a few times in the ministry i would find someone clued in who would ask the JW on their doorstep " so what your saying is, unless i join your religon god will kill me? and everyone else who isn't part of your religon?" Now theres only one answer to that question as far as Jw's are concerned but i never saw a single one answer that with a straight answer, mostly i suspect because they were so uncomfortable about being made to face the truth about their beliefs.
as a JW were you comfortable with this question?
by highdose 30 Replies latest watchtower bible
-
-
wobble
I would have answered as I honestly believed as a Dub, that God can read hearts and would only put to death those who would never live a moral, Christian, life.
I never believed a God of love could do anything different.
The funny thing is that in over 50 years of being a pain in the arse and knocking on peoples doors, I was never faced with that exact question.
I bet a lot of Dubs are not up front with what the WT teaches, I never went along with the whole thing and only taught what I believed.
Love
Wobble
-
-
blondie
I would tell them that a label was no guarantee. Even if you were a jw, you could die. I didn't buy into the idea that all non-jws would die, and I wasn't the only jw that I knew felt that way.
-
undercover
This is where cognitive dissonance was really apparent in JWs.
We knew full well what the teaching was...as decreed from the Governing Body who represented the Faithful Slave, but rationalized this belief in our own personal way. "Only Jehovah knows..." or "not just being a JW is enough...". These were deflections from the real issue: will only the JW religion be recognized as the true religion to be saved through Armageddon? We would never answer the question directly to an outsider.
We had no qualms about the teaching amongst ourselves in a KH setting. We'd all sit at the WT Study on Sunday and spout the company line, "Only JWs will survive" "we have to stay close to the organization to survive" "the world is doomed" but then turn right around and go out in service an hour later and if questioned about this belief we'd start side-stepping the issue, coming up with vague non-answers that would make a politician proud.
-
Fatfreek
Looking with hindsight, it was always about disclosure.
The JW view on LYING is not telling the truth to someone who is entitled to know it. To someone you deem an enemy you may choose to avoid disclosure.
This is all closely akin to a recent American president's statement, "I did NOT have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky ...", his not equating oral sex to traditional copulation -- reasoning, I'm quite positive, that Hillary did not buy. Using that reasoning, disclosure is not necessary.
Len
-
WTWizard
You are supposed to lie about it. You tell them that they will only be destroyed if they are actively opposing the witlesses (which, unless they are supporting it all the way, they are "actively opposing" the witlesses). But, you are supposed to do it in such a way as to not get them to cut off the study.
-
DJK
I was a teen when I last went door to door. Certainly no respectable adult would ask such a question from me.
-
DJK
So I was taught, after Armegeddon the dead shall rise, (all I assume) and Jehovah will judge them. Rule number 1 didn't say that all non-JWs go to the second lake of fire.
-
Awen
I oftentimes referred people to Exodus 12:38 where it says " a vast mixed-company of non-israelites went with them, along with herds and livestock" then I used logic to show that these people were saved along with the Israelites because of their FAITH and their works showed their FAITH. These people were EGYPTIANS, not ISRAELITES. Having a particular label meant nothing to YHWH as later on the Sons of Korah stood with Moses and were saved, whereas Korah himself was swallowed up by an earthquake for defying YHWH. -Numbers:16
Often when Elders tried to correct me on this matter, I would point to this scripture as proof that the WTS was in error on this matter. YHWH reads hearts, whereas the WTS looks at the outer person.