The New Diary of Winston Smith

by WinstonSmith 336 Replies latest jw experiences

• 

  WinstonSmith

  So here are some things I picked up from the meeting this week....

  Congregation Bible Study:

  • Let our Yes mean Yes? What about Franz during the Walsh trial? (See my post above).
  • Experience from Chile: Do you think Jehovah answered the sister's prayer, or that it was just coincidence the same lady was at the same train station at the same hour as the previous day? As a brother said in our congregation "her prayer was heard by God." When I ride the train to work, I'm almost always at the same train station at the same hour as previous days, and there is no divine providence in that. I often chat with a guy from the Salvation Army. Maybe I'm the answer to his prayer since I'm the same guy at the same station at the usual time...?
  • Paragraph 18 finishes with "Our efforts at giving a witness should prove how much we love our wonderful God as well as people, who are created in his image." Funny how there is no scripture placed at the end of this sentence to support this thought scripturally. Maybe its because there is no scripture that says that our efforts in a ministry show much we love God. In the WT world greater effort is indicative of greater spirituality.

  Ministry School

  • In talk 3, the sister said "Jehovah blessed their efforts to clean the ethnic groups from the land of Canaan." Sounds like a hairs breadth away from Jehovah approving ethnic cleansing. Oh wait, he did!

  Service Meeting Magazine talk: The brother giving the talk said "the thing that struck me about the January 1st WT was the realistic cover." This is the one with the fireball coming down from the sky. He went on to say that there was a lot of empty talk last year fixated on dates of the end of the world. Every audience comment on this magazine mocked those that had set dates. Oh the short memory of Jehovah's Witnesses....the irony hurts.
• 

  WinstonSmith

  Here are some points to keep in mind as you consider the Watchtower study article for this week:

  Cultivate the Spirit of a Lesser One

  - Paragraph 5: After relating the example of Leo who trained as an astrophysicist and lawyer, the paragraph asks "Despite his background, what has helped Leo to conduct himself as a lesser one?" Note how the WTS subtly implies that those who are well educated are haughty? Despite his background he was still able to be humble. What's implied is that people who are well educated have difficulty being humble.

  - Paragraph 7: Do you think that David was hoping Jehovah's shield would protect him while he was shagging Bathsheba and arranging the death of her husband?

  - Paragraph 7: Do you think the GB were conducting themselves as lesser ones when they signed bibles for public officials in Cuba? WT 99 5/15 page 8. - Paragraph 8: So in other words unhappiness or discomfort at organisational policies is a sign of a lack of humility. Interestingly there are no scriptures in this paragraph. Might it be because there isn't one that backs up this thought? - Paragraph 9: Surely as Christians and lovers of God the bible should be our main source of spiritual food. Note how in this paragraph the bible is mentioned ever so briefly, then the rest of the paragraph discusses how beneficial the WT, AW and other publications are. Its obvious where the priorities are. Reminds me of Russell's comments about reading the Studies in the Scriptures. - Paragraph 17: Starts off with "to apologize is difficult for most people" the GB are certainly qualified to make this statement. Time and again they have refused to apologise for their mistakes. On the few occasions when they do attempt this, they make it seem like the publishers fault and that there is no error on their part.
• 

  WinstonSmith

  So I'm reading In Search of Christian Freedom at the moment. It's quite different to Crisis of Conscience, and I'm really getting into it. Over the last couple of days I've been reading in it about how the Christian congregation slowly changed from being a collection of like minded people to being an authoritarian structure. Now we see power in the hands of a chosen few, and it is these ones that dictate what others are to believe.

  Coincidentally, tonight I read Ephesians 5. After giving advice to the individuals in the congregation to be mindful about walking wisely (vs 15), Paul goes on to say in vs 17 that people should "go on perceiving what the will of Jehovah is." I note here that it was up to the individual to do the perceiving, not someone up the hierachical foodchain.

  Jehovah's Witnesses pride themselves on being set up in a similar way to the Christian congregation in the first century. A review of history and scriptures however shows that they are in fact far from it.
• 

  00DAD

  Winston: Jehovah's Witnesses pride themselves on being set up in a similar way to the Christian congregation in the first century. A review of history and scriptures however shows that they are in fact far from it.

  Exactly!

  Have you seen Cedars recent thread on this point:

  • Are Jehovah's Witnesses a hierarchical religion?
• 

  tornapart

  Winston, I love reading your experiences with sister T. I'm having the same experience with my best friend. It's wonderful seeing those 'light bulb' moments when something you say clicks in place and you can almost see the cogs in the brain working! We had an hour long chat today and I mentioned about the 'present truths' and said how can truth change? It's either truth or it isn't. That was a light bulb moment for her. I also asked her who gave the FDS their title? Was it Jesus or themselves? Where in the bible does it say they are the FDS. That was another light bulb moment for her. It's awesome! I've waited and bided my time before I started telling her things. Something happened a few weeks ago to affect her and made her start asking questions. Now she's having serious doubts and of course I'm there to help her! She told me she only wants to carry on going for her family's sake. I told her me too. It feels such a burden has fallen off me having someone else I can share all my doubts and fears with in the real world, it's been a pretty lonely place up till now! Now it feels I have someone I can really share things with!!
• 

  RayPublisher

  Torn apart it is such wonderful news for you and your friend. Keep it up, and tell us more as it develops!
• 

  WinstonSmith

  00DAD: I really enjoyed the thread and blog post from Cedars. It would not be hard to imagine that in the near future the Bodies of Elders will get a letter specifying the type of chairs they can have in their back meeting rooms. Any attempt to get nice ergonomic chairs on wheels will be viewed as a sign of rebellion against the Slave. Only the best chairs can be used by them. Based on recently discovered manuscripts, the new light is that this is in fact the 'crown of glory' mentioned in the scriptures :-P

  Tornapart: Wow, that is fantastic news! I echo RayP's advice to keep it up. It is a real challenge to not dump all our newfound knowledge and understanding on others. Helping a cult addled mind is a delicate task. Good on ya mate, keep us updated.
• 

  WinstonSmith

  This week's WT study is a fine example of the absurdity of applying individual bible examples to the modern day. As you go through it, think how modern day elders or the WTS would react to someone engaging in the activities described....

  WT Study: What Does Jehovah's Forgiveness Mean for You?

  - Theme scripture: Such a shame elders often don't follow this example. - Paragraph 3-5: If someone today spied on a sister, got into a relationship with her, got her pregnant, then arranged for her husband to die so they could be together, what would the reaction of the elders be? Forgiveness, or disfellowshipping? - Paragraph 6: Was David repentant because he was sorry, or because he got busted? - Paragraph 6: It says here that Jehovah sent Nathan to David because he was interested in extending mercy. When two elders are assigned to investigate a matter, are they doing so with a view to extending mercy, or to establish guilt? - Paragraph 8: Psalm 32:5 is used here. Notice how in that scripture, David says that he confessed and did not cover his transgresion. Would you say David is being truthful here? Did he, of his own volition confess, or was it only after he got busted? - Paragraph 10: Do you think Jehovah's show of mercy was based on how David had shown to mercy to Saul, or because he had promised to bring the messiah through the family line of this adulterous scheming murderer? All I learn from this is that if the moody Old Testament God Jehovah decides to be on your team, you can get away with anything. - Paragraph 12: Is Manesseh an ancient example of the saying "there are no atheists in the foxholes"? Again, when did he show repentance? Off his own volition, or after things went really bad for him? - Paragraphs 17 and 18: James 5:14,15 is used here to show that sinners should confess to the elders. But read it again. The phrase used is "older men" do you think this is talking about a position in the congregation, or a level of maturity?
• 

  00DAD

  Winston, I was about to answer your many very thought-provoking questions above, but something makes me think you already know the answers!
• 

  WinstonSmith

  Yes indeedy, I like to get the grey matter churning. Amazing, this is the same old junk the WTS has been serving up for years, yet only in the last couple have I ever drilled deeper.

  The mind is a wonderful (and scary) thing.