Rutherford's Doctrines are Dead and so are the Reasons for JWs House-to-House Ministry

by AndersonsInfo 23 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  AndersonsInfo

  Thanks to everyone who posted their thoughts about my article. That's why I love to discuss this research on JWN because so many of you take my material and run with it, and not only do I learn, but I get more material to do research on.

  Farkel, thank you for reminding us about the mysticism connected with the three major doctrines of mainline Christian religions. Your points are well taken.

  Simon's true-life experience proves what we've all been saying these past few years—JWs can't keep up with all the refinements, clarifications, new light, increased light, flashes of light, modification, alteration, reinterpretation, fine-tuning, up-dating, etc. No wonder Witnesses really don't want to go there in their heads because then they will have to admit something is horribly wrong with their religion.

  Life is to short: Wow, timing is everything. I must have had a flash of light to nail exactly how JWs think! Guess my 43 years as a Witness helped out. Actually, my observation was based on what I told myself after another, and another, and yet another "flash of light" was published or announced at a convention.

  BluesBrother: I thought the same thing as MrMonroe did about the paragraphs from the July 15, 2008 Watchtower magazine that you posted. I also found it quite odd that the material didn't say anything about the Kingdom, yet the discussion was centered on the reasons for preaching which in the past was primarily to announce the good news of the Kingdom.

  Now it appears that the Witnesses responsibility is to tell about the "good news." Good news about what? The scripture the WT writer quoted is from 2 Thess. 1:7, 8 which states the good news is about our Lord Jesus, something most non-Witnesses in the Western world already know about and a subject most Witnesses can't carry on a basic discussion about. It's difficult for Witnesses to talk about Jesus, almost like the words are cursed. Now ask them about "Jehovah" and they relax!

  What struck me about the most important reason for preaching: "Rendering 'a sacrifice of praise' to Jehovah is our foremost reason for preaching publicly and from house to house" is that the emphasis is different. It's certainly not like it was in the past when we all went out door-to-door to save others, no matter if it was rain or shine, or we were aged or sick. Going out in the ministry because it’s a Witnesses responsibility to have people judged on their response to the good news is not exactly a joyous thing to do, even though they might think they are praising Jehovah’s name by doing it.

  Is that last reason, or as the writer called it, "the foremost reason," reason enough to keep JWs zealously preaching? They might go out door-to-door because it’s a requirement for gaining a little recognition from other Witnesses, but few JWs can convert anybody to a religion that nobody within it is quite sure what the beliefs are because they change so much. JWs might not believe in Christendom's three big ones, but what Witness today wants to bring up any one of those three doctrines to anyone they meet in their so-called ministry work because very few of them are able to fluently discuss the subjects.

  Barb
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  Bungi Bill

  Its only function now is to serve as a stick with which to beat the rank and file with:

  - also, to help keep them exhausted, and less likely to be able to think for themselves.

  (Does it remind anybody else about Christ's comments - "skinned and thrown about like sheep without a shepherd.")

  Bill.
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  OBVES

  Click on http://www.focusonthebible2011.com and see dates in the endtime era we live how they are related to the times when Jesus and his first disciples lived and taught a new , true christian religion .

  7 BC = 1879 AD ; 2 BC = 1884 AD; 29 AD - 33 AD - 36 AD = 1914 AD -1918 AD - 1921 AD.

  Notice ideal same time gaps between the dates.

  The International Bible Students Association revived the true christian religion and Jehovah's Witnesses by holding on to the name watchtower became their legitimate successors.
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  MrMonroe

  In his "Apocalypse Delayed", Jim Penton commented (p.298) on the WTS's use of witnessing as a device to reduce the levels of dissent within its ranks. He quotes Robert P. Carroll ("When Prophecy Failed: Cognitive Dissonance in the Prophetic Tradition of the Old Testament") who wrote:

  "One of the major ways in which dissonance may be reduced is for a group committed to a certain set of cognitive beliefs to engage in proselytizing activities."

  Penton notes that strategy is:

  "...something which Witness leaders have evidently recognized since Russell's day and recently stressed again ... as noted by sociologists Festinger, Riecken and Schachter in 1956 and Robert Carroll 20 years later: 'As more and more believers join the group the strength of the dissonance-producing event is steadily eroded and becomes less and less a source of significant cognitive dissonance'. This is, however, only one way in which proselytizing may be important. By encouraging believers to engage in it, the society knows they will have less time and energy to concern themselves with 'heretical' thoughts. Hence, Witness leaders have recently placed strong emphasis on the preaching work and have urged ordinary Witnesses to 'keep busy in the work of the Lord'."

  And ain't that so? I recall in the 1980s, as a freshly baptized Witness, becoming more absorbed in the whole Witness myth by mere virtue of having to explain it myself. When you discern gaps in the story, you make haste to paper over them yourself as you deliver it. Even towards the end of my term as a Witness, I had a months-long Bible study with two women and I remember commenting to the woman I took to the study that it may not have benefited the students much, but boy, it helped reinforce my own belief. Why? Because I had to deliver it in a convincing way! It makes me feel so stupid now that I thought that way.

  Back in 1966 the Watchtower pointed out: "To help to protect his people today from the false course of mingling with the nations and learning their works, Jehovah has made arrangements through his organization for his people to spend five hours each week at congregational meetings." (Jan 15, pg 44). It's a curiously ambiguous statement. Were those five hours a week necessary for the training, or was the point of the exercise the five hours themselves, keeping the Witnesses at meetings instead of allowing them to be at home or at the sportsground or picture theatre? Since Rutherford's day the WTS has always wanted to keep its people busy. The busier they are, the less time they have to think and examine.

  Therefore any reason to keep the Witnesses witnessing is valid. Make them feel guilty, make them feel obliged. Anything to keep them out there and active.