by gubberningbody 54 Replies latest jw friends
Hi Titus,
My question is genuine: I wonder how JWs who post here are able to justify it to themselves, given the gb's hardline against communicating with "apostates". While I acknowledge that my question does not address the thread question, it is in response to another poster's defense of the gb.
Don't wonder that anymore! Don't think about that! Don't ask it! Forget it!
Don't try to understand that or assault JW apologists with that argument! I know it is true, but when you use that in debate and conversation, it does not make any sense!
Peace!
@steve2:
For lack of a better way to convey my point here, there is nothing "doctrinally sinful" about someone visiting a website that might also be used by one or more apostates, no more so than that it would be "doctrinally sinful" for you and I to both enter the same restroom to relieve ourselves and/or to wash our hands at a baseball stadium (like the one here in Los Angeles, California, that they call "Dodger Stadium"). Restrooms are generally provided to the public; one doesn't normally need permission from anyone to use them.
Also, while it is not my purpose to socialize with apostates, I am aware that some of the folks that use this forum are apostates, but perhaps you will remember learning that elders speak to disfellowshipped persons all of the time, privately for the most part, and you know what son, it may turn out that I'm going to engage some here that might be apostates and I'm going to sleep well tonight since, unlike you (and many others here that like to troll those of us here that are new on this board), I'm taught my Jehovah and I understand that neither counsel or admonitions are dicta. If you do not understand what I'm saying to you here, maybe someone a little older and/or with more experience in life (and common sense) will take a moment to lay it all out for you, but I don't like being impliedly trolled. Grow up.
Djeggnog,
Obedience is as important today as it was in Jeremiah's day. How strong is your resolve to obey Jehovah? If you, were inadvertently exposed to a pornographic Internet Web site, would you keep looking at it, or would you fight any temptation and escape from that site? What if an unbeliever at work or at school asked you for a date? Would you have the strength to refuse? Would apostate literature or Internet sites intrigue you or repulse you? In these or other situations, bear in mind the words of Jeremiah 38:20.
If you really are Witness, you should know where did I quoted this from.
I said that it is miserable to attack JWs with that argument, but evenmore misearble is trying to apologize for visiting apostate websites (Ex 32:24).
I am active Witness, that's why I can ask you such question.
@gubberningbody:
"The total number of mobile cellular telephones in use. Per capita figures expressed per 1,000 population"
You're referring to cell phones, but here's a snippet of what I wrote: "[Some] lands ... have no data plan for surfing the 'net...." I was referring to the lack of internet access in many of the countries of the world as an alternative to delivering our Bible-based literature in the way in which Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide distribute our literature to folks in our door-to-door work both here in the US and abroad being not passe. I don't believe @Gayle was discussing cell phones at all, but I suppose it's possible that I might not know what I'm talking about here.
Did you pore through that lengthy message I posted to @Gayle in its entirety and thought that you should find fault with something that you were evidently thinking, but which I didn't exactly say? Is "strife and jealousy" what motivated you to post this, er, dissent of yours? (Romans 13:13)
@Titus:
What makes you think I have some need to apologize for visiting this website? I don't feel any need at all to apologize to anyone for visiting this website. (1 Corinthians 10:29) I'm finding many of the people here incredibly immature (I say this based on the contents of many of the posts I've read), which makes me wonder how many here would have actually been baptized were it not for a contest that some elders play pitting their congregation with another congregation as to the number of baptismal candidates to be baptized at an CA or a DC. BTW, I removed the inadvertent comma from the following text you quoted in your post, and even included the citation:
"Obedience is as important today as it was in Jeremiah's day. How strong is your resolve to obey Jehovah? If you were inadvertently exposed to a pornographic Internet Web site, would you keep looking at it, or would you fight any temptation and escape from that site? What if an unbeliever at work or at school asked you for a date? Would you have the strength to refuse? Would apostate literature or Internet sites intrigue you or repulse you? In these or other situations, bear in mind the words of Jeremiah 38:20." [jr, p.70, ΒΆ7]
After reading my posts, was there really some doubt in your mind as to whether I was one of Jehovah's Witnesses? If so, what was it exactly that didn't give me away?
There is nothing "doctrinally sinful" about someone visiting a website that might also be used by one or more apostates, no more so than that it would be "doctrinally sinful" for you and I to both enter the same restroom to relieve ourselves and/or to wash our hands at a baseball stadium (like the one here in Los Angeles, California, that they call "Dodger Stadium"). Restrooms are generally provided to the public; one doesn't normally need permission from anyone to use them. Also, while it is not my purpose to socialize with apostates, I am aware that some of the folks that use this forum are apostates, but perhaps you will remember learning that elders speak to disfellowshipped persons all of the time, privately for the most part, and you know what son, it may turn out that I'm going to engage some here that might be apostates................................................................................................................................
That's what you said. It looks like apologizing for your visiting this site. And that's why I told you that.
What the verse 1 Co 10:29 means to you?
GUBBERNINGBODY,
It might not be as simple as that. There is a factor which you are discounting: SUPERSTITION.
Many JWs simply feel that because the religion has the magic name of Jehovah, that he is behind it. (Never mind that he didn't actually GIVE it to them but they simply took it.) They reason that because HE hasn't reached down from heaven to smite them like Pharaoh, HE is somehow backing them.
SO...because they have heard nothing from the skies - this means they must be A-okay.
Add on to LongHairGal's point that God's name isn't, never was, and never will be Jehovah, and you've got something much worse than mere superstition/mystery that all religions are prone to. You have an entire belief based on a LIE.
