What do you think about this quote from the 2003 District Convention talk "Beware of the Voice of Strangers"?

LUKEWARM

[23:23] So friends, hypothetically, and I repeat, hypothetically, even if an angel were to come down here and land on this platform, today, at this moment, and to present something to us that didn't fit into the pattern of truth, what should we be ready to do? We should be ready to say, " Hold on there, that doesn't fit into the pattern, and I am not going to listen to it!" Yes, even if it were one of Jehovah's angels.The full transcript http://www.silentlambs.org/education/districttranscript2.htm

OnTheWayOut

This sounds like they are saying to believe everything the WT organization says ahead of anything else, even a messenger from God.
They act as if the angel could be a demon transforming himself into an angel of light. They are just too paranoid.
So members are to assume that anything that disagrees with "the pattern of truth" (whatever WTS says) should be viewed suspiciously.

Okay, but view every last thing with the same suspicion- even whatever WTS says.

Do as C.T. Russell says: “Accept truth wherever you find it, no matter what it contradicts.” -Charles T. Russell
Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence, pp. 8-9 July 1879

To make sure of whether it is truth or not, inspect it on your own. STOP RELYING ON OTHERS (WTS) TO EXPLAIN THE TRUTH TO YOU.
Let nobody keep you from fully examining the truth inside and outside of their literature.

lepermessiah

What about this one from the same talk?

In other words, forget the angel listen to the F&D Slave......I love how he twice said hypothetically in reference to the angel, just to help all of those in the audience that had previously seen angels descend from heaven and land on the platform. You know, it happens so much.

"This is my Son, my beloved, whom I have approved. Listen to him." So we listen to Jehovah, by listening to the Fine Shepherd, Christ Jesus. And we do that , today, by listening to the Faithful and Discreet Slave , who Jesus appointed over all his belongings to give us our spiritual food at the proper time.

keyser soze

Hold on there, that doesn't fit into the pattern, and I am not going to listen to it!" Yes, even if it were one of Jehovah's angels.

That doesn't even make sense to me. Would an angel saying something deceptive fit into the pattern. I would take the word of an angel over that of a window washer in a cheap suit. What a bunch of dumbasses.

donuthole

It seems like they are building on what Paul writes at Gal 1:8

"But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed."

The problem with the Watchtower interpretation is that over the course of their history they themselves have regulary changed their own pattern of Good News. By this token any time there is a new light, the JW should reject the WT as a the "voice of a stranger", since it changes the pattern of Good News that they have been preaching.

AllTimeJeff

Just to put this out there, this could be a random elder at a specific convention. I was always busy working, so I don't remember this specifically in my DC. It may not have been in the outline.

Was it in the follow up WT study article? This seems pretty out there, even for the GB.....

snowbird

I was at the DC in Mobile, Alabama, when this talk was given.

It referenced John chapter 10 about the "hired man" or "stranger" who doesn't care for the sheep.

I went home and promptly read John 10 in its entirety.

1 and 1/2 years later, I was out of there.

Sylvia

Addendum: The talk was really about not listening to apostates or visiting websites such as this one.

Tee hee hee

sir82

Was it in the follow up WT study article? This seems pretty out there, even for the GB.....

Nothing that strong was in the follow-up WT article.

The "and I repeat, hypothetically" wouldn't be in a manuscript talk.

My best guess is that it was some local dude who felt supremely self-confident, so much that he injected his own thinking into the outline.

PSacramento

For us to be able to"judge" whether a "messenger" is telling us the truth we must knwo the truth or at the very least be willing to exam the truth.

What puts one man's word of truth over another? what puts one man's truth ( or a group of men) over the truth of our lord ?

snowbird

I remember the speaker paraphrased C. T. Russell's observation that apostates act as if they've been injected with spiritual rabies.

The speaker used inoculated instead of injected! I thought to myself, "Freudian slip?"

Tee hee hee

Sylvia

What do you think about this quote from the 2003 District Convention talk "Beware of the Voice of Strangers"?

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