"Worship The Only True God." I need your help!

SpannerintheWorks

My wife is presently studying this publication by the Watchtower, with a "sister". Two reasons why I am asking for the collective minds of this Forum to help:

1. She is about to start Chapter 9: "What Does The Resurrection Mean For You?" Or something like that.

Her mother died as a Witness, and therefore she feels that the only way that she will see her dead mother again is by following the Watchtower's way of salvation. Her whole family were Witnesses at the time of her death, and my wife still considers herself to be very much a Witness, although not as active as around the time she was baptised in her late teens.

2. We are going on holiday (abroad) to stay with her father and step-mother, who are married. They attend the KH together and he was an Elder in the religion when they lived in th UK, but I'm not sure if he is now, since moving abroad.

Anyway, folks, I am predicting a "showdown" and I would appreciate it if you could put your minds together and come up with some refutations and rebuttals.

Please...!

Spanner.

PS. If you are thinking that I am just being lazy by not doing a "search" on this subject, then can I just say that I have already done an extensive search, but to no avail...!

SpannerintheWorks

I've found a couple of useful threads:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/31859/1.ashx

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/10/51058/1.ashx

Would anybody else like to chip in?

Thanks.

Spanner

PS Ozzie, when are you going to do chapter 9?

ozziepost

Watch this space, Spanner!

ozziepost

Here's one little thought for you to ask her:

Open up the book to pages 84 and 85 which has a double page illustration of a resurrection scene post-Armageddon. In the scene is a child, a young girl, being welcomed back by her family. Very touching indeed.

However, what children are they> Does it include the children of the early Christians, say from the first century? Where are those children resurrected to? To earth? If so, who will welcome them back? There would be no-one who knows them. So how would their resurrection satisfy all human desires?

Are they, then, to be resurrected to heaven? Surely not for they have not been baptised, a crucial requirement according to the WTS.

So, which children are they?

Cheers, Ozzie

Francois

#1 - I'm not sure what your question is or what specifically you're looking for.

#2 - I think it would be very, very helpful for you to keep in mind that if you do get into some kind of discussion (with your wife? with your in-laws? with all of them? you don't say.) about JWs, that although it may SOUND like a conversation based in reason and logic, it will be neither of those things. Any such conversation will be an EMOTION-based conversation, and you should be prepared to base all that you say on the emotions of the moment as you perceive them.

Religion, especially cults, are emotion based, and at base all their arguments sooner or late are designed to appeal to the emotions. You gotta fight fire with fire in this case so prepare yourself with arguments that appeal to their emotions and you'll do well.

Attempting to develop an iron-clad logical argument based in reason is the reason why so many people walk away from a conversation with the JWs shaking their heads in amazement and disgust, blown away by the fact that the JWs would not accept their carefully developed argument, an argument based on reason.

Go for it, then. We'll be expecting a report on Tuesday then.

francois

SpannerintheWorks

Thank you, Ozzie and Francois. Very good points.

Francois, maybe I didn't ask a specific question. What I meant by:

I would appreciate it if you could put your minds together and come up with some refutations and rebuttals.

was a reference to the "Worship" book, and especially chapter 9.

Thanks again.

Spanner

PS I won't be back by Tuesday; we're going for two weeks.

bebu

Although I agree with Francois about cults being emotion based, I think that if you restrain yourself from your getting emotional you'll have better listeners. Theology is trickier than the more black and white issues; there are too many WT theological brush fires to stomp out. If you half-convince them on this, they'll just switch to another area entirely.

I'd try to steer them toward a heavier issue, like the 607 BC date, the UN scandal, Rand, etc. Because if the WT is not the spokesman of God, then all their theology is suspect, and has to be re-examined. I have always found better audiences with JWs and Mormons when I frame things as "hurdles" or "red flags" that I have not been able to resolve, and which is hindering my faith.

The issue doesn't become their hard-heartedness, but your obedience to testing everything and holding onto whatever is true. I've never had anyone blow up or walk off; I've always told missionaries that if they were able to help me past the objections, I'd be able to follow them further up their road.

Whatever path your discussions go, listen very politely and then they will most likely hear your own words better. Common advice, I know, but especially helpful in your family relationships.

BTW, Johnny Cip had a great post: he suggested that you ask to look together into the writings of hte WT during the time that Jesus was inspecting the churches. If that theology impressed him, we should be interested in it very much, right?

Not much help for you, maybe, but I hope you will have an enjoyable vacation with some nice developments... Good luck to you!!!!

bebu

SpannerintheWorks

Thanks, Bebu!

Spanner

jwsons

Please read more about the changes in this book and how it's funny here:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=33171&site=3

jwsons

"Worship The Only True God." I need your help!

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