Talk by a Branch Overseer

by Defender 16 Replies latest jw friends

  • Defender
    Defender

    A Branch Overseer of an Asian country who happened to be visiting some of his family members in our area, gave a talk this evening in the Hall that I used to attend. I have not been attending meetings for months, but decided to go when my mother, a devout JW, came to visit me last week.

    The Branch Overseer had just returned from attending the annual meeting in New York. His talk was Do You Have an Evangelizing Spirit. I paid more than the usual attention to the talk and here are some of the highlights and my own comments in brackets.

    JWs are well known worldwide for their knock-on-the-door preaching.

    JWs are commissioned to preach from the highest authority Jehovah God himself.

    JWs are driven by the Holy Spirit and the angels to preach out of love of neighbor and not for selfish reasons

    Jesus was the ultimate preacher and he commanded his disciples to go out and make disciples.

    The apostle Paul preached

    We are in the 21 century and things are getting worse.

    Today, Jesus is enthroned in heaven since 1914 and is having his agent on earth the Faithful and Discreet Slave carry on the feeding and organizing the preaching efforts .

    It is imperative to have the sense of urgency to preach

    We need to more than double the efforts in comparison with the Israelites marching around once every day BUT SEVEN times the seventh day.

    Do you have an evangelizing spirit; in the full time ministry or part time? Jehovah will bless your efforts.

    (Throughout the whole talk, the speaker never alluded as to what exactly is the message that suddenly deserves a great urgency to preach. Apart from indirect inferences to imminent destruction and everlasting life, he never gave details as to what constitutes good news.

    JWs put a lot of emphasis on the means and not on the ends. For JWs, the actual preaching activity is of itself an act of worship to Jehovah. The act of attending meetings, preparing and underlining the Watchtower or other study publications, placing a tract or a magazine, doing return visits, submitting their monthly service record are all acts of rendering worship to Jehovah.

    While all the above may sound impressive and may appeal to the uninformed, however there is one tiny problem with all of this. It is the message. What JWs are preaching today is not what Christ or his apostles preached in the first century. What JWs are teaching and what they are studying is not inline with what Jesus and the apostles taught. Even their adopted name is a misnomer as Christians need to be witnesses to Christ and not Jehovah. JWs openly admit that their message is different from the first century version and yet fail to see the grave implications. When Christ in Mat 24:14, an oft quoted scripture by JWs, referred to THIS good news of the Kingdom he was talking about the message that he and later the apostles were duly engaged in preaching. He was not referring to some altered or embroidered message that would surface some 2000 years later in Allegheny Pennsylvania .

    Not only that, but the message that the Society has been preaching had undergone and still does today continual updating and restructuring. What Russell started with back in 1874 is nowhere near what JWs preach today. Whereas, the message that Jesus Christ and later his apostles preached and that is recorded for us in the NT remains unchanged.

    It is this unchanging testimony of Christ and his apostles that condemn JWs message as sectarian, biased and detractive. And all the preaching activities, the meeting attendance, and the preparations would therefore become an exercise in futility.

    Here is a sample of the ever changing message of JWs:

    The indisputable facts, therefore, show that the "time of the end" began in 1799; that the Lord's second presence began in 1874. Watchtower March 1, 1922

    Also, in the year 1918, when God destroys the churches wholesale and the church members by millions, it shall be that any that escape shall come to the works of Pastor Russell to learn the meaning of the downfall of "Christianity." The Finished Mystery Pages 484-485

    Even the republics will disappear in the fall of 1920.... Every kingdom of earth will pass away, be swallowed up in anarchy The Finished Mystery page 258

    Therefore we may confidently expect that 1925 will mark the return of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the faithful prophets of old. Millions Now Living Will Never Die, 1920 Edition, said on pages 89-90:

    There can be no more question about 1925 than there was about 1914. Watchtower May 15, 1922

    This chronology is not of man, but of God. Being of divine origin and divinely corroborated, present-truth chronology stands in a class by itself, absolutely and unqualifiedly correct....Watchtower July 15, 1922

    Are we to assume from this study that the battle of Armageddon will be all over by the autumn of 1975, and the long-looked-for thousand-year reign of Christ will begin by then? Possibly It may involve only a difference of weeks or months, not years. Watchtower, August 15, 1968 page 499

    "Jehovah's prophetic word through Jesus Christ is: 'This generation [of 1914] will by no means pass away until all things occur.' (Luke 21:32) And Jehovah, who is the source of inspired an unfailing prophecy, will bring about the fulfillment."--The Watchtower,May 15, 1984, pgs. 6-7

    Honest hearted JWs need only to reevaluate the message that they are preaching and compare it with that of the apostles to see the glaring differences. Upon close inspection, they will realize that the Good News preached by Christ and his apostles is much simpler than all their 120+ years of never ending stream of ever-changing publications. Actually, the Good News preached by Christ and the apostles would nicely fit in one paragraph. Yet, when one fully grasps it, its power is more than anyone can imagine. Its implication is far greater than knowledge of imminent destruction or everlasting life on paradise earth. )

    Edited by - Defender on 13 October 2002 3:31:57

    Edited by - Defender on 13 October 2002 3:32:56

    Edited by - Defender on 13 October 2002 3:44:32

    Edited by - Defender on 13 October 2002 3:46:16

  • neyank
    neyank

    You're right Defender.

    The 'Good News' the WTS teaches is not the same as the Good News taught by Jesus and the Apostles.

    The 'good news' the WTS is and has been teaching is that the human race will be wiped out. All accept the JWs. and even if you're a JW, you still might be wiped out if you don't do more, more,more ect....
    So the only way you might survive is to become a JW and adhere to all the rules and requirements put upon the JWs.

    Does that wrap up what the 'good news' is that the JWs teach?

    neyank

  • Kingpawn
    Kingpawn

    The 1799 date is also mentioned in The Harp of God (1921 edition, page 230). And yet, barely a year later, they're claiming 1925 just as infallibly as they'd claimed 1914 was the date!

    Sounds more like a new calendar than new light.

    Edited by - Kingpawn on 13 October 2002 8:12:35

  • gumby
    gumby

    What JWs are preaching today is not what Christ or his apostles preached in the first century.

    I told a witness friend some time ago to go through the N.T. and specifically look for .....what the good news was. I told him to use no outside info., only the bible.

    Needless to say he never did. My point is....from a Biblical perspective....the good news revolved around Jesus, what he did and said.

    No mention of magnifying his fathers name or telling people about a Paradise earth. It was that....belief in him would absolve people from their sins and give them life if they would believe.

  • Cygnus
    Cygnus

    Since the WT is a quasi-eschatological sect that believes in progressive understanding of God's purposes, there is no blaming them for constructing a more contemporarily relevant message for today's world.

    The only fair criticism that could be made against the WT's teachings in this regard (i.e. what the "good news of the kingdom" means) is if you claim that the "end" occurred in 70 CE.

  • minimus
    minimus

    Cyngus,that sounds like the Society can do or say anything because they "believe in progressive understanding of God's purposes."

  • Defender
    Defender

    Cygnus

    You wrote: "...there is no blaming them for constructing a more contemporarily relevant message for today's world."

    Yes, but does that make it any relevant. The question that needs to be asked is this: Is the ever-changing message being preached by JW constitutes the will of Jehovah or his Christ? A quick glance at the history of the Society's publication will quickly resolve this issue.

    Here is a small example;

    Was it the will of Jehovah or Jesus to preach about 1914, then 1915, then 1916, then 1918, then 1920, then 1925, then 1940s, then1975, and finally this Generation ?

    Is it a form of true worship when countless JWs enganged in studying, preparing, underlining, talking about, and distributing a plethora of publications that taught the above doctrines?

    Is it a form of true worship when JWs recruited many other people based on the above failed doctrines?

    Is Jehovah or Jesus pleased to see hundred of thousands or millions of JWs become disillusioned and quit after having their expectations dashed or finding that their faith had been based on wrong premises that were ingrained by false messages?

    Is Jehovah or Jesus pleased with the billions of hours spent by Bethel brothers preparing, printing, and distributing these failed publications. Is Jehovah pleased with the millions of dollars wasted in these publications. Is Jesus content in seeing millions of JWs spend their resources and hours on preaching false messages?

    You be the Judge.

  • minimus
    minimus

    DEFENDER, GREAT POINTS!

  • Cygnus
    Cygnus

    Defender,

    : Was it the will of Jehovah or Jesus to preach about 1914, then 1915, then 1916, then 1918, then 1920, then 1925, then 1940s, then1975, and finally this Generation ?

    Could have been. How do you know it wasn't? Jehovah told Jonah to go preach Ninevah's destruction, then he changed his mind. Did that make Jonah's preaching invalid? Did that make Jonah a false prophet? Or did it serve some sort of purpose, even though God's judgment did not come as promised?

    : Is it a form of true worship when countless JWs enganged in studying, preparing, underlining, talking about, and distributing a plethora of publications that taught the above doctrines?

    Could have been. After walking and talking with Jesus for 3 1/2 years, and then spending 40 long days in Kingdom instruction ,the apostles still thought the kingdom would be manifesting itself immediately and upon Israel. And yet Jesus didn't condemn them or stop using them.

    : Is it a form of true worship when JWs recruited many other people based on the above failed doctrines?

    Could be. Paul said that if deceit furthered the spread of the good news, may he be such a liar.

    : Is Jehovah or Jesus pleased to see hundred of thousands or millions of JWs become disillusioned and quit after having their expectations dashed or finding that their faith had been based on wrong premises that were ingrained by false messages?

    Perhaps, yes. Jesus said he was looking for sheeplike people who would listen to his "voice." If people focus on human errors and not the significance of Jesus' ransom and the working of the holy spirit, that is their problem, and they most likely served for a date instead of truly wanting to please Jehovah.

    : Is Jehovah or Jesus pleased with the billions of hours spent by Bethel brothers preparing, printing, and distributing these failed publications.

    What about the countless weeks and months Jesus spent with his disciples, and yet they failed to grasp even the most simplest of teachings? Jesus even resorted to referencing Satan in chastisement of his close companion Peter when he denied the destiny of the Messiah.

    : Is Jehovah pleased with the millions of dollars wasted in these publications. Is Jesus content in seeing millions of JWs spend their resources and hours on preaching false messages?

    If it furthers the advancement of godly devotion, certainly. Who ever said JWs had to be 100% right about everything, particularly in regards to prophetic speculation, in order to be pleasing to God?

  • minimus
    minimus

    Cygnus, So the bottom line is that as long as the end justifies the means it's fine.Maybe it really wasn't a false prophecy. Maybe God was just doing a little separating work....could be. Jeesh, where's FARKEL when you need him?

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