I came across this title phrase while reading a daily devotional one morning and it reminded me of this discussion board. There really is a fellowship of sufferings here. Never since Adolph Hitler has an organization done so much to destroy families as the Watchtower has done.
There are some stats somewhere that shows that there are more people that are disenfranchised (people who have left) from the Watchtower than there are people who are associated. That is millions of people !
Millions of people have left but are too scared to make a stink because they don't want to offend relatives who are still in. They suffer silently. And, even though out, they still likely carry significant vestiges of Watchtower teachings and worldviews.
Some of the Wt tenets some people take with them even while exiting may be:
1. Belief that at death nothing happens
2. Distrust and flippancy toward government participation & the military
3. Dislike of Christians
4. Search for new "experts" to tell them what to do
5. A mechanical, disconnected approach to life and relationships
6. Trying to be "good enough" in a works based relationship with God
7. Living as a Human-doing vs. a Human-being
The scripture that ran me down this rabbit-hole is:
Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh..... [will-power]
But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Phil. 3
Jesus died having been rejected by most of his family. They thought he was quote: "beside himself". That is a nice was of saying they thought he was nuts. His friends abandoned him when he needed them most. But the resurrection (not the miracles & works he did) changed EVERYTHING.
We all experience the Fellowship of Christs Sufferings in the loss of family and friends. May we also experience his victory in the "power of his resurrection".
Resurrection Power - has a nice ring to it.
