If you could give a talk at the kingdom hall ...

sleepy

If you could give a talk at the kingdom hall what would you say?
Some of us here are still considered witnesses by our local congregations but have stopped going.
Imagine though you were to go back for a few weeks and you were asked to give a 5 minute talk.
Would you chicken out of saying anything controversial or would you give it all you've got.
What would you chose to talk about?

Frenchy

Actually, before I left I had quite a ball with Public Talks that I gave locally and around the circuit as well as 'in house' parts as well. It's truly amazing at what you can actually get away with because of the close-mindedness of the audience.

There are a handful of people in the congregation that know how I feel about it all. Most agree but have not yet found the courage to withdraw as I did. I gave one of these talks that could be taken either way when the C.O. visited our congregation. There were just those few people who knew exactly what I was saying and I could see the fear in their faces at hearing what I was saying. One such person turned to one sitting next to her and said, 'Oh my God, he's burying himself!'(she told me about it afterwards) After the meeting the C.O. told me that he had thoroughly enjoyed the part and that it showed great insight. It was really lots of fun as well as a great demonstration of just how effective those green glasses are that all the inhabitants of the city of Oz wear. ...well, almost all.

chappy

Frenchy,
I'd be interested in some details on those talks!

chappy

patio34

Hi Sleepy, If i could give a talk, I'd like to give one about the dinasours' being the fatal flaw to the bible. :-)

Frenchy, I really love your quotation at the end.

Cheers!
Pat

Prisca

If I was a male, and was able to give an actual talk to the audience, I would give one that raised questions and made people think.

I would compare what the scriptures said, against what the WTS teaches.

I would bring up the validity of 607bc against what archeology teaches. I would include how the Society used to teach the date 606bc, before realising it didn't fit in with their chronology.

I would try to help the audience to reason, rather than just accept what was preached to them from the platform.

And then at the end of the talk, I would announce my resignation as MS/elder/whatever and step down from the platform and walk away for good.

Yerusalyim

I would love to give a talk on Matt 24, oh well, I'm not a dub.

YERUSALYIM
"Vanity! It's my favorite sin!"
[Al Pacino as Satan, in "DEVIL'S ADVOCATE"]

Rex B13

Well Pat,
>Hi Sleepy, If i could give a talk, I'd like to give one about the dinasours' being the fatal flaw to the bible. :-)

Oooh, but you wouldn't remark about the human and dino footprint withing a few feet of each other, or maybe the single tooth of a pig made into a "missing link", or the fake skull that fooled scientists for forty years (I love the 'forty years' duration of the hoax, God does have a sense of humor!), or the ice age evidences that are also flood evidences?
Have a nice day in your comfy little world-view.
Rex

sleepy

Rexy boy,
Whilst I dont fully endorse the current evolutionary view of how life got here I do think it is important to take the many scientific evidences found in its favour into account.
In your reply to Pat you mentioned Human and Dino foot prints being together, fake fossil finds , and ice age evidences being flood evidences.
Lets put the first two together .From what I have read in "The Genesis flood" book and others in support of a flood is that the human foot prints were not found in situ so were removed from their apparent location before they could be examined.
This gives rise to the claim that they are fakes.
Just like the Pigs tooth mentioned.
I'm not saying that they are but that there is not enough evidence around them to fully support the idea that man walked with the Dinosaurs.
Are the Ice age evidences also flood evidences.
Its not as simple as that , they , to fit in with the Bible have to be global flood evidences along with them evidence that all animals were killed and the only survivers spread out round the earth from Mesopotamia.
Also that all trees and plants were destoryed and geological formation dramticaly altered due to the flood within the last 7000 years.
So althought some things may give evidence of local floods they may not necessarily be evidence of a global flood.
Personnaly I would want to present both sides of the story.

Pathofthorns

Frenchy is right. It is possible to give a talk, that the majority of the audience will believe to be just 'outstanding', but a few who understand what you are really getting at, will just be cringing in their seats.

Because these talks were not mainstream and were just a subtle twist out of the ordinary, your average JW loved them. Meanwhile, red flags are going off all over the place among the elders because "something" was just not right.

Path

Frenchy

Chappy:
I’m afraid I don’t remember the details but one of the things that I said over and over again in my public talks was this: “The race for salvation is not a sprint but a marathon. Running flat out, you won’t make it. At this point I would quote some Watchtower article like w98 1/1 “Do Not Give Up In The Race For Life” in which I would quote “WE LIVE in exciting and challenging times. More than 80 years ago, in 1914, Jesus was enthroned as King of God’s heavenly Kingdom. “The Lord’s day” and with it “the time of the end” of this system of things began.” I would watch the faces in the audience. Most were bobbing or had that ever present grin on it but I would invariably see one or two with a slight frown. Those were the ones that that felt that very faint prick way deep in their minds that was telling them they could see a seam in what they once thought was a perfect picture.

Then I would say something like: “Eighty years, the Watchtower tells us, friends. “ I would smile and say: “ Now raise your hands all those of you here that think you can run flat out for eighty years!” There would be several chuckles and people leaning over to say something to their chair neighbor. But there were those frowns again and by this time perhaps a couple of the elders were starting to get a confused look on their faces. Then I would say: “Our God would never ask us to do what we cannot, would he? Look around you, look at the fine brothers that are taking the lead among you, you know them. Would those brothers ask more of you than God does? Certainly not.” By this time the elders have been disarmed. I would pause for effect and then tell them: “Do what you can. It seems that we, as Jehovah’s Witnesses have to be reminded from time to time of what Jesus said at Matthew 24: 36, that no one but the Father knows the day or the hour. We keep wanting to say, ‘here it is!’” At this point there are always a few who are nodding but they are not smiling. Those were the ones I wanted to reach. I would get real serious, get real close to the mike, and say: “Not I but the Lord says: ‘No one knows.’ “ It was usually at that time I would see those two or three with the frowns begin to relax and sometimes I would see a faint smile on their lips. I couldn’t help but feel that they had wanted to say that same thing themselves but were afraid of the repercussions.

I’ve had a few elders tell me that they were concerned about the friends being pushed too much. I always hoped that I could reach one or two of those and that they would let up on the friends and give them some comfort.

Another topic I tried to work in was ‘our unfortunate attitude of superiority because of our hope.’ I liked to use the illustration of the ‘good Samaritan’ . I would remind the audience of how many times we see that in our publications. Then I would say something like: “Who are we kind to and why? The Samaritans were people despised by the Jews mostly because they had once been Jews but had fallen away from the faith…and yet Jesus chose one of those to show that kindness and compassion exists in all persons. Jesus once told a Samaritan woman that ‘salvation originates with the Jews’…yet…yet the Samaritan was the one that Jesus chose in his parable to demonstrate the kind of love that he was trying so hard to teach. The Samaritan was outside God’s visible organization, wasn’t he?” Nervous nods from the audience. “Now let me as you a very, very difficult question. We don’t want anyone to answer out loud, just speak to your heart on this one: Of all those characters in the parable, on judgment day, which would you prefer being?” That usually brought lots of dumb looks and just a few faint smiles and nods from people who were looking me in the eye.

Patio: Thanks

If you could give a talk at the kingdom hall ...

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