by truman 35 Replies latest jw friends
He said that it was reasonable to expect little penetration into areas such as China and the Moslem countries, because these cultures had never even been receptive to the growth of 'false' Christianity
With regards to China, this man is obviously ignorant of the facts. "Spirit" Christianity (i.e. Pentecostalism) is booming in China.
Thanks everybody for your comments. Some have pointed out that there is basically nothing new in the statements about not everyone getting a personal witness and so forth. That is probably true, looking at Blondie's posted wt references. It doesn't and wouldn't surprise me at all for there to be a postion in print which allows the WTS to wiggle out of commitment to 'witness' to everyone personally, and also simultaneously co-existing, a belief among the r-and-f JWs that everyone will indeed get a personal chance to hear the 'word'. I know when I became a JW, concern about each person on earth getting a proper chance was very important to me, and it is easy enough to imagine how unfair it would seem personally, if oneself were a member of some far flung or foreign cluture who gets the nebulous, blanket, generic 'witness' instead of a personal chance. I wanted to believe that all would get a sufficient opportunity, and to abandon that, would have been new to me as a JW, regardless of whatever weasel phrases were in the published literature. When the PO made those statements to me, he did so with the attitude that it was a position of 'increased understanding', though I have no specific places to point to you, Dedalus, for something in print to back it up. I was just reporting what he told me. The magazines he brought me were the first I have seen in months, since they stopped the magazine subs, and I haven't wanted to go to the KH just to get them. I rely on this board and the people who are still inside and posting what they hear on the board for my updates on things. This 'brother', the PO, likes to fancy himself a real thinker and up on all the latest, so maybe he was just spinning things in an effort to pique my interest. I think that what was said to me, and in light of the comments here, really bring home to me what great masters of "spin" the Witnesses are. No matter what happens, they can weave it into their scenario and make it look like evidence for their interpretation of prophecy. The most disturbing moments of the whole episode were inside me. There was a brief instant, when that "Oh my God, what if they are right?" thought swept through my mind. It did not linger long though, because so much has happened to me since I left, that I have no doubt that I did the right thing, and that such an induced thought was merely the lingering echoes of mind control triggers firing in my psyche.
dedalus I'd have to dig out a lot of references but if you do a search on "community responsibility" you'd probably come up with a bunch. In decades in the Org I never once had the idea that every individual or even nation had to be reached and I would be willing to wager that you won't find any such statement in the publications any where. Russell one time said that just preaching in New York City was the equivalent of preaching to the whole world because there were representatives of every nation and race there. There have been a number of other cases in which the statement has been made the in effect you could say the prophecy about preaching to the entire inhabited earth has already been fulfilled.
And, yes, I do question the Organizational authenticity of the remarks.
Reminds me of the 1975 scenario where COs and DOs went around "prophesying". Then the people listened to them and got blamed for it. So now becaue of terrorism and islam being BTG, then what next, are people going to sell their mobile homes or what since it's obviously so close to the end!!!
Also, I would have asked these guys, "Since what you're saying basically is that Jehovah will reach the hearts of those persons in those lands anyway, then why the hell is he forcing me out in service here??? Why didn't he let me go to college instead of pioneer??? I mean since he can reach the hearts anyway without anyone actually doing the grunt work!"
Thanks, Pork Chop. Actually, I missed Blondie's Watchtower above, which pretty much says not every individual will be reached. I suppose it's interesting that some Witnesses (my mother) felt an urgency to be part of a work that reaches everybody. Maybe they meant everybody in North America -- those are the only people that matter anyway.
Dedalus
Well COs and DOs are some of the worst about twisting official doctrine and scriptures. I know one that told a congregation that a lot of people in their territory were going to die because they weren't spending enough time in the ministry. So much for angelic direction.
