by Room 215 13 Replies latest jw friends
Calling all JW lurkers:
After the Bible (I assume you all agree that it's a Christian's single most important souce of information), what's the next most important publication? How many of you agree that it's a concordance? How many of you know what a concordance is?
Room 215,
: What 'Study Aid is the best?
I heartily recommend "The Finished Mystery," not to be confused with "Then is Finished the Mystery of God" which shows the mystery wasn't finished when it was finished, but rather finished when it was "then" finished. Oh, neverminid.
At least "The Finished Mystery" helps explain the deep truths of a Bible in such a way that it all makes sense: Crocodiles are really locomotives and wine presses are really the street car system in New York. It was a darn good book because Jesus' parable of the "penny" was directly fulfilled with its publication. And even Jesus was wrong: "The Finished Mystery" in good condition (try to get one with the pages cut out when JFR compromised his spiritual integrity with the US government) is worth a lot of money these days.
If nothing else, it makes a handy reading companion if one is inclined to indulge in those funny mushrooms.
Ok, ok. I'll shut up!
Farkel
Edited by - Farkel on 7 July 2002 15:15:32
Hi Room 215,
As a JW I knew what a concordance was and so did my children. So did my sisters, my mother, my PO, my Book Study conductor, and my friends.
And yes, they did use it.
IW
What an oxymoron (no, not you Farkel ). If a mystery is finished, it's no longer a mystery and its meaning is obvious to all, but if not, then it's still a mystery. But providing mysterious explanations to unfinished mysteries is an FDS specialty.
As for study aids, why? FDS sees all, tells all, judges all. Try using ANY study aid to reason w/WTS, but masochism is a prerequisite. The main thing a KH library is used for is for committee meetings.
IW: I'm surprised! In my 40 yrs, I saw maybe 6 dubs that even had/used a Bible other than NWT, and even then only if it provided an "agreeable" reading. For myself, I studied in and commented about the Bible in Greek, Hebrew, Latin, German and Russian. My sincere Bible study was tolerated (sometimes even appreciated) when it agreed w/WTS, but was worthless when in even the slightest disagreement w/ "revealed truth."
Mystified One,
Craig
The best sudy aid is what you know to be right and wrong ("I want kindness"). The Spirit confirms what you understand to be really Good News, Gospel (God's spell), a refreshment of wonder.
But that's not really how it is, is it. People want to nail Him down so they can continue to do things that are less honourable than is meant for them.
Bang
Edited by - Bang on 7 July 2002 22:19:33
Farkle, I recently got the old fm book. do you know which pages were removed? ........thanx
I always used my Concordance; still do, when I need to find some Dub point and quote from the NWT.
From what I saw, Dubs were encouraged to use it, but whether they actually did is another matter, eh?
It seems to me......... the problem is more about them being free to do open research, not simply limit themselves to looking into WTS publications to "prove" Dub theology.
Conversations I've had in recent years lead me to think that the Dubs themselves hold the "Greatest Man" book in the highest regard, believeing that this gives a "non-doctrinal" view of Christ and his ministry. Of course, we know it does no such thing, but it's still interesting to hear that view. Interesting too that the dubs should hold a book about Jesus in such high regard. This highlights what is lacking in Dubdom, a full realisation of the role of Jesus. But I guess we don't want to hear that!
Our brother Farks gave one example of the bizarre. How about this modern one:
In the "Daniel" book the "ships of Kittim" (Dan. 11:30) are said by the WTS to be the ships of the British navy lying off the west coast of Europe in the First World War! Well, we all knew that, didn't we?
Cheers, Ozzie
Ozziepost, You are probably right that witnesses hold the greatest man with such high regard. That's why they all complained about it when it had to be studied again. Now I bet they wish they were studying it again instead of Isaiah.
Hi all; thanks for your contributions to this thread. I raise this point because for me, the Concordance was my most valuable Bible study aid, hands down... still is. My point is that I believe mine is a minority view, since few JWs delve as deeply into the Bible itself as they do their precious bound volumes... have you noticed lately how often the Sunday speakers quote verbatim from some bound volume ? This was a definite ``no-no'' back when I was on the Bethel speaking list; ``use these publications for background and research'' our counselers cautioned us; ``read only from the Bible.'' I
t's been stated here on this forum that there are 50,000 verses in the Bible, but that JW theology relies on only about 200 of them. Since I'm not about to take a personal count, can any of you out there vouch for the reliability of those estimates? best regards, Room 215
Room 215,
: Since I'm not about to take a personal count, can any of you out there vouch for the reliability of those estimates?
I cannot vouch for it, but I did read some years back that someone took the time to discover that WTS only quotes about 2% of the Bible. I would suspect that Matt 24:14 and Rev. 21:3,4 are used 70% of the time by most dubs, though.
Of course, I can remember when we had Bible readings in the KMS in which the entire Bible was read over the course of time. Bible readings were incredibly boring. When I was 14 years old I was assigned to read Leviticus 13-17 in front of the congregation. That was child abuse. Those chapters are pretty gross and makes anything KJV has said on this former look like kid's stuff.
Farkel
