WT Study 01/12/03: Linking Salvation to Literacy?

by Room 215 16 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Farkel

  Room 215,

  : My point is to challenge the notion that literacy is a precondition for salvation.

  And a very valid point that is. Well, readers? Illiterate schmucks form the vast majority of all mankind, living and dead taken in toto. The Bible claims to be the way to salvation. If one can't read it, one can't find that salvation. If one can't read it and still wants salvation, one must find someone who can and that someone is always some religious leader with his/her own agenda, which is also usually selfish and wrong. If the illiterate one picks the wrong religious leader, that person is toast.

  The whole thing sucks and is totally unfair. Therefore, if that is really the way it is, it's all bullshit and God is a jerk. Since the Bible is total bullshit in the first place, I wonder why I'm saying anything about this matter at all.

  Farkel

  Edited by - Farkel on 14 January 2003 2:23:35
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  jgnat

  Hi, old Hippie. I have been considering whether the bible deserves worship or not. Hey, we know how Farkel feels about it, but I still consider the bible a beautiful book. It is another matter entirely, though, whether we should be slaves to it. Consider a simple example from work. I have colleagues who have dedicated their lives to memorizing the manual. One false step, and they are in my face, "Gotcha! See paragraph 6, line 9, right there! You broke the ruuuuule!! Nananananana." Considering how many times I have bent the rules, I am in a lot less trouble with my bosses than Manual Dorkmeister might hope. Maybe perhaps because I never forgot why we were hired, and what we are trying to accomplish.

  Just my thought, but I think Christianity has a much better face when we apply this same rule. Once in a while, put the manual down, and remember why. Love our neighbour. Be kind. You know, the simple stuff.
• 

  TheOldHippie

  No problems with that at all, jgnat, but then we perhaps agree upon the fact that there IS a manual, that it is the basis for "things", and that things done at least should be in harmony with the manual? Life and the world and situations change, and there is no "rule" for everything, but one's private programming shouldn't state "ELSE - GO TO" if the manual said "ELSE - DO NOT GO TO". It just sounded like, in the original post, that the manual wasn't worth looking into at all.
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  jgnat

  Hmmmmm Hippie. You are making me think Deep Thoughts in the middle of the week. Let's see if I can keep myself out of a logical quagmire.

  • Do I think the bible, a manual, is the basis for "things"? Do I believe the bible is the basis for life on this planet? No. I believe God created it. Do I think the bible is a useful base for my life? Its not bad. I like it. I also use my life experience, other books, and advice from friends when making a decision.
  • Things done should be in harmony with the manual? I have a big problem with the word "should. Using the word should implies that I am applying my standard to other people. I am not sure I have the right to do that. I do believe that a person of integrity, if they claim to use the bible as a base for their decisions in life, has a responsibility to be consistent. I think this goes along with your ELSE-GO TO example.

  At work, I am very careful when using manuals, that they do not override common sense. I have seen people wrench their office procedures to match the manual, causing extra work, frustration, and heartache, while the original intent of the written policy is forgotten.

  Frankly, I see Christians do the same thing all the time. A turning point for me was listening to a Christian acquaintance whine to us how she suffered at work because everyone else smoked. I thought, wow, I bet you are a real peach to work with. I could see it, the lunch room divided, the smokers laughing and chatting on one end, and this sweetheart taking the farthest chair away as she read her daily bread. It seemed to me she had a golden opportunity to allow the love of Christ to shine through to her co-workers, and she wasted it on a cold shoulder and a holier-than-thou attitude. Terrible.
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  Room 215

  Old Hippie,

  What good is a manual if, like the majority of human beings who have ever lived, YOU CAN'T READ? Does it then become irrelevant to the eternal prospects of these masses of illiterates how Christ-like, compassionate, noble or otherwise, they lived out their existences?
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  TheOldHippie

  So how important should theology be, then? You live a "Christian life" full of compassion etc. (not trying to be insulting or mocking or anything - I just mean you live a life towards your fellow men as it "should" be) - but you believe in a burning hell, or in an ever-existing soul, or in a Trinity. Suppose the manual said that all those believing in those things will be cut off and forever lost. And you cannot read. You have heard from someone visiting you or studying briefly with you that there is a compassionate God who wants all to be "saved" and that we should live such a compassionate life as stated ourselves. So you live a "Christian" life, but you due to lack of education or your remoteness or whatever have no clue as to the theology.

  What then?

  Is this what some of these parts boil down to, or I am just as ignorant as a foreigner must be, because his cultural background and genes are so different form the US ones that we are talking in circles around each other?
• 

  jgnat

  How did Jesus spread his message to a largely illiterate audience? He quoted the manual, referred to the manual. But he also condemned the mint and cummin counters. By His example, I am coming to believe that action is at least as important as study in the Christian life.

  Applied to the WT life, the action of peddling magazines would be inferior to the action of bringing chicken soup to a sick neigbour.

  Actually, Hippie, I am very much enjoying this discussion. I don't think we are talking in circles, so much, as working out in our own minds what we are really talking about.

  Edited by - jgnat on 16 January 2003 14:5:44