Is field service a biblical requirement? (page 2)

AGuest

Thank you, dear OUTLAW (the greatest of love and peace to you, dear one!)!!

There's nothing wrong with going house to house, but it's just one of many forms of preaching outlined in Scripture.

Actually, there is no such preaching form in the Bible, dear Agonus (peace to you!). When my Lord sent his disciples out he told them to search out those "deserving." How did they know who was "deserving", whose house to go to? The same way Philip knew to join himself to the Ethiopian's chariot.... that Ananias knew to find Paul... that Peter knew to seek out Cornelius, etc. The Spirit DIRECTED them to such ones... and/or such ones to them.

The WTBTS takes this false teaching from Paul's words that he didn't "hold back from teaching [you] publicly and from house to house." Paul was not saying there that he went from door to door, but rather that he went to each of THEIR houses... THEIR houses (the disciples) to THEIR houses. Meaning, he would go to different ones' houses... because that is where they MET... and share with them there. He did not mean literally from one door to the next door on a given street.

Folks crack me up when they think that there were literally churches back then. Seriously, the christians could not meet publicly! The only public places were the temple (and, of course, they couldn't go there, at least, not the non-Israelite - thus, uncircumcised christians)... and the synagogues, which the women could not enter due to prevailing Roman law - so, they had to learn at home from their husbands.

When the apostles, Paul, and other leading disciples were in the AREA, however, they would go to the HOMES of the Body Members... so that ALL could share in the good news. They went to the synagogues... to try and reach the Jewish men.

Going door to door... would have gotten them killed. C'mon, folks... seriously...

I hope this help and I bid you both peace!

A slave of Christ,

SA

P.S. And to those who would say, "Well, didn't Paul preach publicly in the Areopagus"? I would say, "Yes... and that's what ultimately got HIM killed." After many years of imprisonment, yes, but which imprisonment ended in his death in Rome at the hand of Caesar. Read the account.

VM44

"...they changed the baptisimal vow by stating they agree to obey the org."

This is something The Watchtower should not have done.

They did not have the authority to change the baptisimal vows!

Lily Pie

Field service is not a requirment. The only requirement is believing (pisteuo).

The whole purpose of being a follower of Jesus, is to love God, accept Gods love, and bring others in to love God.

Lets look at the big picture of the four gospels and use Jesus as an example. Jesus always tried to avoid crowds, but the people kept flocking to him because of WHAT he did, and because of WHO he was. Jesus had dinners with sinners. Preached at temples. And yes I suppose he went house to house, where he was invited, to meet with fellow Christians.

Lets face it. How fruitful is door to door minstry anyway? All it does is aggravate people. Hardly encouraging anyone to read the bible fairly and in an inbiased manner.

I think it is admirable for some of those in feild service to continue to do this, In a way. For it can be seen as a display of unwavering faith and courage.... But I would urge people who did this to reconsider it's necessity.

Lily Pie

Listener

A couple of posters have mentioned the effectiveness of the house to house work in both terms of time and money, surely it would be a priority of the Governing Body to look at many different methods of preaching to enable better results. In their earlier days that did use various methods but for many many years they have limited their efforts to house to house work.

To their credit they have printed a lot of literature in different languages but they have also relied on the work done by missionaries of other religions when they move into new territories. It is so difficult going from house to house when you come across families that are more concerned about where their next meal is coming from or how to deal with their medical/mental problems. But the witnessing work takes precedence and no real efforts are made to ensure constructive assistance is given to those in need in order that they may also have the opportunity to hear about God's word. There is some 'lip service' given to this by the org. but with little focus given to it.

agonus

Interesting take, Aguest.

Whether - or in what manner exactly - early Christians went "house to house" is probably up for debate, but I think we can all pretty much agree that the WT's recent illustrations of Jesus 'n' pals with scroll-filled bookbags are about as plausible as Adam and Eve strapping saddles to dinosaurs a la the Creation Museum.

THE GLADIATOR

Field service is a term that is normally applied to engineers. The Watchtower society's funding had come from its literature selling operations. Anyone familiar with cold canvassing, will be aware that the terms they use are straight out of American cold selling manuals.

Now the tower has had to stop asking for a fixed price from the public in order to maintain their tax free charity status. The members still have to pay for literature, even the magazines they give away. The congregation has to pay for all pamphlets ordered. So the presses keep rolling and the dollars pour in.

The congregations and kingdom halls do not belong to the Watchtower society. The Watchtower society is first and foremost a commercial publishing company that specialises in cold selling. They trick unpaid workers into distributing literature at their own expense, with the false promise of a reward that has never been delivered.

All this has nothing to do with Jesus or Christian ministry. Its all about the Watchtower societies worldly empire and their old testament, Hebrew desert god, Jehovah.

moshe

I'd rather have those mops, Moshe...

you are right, Ding, the householder would get some real good out of a nice mop- the wood handle comes in handy for thumping for warding off pesky JWs at your door, too. For the WT org, they equate more printing presses with more blessings from Jehoobah.

Is field service a biblical requirement?

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