'witness'they are not Jehovah's Witnesses. They are very much aware of what it means not to be a JW, i.e., no salvation.
So it is both out of a sense of duty and as a means of salvation that they do this work. Being convinced of having the one true faith they feel obligated to dispense this 'truth' to others so that they might avail themselves of this 'wonderful truth' and escape destruction at Armageddon.
They have been convinced that by NOT doing so they could be held personally blood guilty before God if a person should die at God's hands at Armageddon that would otherwise have accepted 'the truth' had that Witness presented 'the truth' to him.
Jehovah's Witnesses are neither saints nor devils. Niether are they mindless fanatics and perverts. Among their ranks you will find the same spectrum of mankind that you will in the general population, some good, some bad. They are, however, a very focused people with a purpose. That is what makes them effective in the prosletyzing work for which they are so famous. The 'organziation' insists on complete loyalty and dissension is not tolerated for fear of damaging the morale and spirit of the congregation. As a result of this they are somewhat 'tightly wound.' Also as a result of this instilled sense of loyalty they do not have an open mind on religious issues.
What they know of the Bible (and they are familiar with it.) is what they have been taught by the 'organization'. Their understanding (or lack thereof as some would argue) of spiritual things is what they have been taught by the 'organization'. If, for example, in the course of their regular, scheduled Bible reading they run across a passage in the Bible that is difficult to understand (Whew! Aren't they all?!) they have been trained to go to their voluminous referece library and look it up. They will then read the 'present understanding' of that passage and they will then accept this without question. This may or may not be the 'understanding' of just a few years or a few months ago as Scorpion pointed out in his post. It may or may not be the 'understanding' that will prevail once the next Watchtower magazine comes out. But as long as it is 'present revealed truth' it must be accepted or the person's loyalty to the 'organization' will be called into question. To a JW this is tantamount to being called before the throne of God for blasphemy.
The 'organization' is sometimes referred to as the 'Society' or as the 'Faithful and Discreet Slave' or more commonly, 'The Faithful Salve'. A term taken from the passage at Matt 24:45 (according to the rendering of their translation). All direction, doctrine, and procedures actually come from a committe of men known as the Governing Body. They make all the rules and decide the interpretation of every passage in the Bible. They are credited with operating under God's Holy Spirit and their word is not to be questioned. This is ironic inasmuch as the publications will judiciously, from time to time, admit that they are not infallible but will, in the 'same breath' say that they are not to be questioned. (They have in fact on many occassions reversed themselves on their interpretations, sometimes back and forth several times!) It is their contention that God alone is able to correct the governing body.
One final thought. JW's have been convinced that there are two classes of mankind slated for salvation. The 'other sheep'(also called the 'earthly class') (a reference to John 10:16 and the 'little flock'( also called the 'annointed' who number 144,000 and of which there is only a small remnant still here on earth.), a reference to Luke 12:32. The O.S. will live forever here on earth after Armageddon while the annointed will reap a heavenly reward. JW's are taught that these will rule with Jesus for a thousand years from heaven. They are taught that it is through this 'little flock' which God first began annointing and choosing at Pentecost of 33 C.E. of which only a small number remain here on earth that God's Holy Spirit is now, exclusively operating. HOWEVER, none of these 'remnant' or 'annointed ones' are ever consulted in a decision by the Governing Body. So, in reality, the Faithful Slave is really the self-appointed Governing Body.(some 13 of them although the number will vary from time to time).
That is my nutshell version of it. If you have any more questions I would be happy to make an attempt at answering them.
-Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it-
