The baptism is off.....

by TheApostleAK 20 Replies latest jw friends

  • unclebruce
    unclebruce

    G'day Andrew,

    Nope I haven't disfellowshipped anybody, never was any good at shunning and stuff. I'm all over the net like a rash - if anyones been hiding it ain't yours truely. ;) I may be in Sydney (not sure - I'm caught in the 'monaro triange, at the moment (Bega, Canberra, Sydney ... long story .. much travelling)

    unclebruce

    PS: Lost connection to your batty mate when I changed phone numbers a while back. Yadirf is Friday (backwoodsman)

    PSS: So you got chocolate egg on yer face - you lucky lucky ba... father!

  • TheApostleAK
    TheApostleAK

    Prisca: "What problem do they have with you being a sports official?" - I don't know. A few in our congregation go to the footy on Saturdays.

    Thinkers Wife: "Does this mean you are going to reconsider?" - Nope. Just no gonna quit footy.

    Uncle Goose: "You'd have to be out of your mind to think you could be a Jehovah's witness and play aussie rules or any other wordly team sport" - Can't help it.

    Ajw: "How about dropping me an email at [email protected]?" - dunno. Aren't you an apostate? Check ya mail.

    Mummy: "How is it going with the girl?" - Alright!

    Yerusalyim: "Find a real church." - U suggest anything better?

    I'm starting to get the feeling that me being knocked back is something to do with my girlfriend.

  • riz
    riz

    AK,

    Look at it this way. The elders did you a favor. Get out while the getting's good, if you ask me. You will thank yourself later.

    riz

  • kes152
    kes152

    Hello Apostle,

    You don't think there is anything better than Jehovah's Witnesses?

    Well, here you go:

    All religions in the world are NOT the 'way' to God. Which 'way' is?

    "I am the WAY, and the truth, and the life; NO ONE comes to the Father, unless by me."

    "If you remain in my word, you will REALLY be my disciples. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

    What is the 'truth?'

    "Therefore, if the "Son" sets you free, you will actually be free."

    The Son said he was the way, and the TRUTH.

    Do you realize what that means? It means that if you, or I, or ANYONE wants "actual truth," we have to hear it DIRECTLY from the Son. How does God talk to us?

    "God, has AT THE END OF THESE DAYS spoken to us using his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things.."

    So what is the 'channel' of communication between God and us? (Heb. 1:2)

    "My sheep HEAR MY VOICE, and I know them, and they follow me: "

    "And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. Those also I must bring in, and they will HEAR MY VOICE, and they shall become one flock, one shepherd."

    What about those who cannot hear the voice of Christ?

    "He that is from God, hears the sayings of God. This is why you do not hear, because you are not from God." (John 8:47, 10:26)

    His sheep listen to his voice. If they don't hear his voice, it's because they are none of his sheep.

    What can you do so that you can "hear his voice" and become his disciple?

    Obey his words to you at John 6:50-56, Matt. 26:26-28 (we have discussed this, yes?).

    By doing this you will have "life" in yourself. Such life is "everlasting life" that will enable you to literally be 'in union' with him (John 6:56). Since you will be 'in union' with him, he and his Father will come to you, and dwell with you. (John 14:23)

    "This is the life IN ORDER THAT THEY MAY KNOW YOU the only God, and of the one whom you sent, Jesus the Anointed." (John 17:3 Kingdom Interlinear Greek)

    The everlasting life that you "partake of," and thus will have "life" in yourself will enable you to actually "know" God, and the one whom he sent.

    Perhaps you weren't aware of this, but this is how we can "know" God:

    "All things have been delivered to me by my Father: and no one knows the Son, except the Father; and NO ONE knows the Father, except the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son WANTS TO reveals him." (Luke 10:22; Matt. 11:27)

    "He that has my commandments and observes them, that one is he who loves me. He that loves me will be loved by my Father and I will love him and will PLAINLY SHOW MYSELF TO HIM." (John 14:21)

    So who do we have to "know" first? Is it not the Son? And when one knows the Son, he "plainly shows himself" to that one so that he 'beholds him as he really is.' Upon the Son being revealed, if he wants to, he will reveal the Father to that one. "In that day he will KNOW the Son is in union with the Father .... "

    Peace to you,
    Aaron

  • LovesDubs
    LovesDubs

    As for what is "better" out there religion wise...this is not a "closest to the pin" contest, or horseshoes, or a Consumers Report where one religion gets more solid or half dots than the next one by man made standards and is therefore the PREFERRED or RECOMMENDED religion to be close to God. Facts are facts. If a religion calls itself the TRUTH and can be shown quite clearly to NOT be truth, it is therefore lying about itself. And who is the father of the lie that we heard tell about so MANY bazillions of times from the platform? Jesus said "Keep on SEEKING, keep on KNOCKING" he didnt say "Hey when you get to Brooklyn Heights..you can stop."

    And I believe that if YOU believed this was the TRUTH...youd be busting your BUTT to get baptised and giving up the officiating would be a no brainer decision. Obviously you still have reservations if you are more willing to stick to your own version of the "truth" and reject their requests to give up those worldly activities.

    Has the Society asked the tennis champion Williams Sisters to give up THEIR sports? Do you want to belong to a religion who is both two faced AND lying to you?

  • unanswered
    unanswered

    RED CARD, RED CARD, RED CARD!!! the elders ought to be kicked off the "team" for that move, IMO. seriously though, sorry they are messing with you.-nate

  • Prisca
    Prisca

    I agree with LovesDubs.

    AK - a few weeks ago you posted a thread stating that you were considering leaving the org with a bang - either by sleeping with an elder's daughter, partaking at the Memorial, smoking during a meeting etc.

    Now you are saying you're disappointed because the elders knocked you back from getting baptised.

    HELLO??? does any one see double standards here? Maybe the elders can sniff something too, AK.

    I'm not saying this to be nasty, but as a friend I'm asking you to consider what you really want. Once you're baptised, that's it. You have to live by their guidelines. At the moment you are literally a free man. Please consider this, and make your own decision, as you will have to live with it for the rest of your life.

  • hippikon
    hippikon

    I suspect its the "Girl Thing" thats making you stay.

    Stop thinking with your dick

  • DrunkWithLiberty
    DrunkWithLiberty

    AK, I was not able to get baptised because I was still involved in high school athletics. It was not becoming of a Christian I was told. that was in the early 80's.
    Take care, angie

  • Kent
    Kent

    From foreign "fields".

    Though the results are still unofficial, preliminary reports suggest The Watchtower has won the National Soul Winning Contest and its main sanctuary will soon be furnished with a brand new gold-plated organ with computer-generated acoustics. Hail Jehovah!

    As God-fearing Jehovah’s Witnesses members know, our church is a member of the Holy Alliance of Tenacious Righteous Evangelical Denominations, an elite group of conservative fundamentalist Sect churches. In an effort to reach out to infidels and draw more people to The Watchtower, through Jehovah through Jesus, last year, the alliance
    organized a National Soulwinning Contest among all member churches of CESNUR. With first prize being the most heavenly of organs, The Watchtower was eager to prove
    its superiority in witnessing.

    "With that beautiful instrument, we could sing to Jehovah in style," Elder Smith noted during last Sunday's Watchtower study. "Why, those other churches will be lucky if Jehovah even listens to their choirs any more when he has the chance to spend all day
    Sunday listening to the far more beautiful music we will create. Besides this, we can sell the shit, and sent the money to the Organization. What a fine way to spend these last few months before Armageddon"

    The Watchtower determined that the most productive approach to winning the most souls would be to focus on young children. "By the time un-baptized people become teenagers and adults, their Satanic ways are fairly entrenched," noted CO Livingstone. "Young children are far more susceptible to our witnessing techniques. We knew that a fire and brimstone sermon would have those children clamoring down the aisles, begging for salvation and a Jehovah’s Witnesses membership."

    The Watchtower's soulwinning campaign began last summer with the hosting of ice cream socials, bubble gum parties and snow cone celebrations. These were not official, of course, but where held in connection to the different conventions. The Watchtower sent fliers in May throughout Russia advertising day-long excursions to the church for all interested children. Watchtower buses would pick up children beginning at 7:00 a.m. and return them by 6:00 p.m. "This gave bourgeois mothers the chance to spend weekdays cleaning their homes without worrying about supervision of their children," noted Brother Harry Hardwick. "Those unclean, un-baptized and inactive parents were more than happy to get those children out of their hair."

    The schedule for the children was rigorous. Each day, hundreds of new lost tots were dropped off at the Moscow Main Kingdom Hall for orientation. They were told there would be no snacks unless and until they attended morning, mid-morning and early afternoon indoctrination services. Beginning at 9:00 a.m., CO Livingstone delivered his fiery "Gehenna Is for Children" sermon in which he told those un-Christian wretches, in his most booming voice, that any day, their very lives could be snatched from them. They could be murdered, run over by a bus or possessed by a demon. If that occurred, those
    who were unbaptized would go straight to Gehenna where they would spend forever roasting in fire, with the devil stabbing their heinies over and over with a pitchfork.

    "Those children caught on instantly," reported the CO. "Some of them looked shocked, most of them cried, and all of them knew a change was needed in their lives."

    After the sermon, the children met individually with members of the Ladies of The Watchtower. "We explained to those kids that they were going to Gehenna if they didn't accept The Watchtowers teachings and join our church," recalled the pioneer Taffy Crockett. "I remember a few of the kids being skeptical, saying they wanted to talk to their parents. We explained that their parents weren't real Christians and were destined for Gehenna. The only way these kids could see the TRUTH was to forsake their parents' faith and join our group of real Christians."

    After the one-on-one discussions, the children were told it was time to be baptized. Everyone know the Society need continuing GROWTH to prove Jehovah’s blessing, and who cares what happens in Russia anyway. They were taken back into the bathroom and told to bow their heads and repeat after CO Livingstone, "Yes, we do." “Nobody had the time to explain anything more, and we needed the growth”, sister Moskovskaia recalls.

    "You should have seen the look on those children's faces when they realized that was all
    it took to begin their walk toward Theocracy," exclaimed sister Judy O'Christian. "I could see the face of Rutherford in all of them."

    The children were next told to switch into the swim suits they were instructed to bring and were taken to a lake near by. Several Jehovah’s Witnesses were already waiting in the water. The children were told they could frolic in the lake only after they had been baptized in the name of the Watchtower. A few choked on the water, but all were dunked.
    To show our church was pleased that these children were finally destined for the Paradise (if they lived right), the Ladies of the Watchtower then presented the snacks. The children were lined up next to tables at which the Ladies sat with publishing cards. The children were told they could pick up their snacks at a neighboring table as soon as they signed in with 10 hours on the card. When all children had signed up, the children were allowed
    to play.

    Then the real work began. The Ladies intervened in the play to tend to those children in most need of help. Those boys who played with girls, looked at flowers, roamed off by themselves or complimented the Ladies on their attire, and those girls who played ball or some other boys' sport, were immediately whisked away to Watchtower Elementary where they took part in CO Livingstone’s CASH for Toddlers Ministry to eliminate the beginnings of clear homosexuality. Those children who were the most unruly were taken to Dr. Jonathan Edwards to determine if the demons could be exorcized from their
    bodies. "I tried simple therapies like scolding and paddling. But some of those children were so filled with Satan that electroshock became necessary. By the end of the day, though, almost all those children learned to behave."

    The children were returned to their families in time for dinner. As to be expected, not all of the parents were satisfied. A criminal complaint was filed by a group of parents of especially delinquent youngsters for whom Dr. Edwards had recommended a frontal lobotomy to remove that section of their brains where demons most likely resided. The parents complained that the Watchtower's actions had violated their rights. "How typical of non JW liberals," observed Hardwick. "Always screaming about their freedom. If we hadn't intervened, those children would spend the hereafter in Gehenna. If overlooking some parents' wishes is necessary to allow children a shot at an eternity with Watchtower elders and Jehovah, I say it was well worth the cost."

    "In the end, the Watchtower won several thousand little souls for the Society and Jehovah through Jesus," concluded CO Livingstone. "We earned the priceless gift of saving souls
    and the equally priceless gift of an organ that will be the envy of all churches. Being a Christian doesn't get much better than this," he said, mumbling about finding a buyer for the organ.

    Rev Kent

Share this

Google+
Pinterest
Reddit