by why144000 54 Replies latest jw friends
The Watchtower is desperately trying to bring the number of partakers down at all costs, including the cost of common sense and logic.
It doesn't seem to matter that the Watchtower society should abstain from convincing attendees one way or the other, as the decision to partake is driven by the holy spirit.
He said the exact same at our Hall. It must have been in he script.
either we were all at the same Memorial, or it was in the script, because I heard it too.
gypsy sam,
you said: We had at least eight halls meet in one location, with over 1300 attending.
8 halls put together????? Are there that few attending???
Does the bible clearly say that only those who wish to be with him in heaven should partake of the symbolic emblems ?
My husbands hall has closed ( supposedlty to rebuild ....can we say mony laundring here? ... I digress) So they went along with other halls, I suppose, to a big school building and he said the parking lot was packed. It seems like a cunning way to get those R&F to believe the attendance is HUGE when they pull this type trickery on them. If each was at their own hall, I wonder how many empty chairs? I know the last time I went with my husband at thier hall about 3 years ago, there were empty chairs.
I will never attend another so I can't observe attendance anymore.
@Bobcat: why does the organization use a strange theology to exclude 99% of it's membership with poor reasoning and no support from the Bible? How can I explain to someone who is trapped by the Society's reasonings "I don't have the heavenly hope", "My heart tells me I am not part of the New Covenant" and "Jehovah made us to live on the Earth, not in the Heavenly realm." Whether we are going to Heaven or remain on the Earth as servants of God, how is the Watchtower able to adroitly rob people of a hope they have no authority to say "you are or you are not going to be with Christ in Heaven." What reasons would you use to help someone dependant on the Organization and are afraid to partake of the bread and wine out of fear.
Jehovah God said everyone would become part of his holy nation in Isaiah 56 including the eunuchs and non Isrealites. Jesus Christ must have known the promise his Father Jehovah God made to everyone, not a single individual was left out of the future blessings to come. I know I am not suppose to read literature outside of Organization's material but the Organization is silent on the "Quiet Centuries" 400 B.C.E. to John the Baptist's arrival.
It was during the period of Hellenistic influence the Jews became very paranoid and keep themselves as reasonably distant from the Gentiles as the social norms permitted. I think the silent period was scary because it felt like Jehovah had left Isreal, the prophecy of Daniel and the coming Messiah was hundreds of years in the future. The Jews must have been lonely, Greek influences (naked bathhouses, naked gyms, naked olympic events along with Greek religions and customs) were gobbling up the Jewish way of life. Antioch Epiphanes tried to eliminate all vestiges of the Jewish God, by killing a Pig on the alter, making it unclean and insulting the true God. How could the Jews remain faithful and clean when it seemed the World was absorbing all their culture?
1. Revolt against the religions of the day (now Christendom) and seclude yourself by socializing with your own people who believe what you believe.
2. Hide the name of the Most Holy God (Jehovah, Yahweh, ????) because of your fear of others using the name in vain.
3. Refining your religion to only allow those willing to undertake a "death mission" (Maccabean Revolt, Hycranus) with suicide missions against the Selucians and Jews that wanted to keep their position even cursing their own God. Fine members of the Revolt are like Pioneers and Publishers who preach and allow themselves to be caught by unfriendly rulers who would kill them, we have examples of Witnesses dying for no good reasons other than bragging rights for the Watchtower and their lazy hands unwillling to preach themselves (Do as I say, not as I do" Rutherford).
4. I heard one Jewish scholar say the leaders of the revolt and fight to return to a true religion, might have allowed the Jewish priests and Levites to promise the "fighters" a position of "ruler or receive a higher honor from Jehovah than the average rank and file Jew. Our modern day Pioneers and Publishers who died in the battle (like the brother who died handing out Invites, Bus Load Of Assembly Goers in Spain? ect...) are promised or it's hinted they might get a "better ressurection".
5. Luke 22:13-19 and Isaiah 56:1-14 teach all who are involved in the great spiritual war, are promised the same reward (less a few who Jehovah will allow to rule as kings and priests), when did Jesus Christ say that his Father changed his mind about treating all the same with some receiving a lessor reward? I am lost from the first poster's post, where do these men get crazy ideas like that? I did this research last night and tried to figure out when Jehovah started to seperate people into 'two classes', when did the words he had Isaiah write down change?
"I-Quit" said "A big part of the problem cults have when they make things up claiming some special knowledge is that they don't think things completely through and then find themselves in trouble trying to explain their position which usually leads to more lying and making more things up" All groups who screw up and over-predict and underdeliver make up excuses or say "New Light", "God is so kind he is providing more time for all the meek ones to enjoy eternal life. How many of you in this Kingdom Hall would not have been saved if Jehovah installed his king Jesus Christ in power in 1914? This loving provision make's you rejoice Jehovah is patient and waiting to gather as many meek and God fearing people as this wicked world is seconds away from destruction."
Isaiah 56: This is what the Lord says:
"Be just and fair to all.
Do what is right and good,
for I am coming soon to rescue you
and to display my righteousness among you.
2 Blessed are all those
who are careful to do this.
Blessed are those who honor my Sabbath days of rest
and keep themselves from doing wrong.
3 "Don't let foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord say,
'The Lord will never let me be part of his people.'
And don't let the eunuchs say,
'I'm a dried-up tree with no children and no future.'
4 For this is what the Lord says:
I will bless those eunuchs
who keep my Sabbath days holy
and who choose to do what pleases me
and commit their lives to me.
5 I will give them-within the walls of my house-
a memorial and a name
far greater than sons and daughters could give.
For the name I give them is an everlasting one.
It will never disappear!
6 "I will also bless the foreigners who commit themselves to the Lord,
who serve him and love his name,
who worship him and do not desecrate the Sabbath day of rest,
and who hold fast to my covenant.
7 I will bring them to my holy mountain of Jerusalem
and will fill them with joy in my house of prayer.
I will accept their burnt offerings and sacrifices,
because my Temple will be called a house of prayer for all nations.
8 For the Sovereign Lord,
who brings back the outcasts of Israel, says:
I will bring others, too,
besides my people Israel."
9 Come, wild animals of the field!
Come, wild animals of the forest!
Come and devour my people!
10 For the leaders of my people-
the Lord's watchmen, his shepherds-
are blind and ignorant.
They are like silent watchdogs
that give no warning when danger comes.
They love to lie around, sleeping and dreaming.
11 Like greedy dogs, they are never satisfied.
They are ignorant shepherds,
all following their own path
and intent on personal gain.
12 "Come," they say, "let's get some wine and have a party.
Let's all get drunk.
Then tomorrow we'll do it again
and have an even bigger party!"
The brother who gave the talk, said we are commanded to keep the Memorial until the "last member of the 144,000 is taken to heaven" and will end according to (1 Corth 11:26) and Matthew 25.
Yeah, it was in the outline.
Guess the soceity is really clamping down on those elders going off script.....
They mentioned that at the hall I went to as well.
The whole talk had logic gaps so big you could drive a truck through them.
Once again, folks, the discontinuance of the Memorial when Jesus "arrives" is the most logical part of the whole outline. The problem is that the WT says he "arrived" by taking deceased anointed ones up to heaven to be with him starting in 1914. Um, okay, so the next time a friend invites me over, and then calls me to see why I haven't arrived yet, I'll say "I thought you were coming over here. Once you get here, we'll be in the same place, and I'll have arrived", and see how that goes over.
Roberta804, we rented a facility for ours. I haven't been able to get the exact amount of congregations attending, but could see at least eight, as we were in assigned areas. The total count was 1341 for all attending.
