RO -
" Pursue Divine Education"was the talk. Some key points are:
Ask yourself the question, "am I secretly hoping to prove wrong the warnings that have been given regarding Higher education?"
Am I trusting in Jesus words at Matt. 6:33? Manna was a not just a gift of food to the Israelites it was a lesson that God will take care of any need that we have. Higher education such as a college or university education has no value, it's expensive, and a sign of a lack of faith in Jehovah if you encourage your children to pursue. Look at Baruch's example and how he was seeking great things for himself. Printed Experience from a "brother" who went to college. He said, "I am incredibly sad that I wasted those years in college" College is a snake pit.
If an appointed man's children attend college, or if he encourages higher education his qualifications would automatically be reviewed by the entire BOE using the following questions. It is likely that he would no longer qualify for the privilege of service.
1. Does he show by his example that he is putting the Kingdom 1st?
2. Does he teach his family to put the Kingdom 1st?
3. Does he respect and obey what has been published by the FDS?
4. Do his speech and conduct reveal that he is a spiritual person?
5. How is this decision or attitude viewed by the congregation?
6. Why is his child pursuing higher learning?
7. Does his Family have theocratic goals?
8. Does this pursuit of learning push out meetings and service?
I am missing the last two questions.... does anyone else have them?
One point that was made was that once a child goes to college that many of them if not most, stop being active witnesses. This has got the branch on the defensive. I couldn't believe how negatively higher education was portrayed.
SIAM
You know I was having a pretty good day until reading this. Now I'm irritated, and hungry at that. Lunch isn't for another 2 hours at least. This is actually beautiful though. They remind of Jerry Glanville, the former coach of the Atlanta Falcons, and his famous comment to the referees when they made poor calls. "This is the NFL. You know what that means? Not For Long if you keep making lousy calls like that one." They keep pushing people between rocks and hard places, something's gotta give eventually. For the life of me, I'll never understand how these people keep watching their young people leave, 2/3 of their young people leave this religion, and they still want to blame it on romantic vampires, higher education, shopping, going out to eat, extreme sports, and video games. They just can't understand that people are doing all thats natural. They're looking to provide for themselves, they're looking to provide for a future family, they're looking for a wife or husband, they're looking for recreation. They're doing all that's natural for people to do, and those numbnuts in Bethel just can't seem to figure out that not everybody wants to pioneer, or become ministerial servants and elders. Nor should even want to in some cases.(James 3:1,2)
They're so out of touch that its actually laughable. My circuit assembly wasn't that long ago, and the DO mentioned in his prayer, and I kid you not! He mentioned in his prayer that it was a tragedy how many young people they've lost. It's a classic case of not seeing the forest through the trees. It's not the video games, or romantic vampires, the same way it wasn't the gangsta rap and heavy metal music 10 years ago, nor whatever boogie man they'll come up with next year. Its them! Its them! They just can't accept that. As far as the manna from the sky, yes Jehovah looked out for the Israelites in the wilderness. However to compare what Jehovah did for the Israelites, to the literature created by a religious publishing company too big for its britches is disrespectful to God. At the assembly, I noticed that the speakers made it a point to substitute Jehovah for themselves whenever possible. I don't even think it was intentional. They view their material as not coming from the minds of imperfect men, but rather from Jehovah. It's impossible to reason with them on higher education having any value when these delusional men believe that their literature is not from them, but rather from God. They view the meetings, assemblies, conventions, and even the family worship night as being provisions from Jehovah too.
You know, the more I think about it, it reminds me of Moses when he gave credit to himself and Aaron for producing water from the rock, instead of giving proper due to Jehovah. The only difference is, now the roles have been reversed. This WT organization makes decisions, creates doctrine, changes docrine, reverses decisions, sends this or that letter to the BOE, rescinds this letter, asks that letter be destroyed, and then they give credit to Jehovah for all of it. It really is a bizarre, twisted organization any more. It leaves their flock confused, it leaves the elders confused. It's more of an emotional nightmare built off of absolute authority and uniformity than any so called spiritual paradise. If this is a spiritual paradise, I cringe to think of their private thoughts on how they envision an actual physical paradise that they'll serve as kings and priests.