As Proficient Jehovah Witness Apologist go, In mine probably a handful and most were either elders or SP.
The only problem was they were trained only in WTS. doctrines which shouldn't be taken as having an indepth bible theologian standard.
by Bubblegum Apotheosis 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
As Proficient Jehovah Witness Apologist go, In mine probably a handful and most were either elders or SP.
The only problem was they were trained only in WTS. doctrines which shouldn't be taken as having an indepth bible theologian standard.
I doubt there is more than a couple in a complete circuit. Most that become proficient leave.
How can someone be a baptized JW for forty five years and be stupid regarding "The Trintiy, Hell Fire, First Century Culture, Church Father's teachings, Rapture, Heaven, reasons for defending the reliability of Bible Texts."?
In my experience, the JW's that extensively know Watchtower doctrine, only know it from Watchtower information. The information in the Watchtower on all of the above topics is dishonest and inaccurate. I was stunned when I first starting looking into this information at how completely ignorant I was, and now everytime I speak with a JW apologist am stunned at how completely ignorant they are about the above topics.
But I guess I don't count, I'm not an apologist.
What JWFACTS said above mirrors my experience and feelings.
The most frustrating part of the entire JW experience is how incredibly dumb and ignorant they all are. You can't reason with the, because they know almost nothing.
The greater question for this thread would be "how many in each congregation have actually read the Bible?" --- I venture to say maybe 1-2 out of 150 publishers in each congregation. No, I'm not kidding.
Now imagine that: you are considered a pilot because your peers call you one....... however, you've never flown an airplane, read a manual or been to flight school............
.................who wants to get on that plane???
Yes...I was in field service one time with this older sister, perhaps in her fifties. She was raised a Witness. She had never read the Bible through. I was shocked. People are too busy reading the stream of magazines and books to really sit down and read the Bible...despite the admonishment to do so.
You're right Londo........I was FOREVER stunned at how no one.....including my own family, had ever read the Bible.
I served with 40 different elders............2 of them had read the Bible.
Now imagine you hand your kid over to a surgeon who hasn't read a medical text..............yeah, but they claim spirituality is more important. Never mind that the chief surgeons have never read the book.
Its so absurd its surreal.
The first time (and only time) I read the Bible cover to cover was at Bethel, as it was a requirement, to be done in the first 12 months. But I have to admit that since it was forced, I read the words as fast as I could, without absorbing almost any of it. I would read pages of the Old Testament without registering a word of what was there. I was probably one of the few that had read the Bible in the congregation, but it was hardly done properly. Yet there was barely a word in any Watchtower publication that I did not read.
Few of today's JW's are acquainted with -- much less use -- a concordance; or the Kingdom Interlinear Greek Scriptures, a WTBTS publication, of which more than 800,000 per produced, is out of print... efforts by some individuals to learn something of Biblical languages-- once considered commendable -- is now disparaged.
I've been going through the Interlinear, comparing the transliteration to the NWT, noting any major differences, and then doing a version compare on those verses with the Bible app on my phone. I just finished the book of Mark.
I am curious as to why the Society produced it. Unless, they were counting on Witnesses just putting it on their shelf, which is what many do. Purple/blue is a nice color. But even though I am finding there is no perfect translation, an examination of the Interlinear does reveal that the NWT is not what it claims to be.