I went to the meeting Sunday.............

by integ 14 Replies latest social relationships

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  integ

  The public talk was on "Loyalty"- ...Speaker gave examples of loyalty in bible times...I.E: Esau and Jacob...Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew...Not loyal of him. David was loyal, even though he "erred" when he messed around with Bathsheba, then plotted to murder her husband. WE NEED TO BE LOYAL. To whom? Our Spouses, and most importantly Jehovah and HIS VISIBLE ORGANIZATION. Again the fear of apostasy rears it's head Sunday. We were "admonished" to stay clear of those speaking "different things" in the Cong. 'Do we have a tendency to have doubts or look with a "critical eye" when we are counseled by Jehovah through His earthly channel, "The Faithful and Discreet Slave Class?". "We have been counseled by the Faithful Slave in the past to avoid the poisonous words of the enemies of Jehovah, have you been heeding this counsel?. Loyalty to Jehovah and HIS ORGANIZATION, will safeguard us if we are ever tempted to consider APOSTATE REASONINGS. Jehovah God values LOYALTY above all other things. He will exact divine judgement on those acting DISLOYALLY". .....The apostate stuff was only addressed for about the last 15 minutes of the talk...But it seemed as though all the boooooring Bible examples....Boaz, Dorcas, Jonah, Job, etc. were a lead in to the speakers last 15 minutes of warning us against being dis-loyal to the Org = Disagreeing with any directions from the FDS. Which leads me to a question..... at Matt. 24:45 it says.."Who really is the Faithful and discreet Slave?" You know, that's a good freaking question. How can the Watchtower base their whole foundation for control and manipulation on an un-answered question?

  Thanks,

  Integ.
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  shamus

  It's all quite true, until you hit the part where he said "JEHOVAH'S ORGANIZATION". That is mind control. True, if you are in that religion you should be loyal to it, or get out... but, they bring it to the extreme and make you not able to QUESTION it... that is a cult.

  And, love the part about keeping away from those who speak different things... just another example of congregations split, persons labelling each other as bad assosiation, more hard feelings....

  I'm never going back to that garbage...
• 

  DJ

  So sad as usual. Subtle threats to frighten the sheep from making sure of all things. It is truly a cultish mindset. You never hear that in a church. The jw's are paranoid and guilty and that is why they have to make these kind of admonitions aka threats.
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  Gopher

  We were "admonished" to stay clear of those speaking "different things" in the Cong.

  Yes, the JW's must always guard against their friends in the org, in case they might change! You might be a friend one day, but make one false move and the friendship is over!!

  Maybe there isn't really friendship in the Borg. Perhaps it's really only "conditional proximity".
• 

  SwordOfJah

  It has been answered Integ, have you read "Faith on the March"?
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  hurt

  BTW, the damn Faith on the March book is online at http://www.e-cepher.com/books.

  What stories men tell; what mouths they end up in.

  Shame!
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  integ

  I just read the section about the "Slave". And it is a crock of BS. Written in 1957. Do you know how many doctrines have changed since 1957? A lot. Is this doctrine still the same "truth" that Jah gave the slave in 57. God's direct channel huh? Bulls##t.
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  unique1

  Do we have a tendency to have doubts or look with a "critical eye" when we are counseled by Jehovah through His earthly channel, "The Faithful and Discreet Slave Class?".

  I always hated that statement. Of course we look at things with a critical eye, and we should. How can you have faith in something you don't check out for yourself? People of other religions blindly follow their preachers and JW's criticize them for doing so, blind leading the blind and both fall in the pit. How can you say someone should not look at things critically? God is ruler rather than man. All people should use the brain god gave them to decide for themself if something they are told is in harmony with the bible or not.
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  Swan

  Loyalty to Jehovah and HIS ORGANIZATION, will safeguard us if we are ever tempted to consider APOSTATE REASONINGS.

  reason - n. from the Latin reri, meaning think. 1. an explanation of an act, idea, etc. 2. a cause or motive 3. the ability to thin, draw conclusions, etc. 4. good sense 5. sanity -- vi, vt. to think logically (about); analyze 2. to argue or infer -- stand to reason to be logical -- reasoning n.

  APOSTATE REASONINGS -- I love it! In other words, they are telling their followers not to listen to reason.

  Tammy
• 

  caligirl

  "The only way we can be sure of our doctrine is to test it thoroughly by going to the Bible itself. Those of the early congregation did. They did not leave it to someone else do for them. They made sure of all the things they believed, and they were approved by God."

  This is a direct quote from Faith on the March. Notice it does not advise foing to the bible ALONG with "bible based publications published by the WTS" It says to EXAMINE THE BIBLE ITSELF.

  My problem is this: Most of us here are labeled as "evil apostates" (to quote SOJ) because we did exactly this! So why is it that daring to test what they were being told made early christians approved by God, while going against the WTS automatically makes one an apostate? We dared to examine the bible WITHOUT WTS PUBLICATIONS, and found that what we had been taught did not pass the test specifically listed here in this publication, and a test we were actively promoting to people of other faiths in the ministry to use against their beliefs. The thing is, we recognized the hypocracy in going out and telling others to put their own religions under a microscope, while we were expected to simply accept what we were being told as absolute fact without being allowed to do what we were telling them to do!

  I vividly remember a publication, I beleive it was a watchtower, that specifically advised leaving the reasearch to the experts at Bethel because that is what they were there for. The gist was that if it was in a publication, all that tedious research had already been done to verify it, and we could confidently go out and use that to convert others to the "truth"

  According to this quote from Faith on the March, daring to go examine the scriptures for ourselves makes us all like those of the early congregation by not expecting someone else to do the work for us. But by WTS definition, we are all evil apostates for daring to use the bible without their help. And therin lies one of my major issues. My conscience would not allow me to go out and tell others to do something that I was forbidden to do myself.

  I did not have the internet 15 years ago, nor was I helped on my journey out by anything other than the knowledge that what I was being taught was not right, and that careful examination of the scriptures in context clearly showed that what I was being told was fact and truth was anything but.