by orgbuster 8 Replies latest watchtower bible
hi
I am having a discussion with my elder bro-in-law, and he says the Bible was written for ALL people.... but I'm sure I've read somewhere that the WT says its only meant to be understood by the Faithful and discreet slave..or 144,000..am I right? I'm a bit confused on this point.
Anyone got any references that I can include in my reply to my JW bro?
Cheers
Rose
Check this out!
http://www.freeminds.org/psych/openmind.htm
Do you believe that the Bible was written to all people?
(Acts 17:30; 1 Cor. 1:2)
Beans
In the 4th century the bible was commisioned to be assembled by the Catholic hierarchy (the 2 mostly involved in the assembly of it were, Irenious and Paphius) for use by the clergy, it in the begining was not intended to be for general use by anyone else. Actually it was, at one point in time, a capital offense to have possesion of one if you were not of the Clergy. That much changed during the reformation periods and such. Much of the currently used bible does not contain the full canon, there are many books that were once considered canonical but have now been removed by the protestants. The catholic bible still has some of the originally removed books in it, but many are still controversal even among the catholic clergy. Many of the books even in the protestent version are controversal, like the book of Revelation and the gospel of John just to name 2, as they were argued, in the begining, that they were not written under spirtual guidence (My opnion is none of it was written under spirtual guidence, but that's another topic) Some of the books, such as all 4 of the Gospels are suspected to not have been written by any of the acredited authors. The only books that can really be traced to actual persons of the bible are some of the books of Paul and a couple others, but even some of those are suspected of fraud.
But to your real Question what does the WTB&TS say about it: quotes from http://quotes.jehovahswitnesses.com/channel.htm
http://quotes.jehovahswitnesses.com/exclusivity.htm
But this is a good quote:
*** Watchtower 1967 October 1 p.587 Finding Freedom with Jehovah's Visible Organization ***
Thus the Bible is an organizational book and belongs to the Christian congregation as an organization, not to individuals , regardless of how sincerely they may believe that they can interpret the Bible. For this reason the Bible cannot be properly understood without Jehovah's visible organization in mind.
Seedy
Interesting question. A brother who is also a pioneer of long standing made the statement that the Christian Greek Scriptures were not written for the other sheep and are addressed to the anointed. The other sheep are awaiting the opening of the 'new scrolls' after armageddon. I don't know if that is official WTS doctrine or just off the top of his head.
Warrigal, that has a familiar ring to it, and I think you're right. My impression is that while the organization looks down on any religion that tells its people the Bible is too hard to understand, they are also telling their people that they can't understand it without the help of the FDS, i.e., anything we interpret for ourselves would HAVE to be wrong! If Teddy don't say it, it ain't so. Or substance.
Nina
I think the bible was written for gawd's eternal amusement
and humankind's eternal bemusement.
Much like the confusion of languages at the tower of Babel.
SPAZ
Anyone who takes the bible contents literally or any way that suggests that a persons life must be so regimented that if not followed according to an individual's or group of individuals interpretation will be condemned, needs some degree of psyciatric care. There is no indication that the belief systems in operation today were ever created, invented or associated with God. If a person thinks that the proof is contained in the bible itself, it is the same as asking a salesman how good is the product he is selling. There is no doubt that the Bible does contain some words of wisdom. The only sensible deduction is that these words were indeed written and/or said by very brilliant men of the time.
The ot was written by jews, for jews. The nt's target is a bit harder to define. At the start of the narative, it is directed towards occulticly/mysticly bent jews. However, jews were too materialist, and it was a hard sell. Jewish lawyer paul however, having had some experience among the gentile roman world, in desperation turned there for recruits. It succeeded beyond his wildest imaginations, eventually becoming the state religion. Paul would have been proud. One could say then, that the nt was written for jews first, then romans, and lastly, for any old heathen who would swallow the story.
SS
The bible started out being written for the Hebrew nation. Then the Catholic Church used it to build it's powerful control over the whole world. The question are the stories told in the bible, really true, or were they borrowed from other cultures?
The Christ Conspiracy book by Acharya S is interesing reading if anyone really wants to know just how the bible came about.
