COMMENTS YOU WILL NOT HEAR AT THE WT STUDY 09-07-08 (HOUSE TO HOUSE MINISTR (page 4)

Poztate

Great Job Mary... I still have a hard time reading all this and can't believe I fell for it hook, line and sinker.

You must have done a REALLY great job...Grace and Gumballs even posted on this thread... Hi to you both.....

Alwayshere

THEIR OWN LARGE NEW WORLD TRANSLATION AT ACTS 20:20, THE FOOT NOTE READS "Or, "and in private houses."

Mary

If you want to hear something pathetic but hilarious at the same time, here's another quote from In Search of Christian Freedom that I think is worth mentioning.

When the Governing Body members were debating over the validity of scriptures like Acts 20:20, Ray turned to his uncle during one of the meetings and said:

"Does Brother Fred Franz really believe that the phrase 'from house to house' as found in these verses actually means going 'from door to door,' from one door to the next door? I would appreciate his expressing himself on that."
His reply began with, "Yes,----I believe it can include that." (Note the use of the word "can," not "does.") He then went on to say, "For example, on going to a home Paul might have entered in the front door and, after his discussion, he might have gone out the back door, and so he would be going from door to door." A number of the members broke out in laughter. Bu the fact was that the statement was not meant to provoke laughter---it was made in all seriousness."

It's hard to say whether we should laugh

Bonnie_Clyde

Recall that just before God destroyed Jericho, the Israelites were instructed to march around the city once a day for six days. On the seventh day, however, there was to be a marked increase in their activity

.I seem to remember the WT made a big push about 1943 to get the dubs to increase their activity seven times because Armageddon was nigh. Anybody remember this?

DanTheMan

Nice job Mary.

if you ignore their usage of the phrase "house to house", there is still no evidence that ALL first century Christians were evangelizers. In fact, the scriptures make it quite clear that only some of them had this gift:

"...And he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelizers, some as shepherds and teachers..." Ephesians 4:11

I'm glad you noted this. How many JW's feel endless guilt and shame and Armageddon-destruction-worthy because they *gasp* find it extremely awkward to preach to strangers and hence report low or no hours (and what an entirely unscriptural farce the reporting of hours is, but that's a subject for a different day).

16. The time may well come when the message we declare is like" a great war cry." In the book of Revelation, powerful judgment messages are pictured as "a great hail with every stone about the weight of a talent.'" And Revelation 16:21 states: "The plague of it was unusually great." Just what role the house-tohouse ministry will play in the proclaiming of those climactic judgment messages remains to be seen. But we can be sure that before "the great tribulation" is finished, Jehovah's name will have been made known as never before in human history.-Rev. 7:14; Ezek. 38:23.

This is an interesting paragraph. I remember one bro (a very studious and intelligent feller, always trying to discern 'which way the slave was leaning') telling me that at some point, the preaching work would change and that instead of going door-to-door to find potential converts, instead a "judgment message" would be preached, something like "you had your chance, and now it's too late". I didn't know where he got that from but the above paragraph certainly hints at such a thing. It's like they're waiting for some sign or another to initiate such a campaign.

sweet pea

Great job Mary, thank you.

Trouble is, so many JW's feel that 'the preaching work' is the surest sign that they are the 'One True Religion' and that no one else does the preaching work on anywhere near the same scale as them.

With a particularly heinous straw man, yet again the R&F will go home with a well developed answer to the wrong question to a completely wrong irrelevant question and will continue to swoon at their specialness and be completely reassured. The majority won't even notice the glaringly obvious logical fallacies.

*sigh*

On telling two of my mum and dads' long time best friends why we were leaving, both of them tried to reassure me that Witnesses are 'the ONLY ones doing the preaching work'. This golden nugget is a major factor in my mum's mind as to why she stays. My dad also threw it at me until I made him check out how other Christian organisations were carrying out the preaching work....it blew his mind.

Atlantis

Mary:

EXCELLENT!----------Bloomin-masterpiece!

Bloody-good-show!

Cheers! Atlantis!-

eyeslice

Top work Mary.

The society still clings to the 'house to house' work even though that it is evident that it is having absolutely no success in the west, where witnesses going from door to door has become a joke. Although there is growth in the developing world, they could achieve the same growth using other methods - evangelicals appear to me to be growing in Africa and India more rapidly than the witnesses and they use slight different tactics for attracting new members - for example charitable handouts.

no more kool aid

Thank you so so much. This keeps me up to date with what my witness family might hit me with come Sunday evening. Your comments echo what I would be sitting there thinking to myself. It looks like alot of work and we appreciate it.

COMMENTS YOU WILL NOT HEAR AT THE WT STUDY 09-07-08 (HOUSE TO HOUSE MINISTR