At least one contributor posted about this. I believe he/she related how the part on the service meeting was covered, but if you know the specific quotes that would be great.
Looking for recent thread about "No personal study groups."
by Confession 9 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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WTWizard
If you can access parts of the forum between late July and mid September 2007, you will see the Kingdumb Misery that put a stop to personal study groups. That came in the September Kingdumb Misery of 2007, and was a very hot topic on this forum for quite a time.
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VM44
Was that Kingdom Ministry about "no personal study groups" or "no personal study"?
I remember that it was not very encouraging to people who had an interest in studying Biblical greek.
Perhaps The Watchtower views people who know Biblical greek as a threat?
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blondie
*** km 9/07 p. 3 Question Box ***
Does "the faithful and discreet slave" endorse independent groups of Witnesses who meet together to engage in Scriptural research or debate?—Matt. 24:45, 47.
No, it does not. And yet, in various parts of the world, a few associates of our organization have formed groups to do independent research on Bible-related subjects. Some have pursued an independent group study of Biblical Hebrew and Greek so as to analyze the accuracy of the NewWorldTranslation. Others explore scientific subjects related to the Bible. They have created Web sites and chat rooms for the purpose of exchanging and debating their views. They have also held conferences and produced publications to present their findings and to supplement what is provided at our Christian meetings and through our literature.
Throughout the earth, Jehovah’s people are receiving ample spiritual instruction and encouragement at congregation meetings, assemblies, and conventions, as well as through the publications of Jehovah’s organization. Under the guidance of his holy spirit and on the basis of his Word of truth, Jehovah provides what is needed so that all of God’s people may be "fitly united in the same mind and in the same line of thought" and remain "stabilized in the faith." (1 Cor. 1:10; Col. 2:6, 7) Surely we are grateful for Jehovah’s spiritual provisions in these last days. Thus, "the faithful and discreet slave" does not endorse any literature, meetings, or Web sites that are not produced or organized under its oversight.—Matt. 24:45-47.
It is commendable for individuals to want to use their thinking ability in support of the good news. However, no personal pursuit should detract from what Jesus Christ is accomplishing through his congregation on earth today. In the first century, the apostle Paul warned about getting involved in exhausting, time-consuming subjects, such as "genealogies, which end up in nothing, but which furnish questions for research rather than a dispensing of anything by God in connection with faith." (1 Tim. 1:3-7) All Christians should strive to "shun foolish questionings and genealogies and strife and fights over the Law, for they are unprofitable and futile."—Titus 3:9.
For those who wish to do extra Bible study and research, we recommend that they explore InsightontheScriptures,"AllScriptureIsInspiredofGodandBeneficial," and our other publications, such as those that discuss the prophecies found in the Bible books of Daniel, Isaiah, and Revelation. These provide abundant material for Bible study and meditation, whereby we can be "filled with the accurate knowledge of [God’s] will in all wisdom and spiritual comprehension, in order to walk worthily of Jehovah to the end of fully pleasing him as [we] go on bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the accurate knowledge of God."—Col. 1:9, 10.
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Alexia
All the “young people” (I hate the term now!) used to get together at a brothers or sister’s house and study the WT Saturday before the Sunday meeting. After, we would either have BBQ, potluck, ride bikes, play in the streets or go skating or bowling. Many of the older teens would stay out until 2:00AM. My mom didnt give me a curfew as long as I was out with the "friends" and was able to get up the next day. I admit it was really fun and it formed a closer bond with the other kids/teens w/o a bunch of manic elder oversight.
We did have a lot of questions about what we were reading that we didnt dare ask at the meetings.
Too bad that isnt allowed anymore.
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Confession
Thank you, Blondie... Exactly what I needed. Hope you're well.
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White Dove
Equating the situation back then of attempting to prove or disprove Jesus' lineage with the situation today of trying to prove or disprove the claims of the WTS is called equivocation. The two aren't remotely related.
What of the Bereans? Did they compare Paul's writings with Paul's speeches to see if Paul was telling the truth? Begging the question/circular reasoning. I caught this for the first time when I read "all scripture is inspired..." I thought the Bible is true because it says it's true. I'd seen this with other people who say "trust me." They had absolutely no basis on which I should put my trust. I also saw none with the Bible. It's true cuz it says it is. No way.
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Mysterious
Of course they discourage personal study groups, someone might realize the BS they teach. Plus I think this was a backlash against Ray Franz and how he and friends met to study the bible after he was DF'd was it not?
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Elgiard
I would not be shocked to see personal study become disallowed. It could be replaced by a simple daily reading, and an additional book study each week. It would be touted as the "kindly yoke" and a lightening of the load, and would give more time for field service, but the fact is that personal study is by necessity "personal", ie [i]individual[/i], which is anathema to their goals. Their time would still be completely consumed by "theocratic things". The daily reading could even be broken up into segments to be read at certain times during the day. But there would be little unsupervised study, and also fewer publications to print, so more money for "the organization".
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witnessgirl
Thank you very much, blondie, for posting that text from the Kingdom Ministry. I'm really blown away by how much has changed that I've missed over the last few years (I was "in the Truth" from '91-'04). I was really shocked when I heard about the book studies being discontinued (I need to read up on that more, I just found out today), but this is really interesting, the part where studying Greek is discouraged, I mean. Before I was even baptised, a sister in our congregation was kind enough to track down a copy of the Kingdom Interlinear for me because I was interested in biblical ancient languages. It was the old purple one that I only years later found out was a relic from 1969 that by that point had already been replaced by the blue one from the 1980s (although both were fairly rare by that point). Also there was a brother who made an heroic (albeit unsuccessful) effort to try to get a copy of the Emphatic Diaglott for me, which he seemed to be under the impression was a Hebrew interlinear (it was not). I never asked for those books. I mentioned to brothers and sisters that I was interested in biblical languages and they went out looking for obsolete literature for me. I guess that's upbuilding or whatever.
I guess that sort of thing wouldn't happen today, now that the FDS has officially discouraged study of Hebrew and Greek. They could have saved me hundreds of dollars I spent on Hebrew tapes by receiving this light sooner.
It still seems to weird to me, though. If the NWT is such an accurate and outstanding translation, why not encourage the brothers and sisters to study the original languages, so that they can better defend the translation? Wasn't that the whole idea behind the Kingdom Interlinear? And why does Our Kingdom Ministry suppose that the only reason to study these languages would be to attack the NWT? Wouldn't studying those languages because you want to support the NWT be equally likely? I know that's what I was doing.