My Wife is reading "Learn From a Great Teacher" to my oldest daughter.

by garyneal 36 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Scully
    Scully

    carla:

    I don't remember all the details of what is in that chapter

    Let me refresh your memory:

    Chapters 8 and 9 introduce the concept of Satan and the demons, and how they want us to do things and are happy when we do things that make mommy and daddy (and Jehovah and Jesus) very sad. Things like taking a nibble of food from what is being served for dinner after your mother tells you to wait.

    Chapter 10 is entitled Jesus' Power over the Demons (keep in mind that the -- following a question is intended to introduce a pause where the child answers the question in his or her own words.)

    Do you remember why one of God's angels became Satan the Devil? -- It was his selfish desire to be worshiped that caused him to turn against God. Did other angels become followers of Satan? -- Yes, they did. The Bible calls them 'Satan's angels,' or demons. - Revelation 12:9.

    Do these bad angels, or demons, believe in God? - 'The demons believe God exists,' the Bible says. (James 2:19) But now they are afraid. This is because they know that God will punish them for the bad things they have done. What have they done wrong? --

    The Bible says that those angels left their own proper home in heaven and came to earth to live as men. They did this because they wanted to have sex relations with the pretty women on earth. (Genesis 6:1, 2; Jude 6) What do you know about sex relations? --

    Sex relations are when a man and a woman become close in a very special way. Afterward, a baby can grow inside the mother. But for angels to have sex relations is wrong. God wants only a man and a woman who are married to each other to have sex relations. That way if a baby is born, the husband and wife can take care of it.

    When angels took human bodies and had sex with women on earth, their babies grew up to become giants. They were very mean, and they would hurt people. So God brought a great flood to destroy the giants and all the bad people. But he had Noah build an ark, or big boat, to save the few people who did what was right. The Great Teacher said that what happened at the Flood is important to remember. - Genesis 6:3, 4, 13; Luke 17:26, 27.

    When the Flood came, do you know what happened to the bad angels? -- They stopped using the human bodies they had made, and they went back to heaven. But they could no longer be God's angels, so they became angels of Satan, or demons. And what happened to their children, the giants? -- They died in the Flood. And so did all the other people who did not obey God.

    Since the time of the Flood, God has not let the demons become humans anymore. But even though we cannot see them, the demons still try to get people to do very bad things. They are causing more trouble than ever before. This is because they have been thrown out of heaven down to the earth.

    Do you know why we cannot see the demons? -- It is because they are invisible. But we can be sure that they are alive. The Bible says that Satan is 'misleading people in all the world,' and his demons are helping him. - Revelation 12:9, 12.

    Can the Devil and his demons mislead, or fool, us too? -- Yes, they can if we are not careful. But we do not need to be afraid. The Great Teacher said: 'The Devil has no hold on me.' If we keep close to God, he will protect us from the Devil and his demons. - John 14:30.

    It is important that we know what bad things the demons will try to get us to do. So think about it. What bad things did the demons do when they came to earth? - Before the Flood, they had sex relations with women, soemthing that was not right for angels to do. Today the demons like it when people do not obey God's law about sex relations. Let me ask you, Who only should have sex relations? -- You are right, only married people.

    Today some young boys and girls have sex relations, but this is wrong for them. The Bible talks about the male "genital organ," or penis. (Leviticus 15:1-3) The female genital parts are called the vulva. Jehovah created these parts of the body for a special purpose that should be enjoyed only by married people. It makes the demons happy when people do things that are forbidden by Jehovah. For example, the demons like it when a boy and a girl play with each other's penis or vulva. We don't want to make the demons happy, do we? --

    There is something else that the demons like but Jehovah hates. Do you know what it is? Violence. (Psalm 11:5) Violence is when people are mean and hurt others. Remember that is what the giants, the sons of the demons, did.

    The demons also like to scare people. Sometimes they pretend to be people who have died. They may even imitate voices of those who have died. In this way the demons fool many people into believing that dead people are alive and can talk with the living. Yes, the demons cause many people to believe in ghosts.

    So we must be on guard that Satan and his demons do not fool us. The Bible warns: 'Satan tries to make himself look like a good angel, and his servants to the same.' (2 Corinthians 11:14, 15) But, really, the demons are bad. Let's see how they may try to get us to be like them.

    Where to people learn a lot about violence and improper sex and spirits and ghosts? -- Isn't it from watching certain television shows and movies, playing computer games, going on the Internet, and reading comic books? Does doing these things bring us closer to God or closer to the Devil and his demons? What do you think? --

    Who do you think wants us to listen to and watch bad things? -- Yes, Satan and his demons do. So, what do you and I need to do? -- We need to read, listen to, and watch things that are good for us and that will help us to serve Jehovah. Can you think of some of these good things that we can do? --

    If we do what is good, t here is no reason to be afraid of the demons. Jesus is stronger than they are, and they are afraid of him. One day the demons cried out to Jesus: "Did you come to destroy us?" (Mark 1:24) Won't we be happy when the time comes for Jesus to destroy Satan and his demons? -- In the meantime, we can be sure that Jesus will protect us from the demons if we keep close to him and his heavenly Father.

    Let's read about what we need to do, at 1 Peter 5:8, 9 and James 4:7, 8.

  • Scully
    Scully

    PSacramento

    No, there weren't only TWO birthdays mentioned in the Bible.

    The book of Job discusses how Job's sons had feasts in honour of "their own day" (Job 1:4). And Job was one of the best buddies of Jehovah, even after Jehovah allowed him to be tested with the loss of everything he ever had, and still Job would not curse god and die.

  • carla
    carla

    ok, so when they read this, "the demons like it when a boy and a girl play with each other's penis or vulva" "that should be enjoyed only by married people." , you know the first thing I can imagine a kid asking? "Mommy, does this mean you and daddy play with each other's penis and vulva?"

    jw's also forget a very important birthday in which all the angels rejoiced ie..celebrate. Celebrations can mean many different things.

  • Scully
    Scully

    Carla

    "Mommy, does this mean you and daddy play with each other's penis and vulva?"

    I can imagine the answer too: "No, because we don't need any more babies."

  • carla
    carla

    yeah, I suppose so. Poor jw's, don't know what they are missing. every jw needs a ubm! yep! that's it! having a ubm is GOOD for your jw marriage!

  • Scully
    Scully

    Isn't this a much better scare tactic?

  • cantleave
  • cantleave
    cantleave

    That book is an abomination.

    Gary make sure you are involved and veto when required.

    When I was child these book made me fearful of everthing and eroded my self esteem.

    The WTS's literature is powerful, don't underestimate it's effect on young impressionable mindsd.

  • moshe
    moshe

    They just don't get it-- - I suppose, if the beheading occured at a wedding anniversary party, JWs would be opposed to them, too. Except, that poor people had no clue back then when their wedding anniversay was, either. Calendars were for the rich and powerful, who could read and understood math.

    Calendars that keep repeating birthdays in the same season every year did not exist for most ancient peoples, either-

    "The Egyptian year had twelve months, each of thirty days, plus an extra five days at the end of the year. These five days were associated with the birthdays of the greatest gods of the Egyptian pantheon and were given over to celebrations.

    Thus the year was 365 days long. The Egyptians made no attempt to force their calendar to keep step with the actual seasons, as we do by adding leap-days. Instead, they accepted that the seasons would gradually become later and later with respect to the calendar, in a cycle that would take 1460 years to complete"

    Poor farmers and shepherds couldn't read and probably only knew what season or moon they were born in, so there is a good reason why the Bible only mentions birthdays with rulers and kings- only they had priests to keep track of the days and who could understand a calendar. To be able to know for a certainty what day of the calendar you were born on meant you were a person born into a family of status and wealth.

  • garyneal
    garyneal

    I'll be back to read the comments more thorough later.

    Thanks for the feedback so far.

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