WOULD JW's READ THIS? (page 2)

Mickey mouse

By the way, if anyone fancies copying, pasting and forwarding this please do!

dozy

They might well read it , but I doubt that they would make any connection.

As JWs , we block out the fact that 99.9% of the population disagree with us.

Nice work. Here's my suggested revision, tweaked in order to attempt to bypass the "apostameter":

Our ministry is more of a challenge than ever. Whilst mainstream groups are losing members, some religions of Babylon the Great, which we learnt about in the Revelation book so recently, use unscrupulous methods to prevent their members examing their own beliefs. It takes extra knowledge and skills to reach these people so they can open their hearts to the truth.

Many of these groups tell their members that THEY are God's sole representatives on earth. So if people ever have doubts about what they have been taught by their leaders, they repress them for fear of losing their relationship with God. Additionally, some groups use phobias to prevent people leaving. Examples include a fear of death, demon influence and losing contact with all their friends and family. From their perspective, our message is seen as an attack from the Devil to undermine their faith! (2 Cor 4:3,4: If, now, the good news we declare is in fact veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.)

It's easy to see why such people are hard to reach. We owe it to these people to learn about the underhanded methods being used by high control groups so that we are better equipped to help them. Otherwise they could lose out on the opportunity of learning the Bible's true message. Educate yourself about this issue and become a more effective teacher.

Mickey mouse

Thanks, I especially like the reference to "Babylon the Great". I'm going to wait for any further suggestions before sending it out, hopefully if there's enough JW buzzwords there it won't raise the apostate red flags.

Eyes Open

Spelling corrections, grammatical tweaks and an addition to the intro:

Hello fellow brothers and sisters,

I hope you are all well and enjoying your service to Jehovah, which he no doubt values very much. Our ministry, especially, is more of a challenge than ever. Whilst mainstream groups are losing members, some religions of Babylon the Great, which we learnt about in the Revelation book so recently, use unscrupulous methods to prevent their members from examining their own beliefs. How many times has the door been shut on you before you've even had a chance to share a scripture? It takes extra knowledge and skill to truly reach these people and to help them open their hearts to the truth.

Many of these groups tell their members that THEY are God's sole representatives on earth. So if people ever have doubts about what they have been taught by their leaders, they repress them for fear of losing their relationship with God. Additionally, some groups use phobias to prevent people leaving. Examples include a fear of death, demon influence and losing contact with people in their current religion. From their perspective, our message is seen as an attack from the Devil to undermine their faith! (2 Cor 4:3,4: If, now, the good news we declare is in fact veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.)

It's easy to see why such people are hard to reach. We owe it to these people to learn about the underhanded methods being used by high control groups so that we are better equipped to help them. Otherwise they could lose out on the opportunity of learning the Bible's true message. Educate yourself about this issue and become a more effective teacher.

Mickey mouse

I think this is the final draft! I have included some of your suggestions and tried to provoke some thought with a few empathetic questions and a quote from the WT about the Mennonites:

Dear brothers and sisters,

Like many you may be finding our ministry is more challenging than ever. Whilst mainstream religions in general are losing members, some groups within Babylon the Great are using increasingly sophisticated techniques to prevent their followers examining their own beliefs. If we truly want to reach these ones we need to be aware of these methods; since we will have to overcome them to be effective ministers.

It can be useful to put yourself in the place of the householder. Did you know that many religious groups tell their members that THEY are God's sole representatives on earth?! If you believed that by leaving your affiliation with a religious group you would lose your personal relationship with God, how would you feel? Would you be likely to explore other avenues of worship?

Additionally high control groups use other phobias to prevent people leaving. Consider the example of one such group, the Mennonites, from the Watchtower magazine 9/1/05, p25: “A few days later, the church elders came to the home of Johann’s family with an ultimatum for the interested ones: “We heard that Jehovah’s Witnesses visited you. You must forbid them to return, and unless you hand over their literature to be burned, you face expulsion. They had had just one Bible study with the Witnesses, so this presented a formidable test.” Can you imagine how intimidating that would be? The fear of losing contact with all their friends and loved ones would certainly be sufficient incentive to dissuade most people from pursuing a knowledge of truth!

Apart from the threat of social isolation, other fears to be contended with include Satanic influence and death. Consider the experience of a former member of the Unification Church: “I was taught that if I have a doubt about Moon or the group, that it was a result of evil spirits which were having give and take with my mind.” This is not a surprise to us, as 2 Cor 4:3 cautions: If, now, the good news we declare is in fact veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, 4 among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.

It may appear that there is ample evidence available to prove to these ones that their religion is not adhering to bible truth. Unfortunately in the face of powerful manipulation of their minds and hearts it is almost impossible for them to consider the evidence objectively.

It's easy to see why such people are hard to reach. We owe it to them to learn about the underhanded methods being used by high control groups so we are better equipped to help them. Otherwise they could lose out on the opportunity of learning Bible TRUTH. Educate yourself about this issue and become a more effective teacher.

I would love to have the guts to send it out!

WOULD JW's READ THIS?

Mickey mouse

dozy

Eyes Open

Mickey mouse

Eyes Open

Mickey mouse

tresdecu

DoomVoyager

tresdecu

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