JW view of apostates is of human origin

by venus 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • venus
    venus

    God doesn’t take action against a person who has long history of faithfulness when he fails for the first time. For example, Satan is freely permitted to move in heaven and on earth even after many many sins he keeps on practicing. Israel as a nation was not rejected at the first instance of their disobedience. However, JW religion practices disfellowshipping and shunning at the very first act of even disbelief on any one of their vast reservoir of teachings despite decades of faithfulness.

    They feel this is scriptural because this is the way Samuel dealt with Saul who was so good (reluctant to become a king when he was informed of Jehovah’s choice) and subsequently gave many victories to Israel in the difficult days of Israel’s inception period. In an emergency situation when the whole nation’s security was involved, Saul did not extend his waiting (waited for seven days) for Samuel indefinitely, but went ahead and made the sacrifice himself. This good-intentioned, extremely unselfish act of Saul was judged as disobedient by Samuel and declared his judgment: “Jehovah will choose another person to be king over Israel.” (1 Samuel 13:14) What else is needed to turn a good person into bad?

    Such a hasty judgement is obviously against Jehovah’s established practice of taking action after long wait, hence is from human priestly class who wanted to safeguard their position over the ordinary people who would think ‘if king was not spared for such a small act of disrespect towards Jehovah’s appointees, how much more we.’ Without knowing this interior game of the priestly class, JW built their apostasy teaching on human ground.

  • Finkelstein
    Finkelstein

    The JWS's GB leaders are apostates so that makes all JWS abetting and enabling of the sins of the WTS. and of those men.

    The bible clearly defines what makes up a false prophet(s) and the WTS leaders past and present are just that.

    Exploiting the righteous sanctity of Jesus's own Gospel toward the purpose of commercializing literature is an egregious act of apostasy against him and of Jehovah.

  • scratchme1010
    scratchme1010
    JW view of apostates is of human origin

    JW view of everything is of human origin. I know that be cause they are, well, human.

  • venus
    venus

    What a calamity it would be when an innocent JW finally comes to realize that Bible is only a human book. Intensity of dependence on JW doctrine would then take him to the opposite direction proportionately. Hence JW is in a sense a production unit for atheist in the same way Bible helps some to become atheists (for example, Jesus's own prayer to his Father is gone unheeded)

  • Cold Steel
    Cold Steel
    Venus » Saul did not extend his waiting (waited for seven days) for Samuel indefinitely, but went ahead and made the sacrifice himself. This good-intentioned, extremely unselfish act of Saul was judged as disobedient by Samuel and declared his judgment: “Jehovah will choose another person to be king over Israel.” (1 Samuel 13:14) What else is needed to turn a good person into bad?

    With Saul, this was a part of his arrogance. He assumed because he was king of Israel that he also had the priestly authority to offer sacrifices. It was for his arrogance and his tendency to second guess the Lord. Just as he did a short time later in sparing Agag and the livestock of the Amalekites, which showed he didn't learn a thing from his earlier disobedience.

    Just as when Aaron's sons thought to use "strange fire" in their offerings, it was a contempt for the word of God. Based on the language used in 1 Samuel 13, we know that Saul did not obey the clear commandments of the Lord. Nowhere had Saul been ordained to the office of priest, nor was he of the necessary tribe to receive that office. This is one reason the Protestant reformers denied the priesthood authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Constantine may have been the emperor of Rome and the most powerful ruling authority of his time, but he lacked the authority of a single elder or bishop. It's also the reason the Pope excommunicated the bishops and King Henry VIII because he, being king, did not hold ecclesiastical authority. (Yes, it was an irony, but such is history.)

    In short, there was no reason to think that Saul had any right, despite his intentions, to proceed with the sacrifice. If he grew tired of waiting for Samuel, why didn't he command his own Levitical priests to offer the sacrifices? Whatever made him think that he, lacking the priesthood, could offer them up? I suspect the priests followed Samuel's orders, not Saul's, but remember Uzzah, who reached out to steady the Ark. They had not secured the Ark as the Lord had required and when the oxen stumbled, Uzzah, lacking authority, attempted to steady it.

    Saul knew these stories as well as we do and he knew it was a grievous sin to take authority that had not been given him. This is why Samuel became furious on both this occasion and the one with Agag. In our day we're trained to look at motivation when deciding what's right and wrong. But in Samuel's day, they took things like this far more seriously.

    Having said that, the Governing Body have no authority, either. They are part of a manmade church with manmade policies that belie the merciful nature of God. Had Saul acted in good faith and not known the seriousness of what he'd done, the Lord would have been unjustified in his actions. The practice of shunning and disciplining church members is a policy that they are unauthorized to make.

  • smiddy3
    smiddy3

    God doesn’t take action against a person who has long history of faithfulness when he fails for the first time. For example, Satan is freely permitted to move in heaven and on earth even after many many sins he keeps on practicing. Israel as a nation was not rejected at the first instance of their disobedience.

    So for the next 6 thousand years Satan had free range of shifting between heaven and earth with no other penalties on him or his followers .No suffering ,no death ,no indignity`s ,no anything.

    except for some future punishment thousands of years in the future no doubt.

    Big deal

    How does that compare with Adam & Eve ? They were immediately sentenced to a life of misery outside of Gods favour and so were their offspring to what we see today 6,000 years later of misery , disease ,indignity`s ,suffering and ,death .

    No normal parent today would put their child through any suffering of any sort for a minute however Jehovah God has put his children through the worst of sufferings for thousands of years.

    Wasn`t Satan the original apostate ? If anything he should have recieved the more heavier sentence.

  • Fisherman
    Fisherman

    The Bible mentions that kings also offered sacrifices to God. In this particular case, Sauls's sin was not based on him not being a priest. It was because he did not follow orders. Samuel told him to wait. Would the ritual of offering up the sacrifices to God please God? Is that what the king of Israel figured?!!!! Would not have God pleased if Saul only waited for Samuel... Laters on in the matter of Agag, Samuel rebuked Saul telling him: .. Does Jehovah take delight in sacrifices than in obedience in the voice of Jehovah?? To obey is better than a sacrifice..

  • Cold Steel
    Cold Steel
    Smiddy » How does that compare with Adam & Eve? They were immediately sentenced to a life of misery outside of God's favour and so were their offspring to what we see today 6,000 years later of misery, disease, indignities, suffering and death.

    Yes, unless that God's intention all along. The Eastern Orthodox and a few other religions believe the Fall was a necessary part of man's journey from mortality to the Divine. In other words, Adam and Eve were not capable, in their immortal states prior to the Fall, of inheriting the Divine Nature. Only by falling and being redeemed by someone with that nature could they be elevated to that potential. As Father Kallistos Ware put it in THE ORTHODOX WAY, “God became man, so that man could become God," and “God became as we are, so as to make us as He is."

    When man was first placed in the Garden, they did not have this potential. Had God not engineered the Fall, man would have remained in a stagnant state worlds without end.

    It had all the trappings of a setup. Two beings, devoid of guile in an enclosed area with the fruit of knowledge of good and evil and a malignant being out to destroy them. They were set up. And they could not be condemned because they knew not good or evil when they partook.

    In short, they were supposed to fall. Not for their harm, but for their good. (See 1 John 3:2)

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