The GB - Mystical?

by johnathanseagull 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  johnathanseagull

  Twiddling thumbs at work here lol...........question................. is there still an "air" of mystique about the GB within the rank and file, you know the "they must be soooo spirtual" blah blah blah..................I can remember people being so in awe of them, to the extent of wanting to attend conventions that a member would be giving a talk, as though it meant something special, .............. or have the R & F realised that the decision making and day to day activities are generally done and conducted like any other Board Meeting I've attended in my work and in thousands of other companies

  JGull
• 

  Sargon

  The air of Mystique will always be there if their meetings are always clouded in a shroud of mystery. The only insight I've ever seen as to what goes on in their meetings is from Rays Franz's 'C of C'. Since the average R and F of the witnesses will never read this book (or any other like it) they'll always regard them as one step closer up the ladder to Jehovah than them.
• 

  mizpah

  It is quite true. I remember one JW who visited Bethel years ago was instructed not to talk with Brother Knorr if he saw him in the elevator. He was informed that Knorr had "a lot on his mind" pertaining to "spiritual things" and shouldn't be bothered. It was all part of the "mystique" image.

  Whenever a member of the G.B. was to speak at an assembly or Kingdom Hall, it was always to a packed audience. It always reminded me of the Pope's visit to the Catholic countries or a Protestant assembly of Billy Graham. It only demonstrates that JWs are proned to the same "hero worship" that other groups are.
• 

  OHappyDay

  Hero worship isn't the worst of it. The Society also puts the GB in as the mediator between God and men, a role reserved in scripture for Jesus Christ only.

  For example, in the latest Watchtower (09-01-03), the Protestant Reformation is blasted because "these churches continued to teach erroneous doctrines." But, so do we. That same article ("One True Christian Faith A Reality") erroneously states: "Individual congregations did not operate independently of one another. They all recognized the authority of a governing body in Jerusalem...consisting of the apostles and older men of the Jerusalem congregation."

  The "proof text" quoted is from Ephesians, a book that was not written by the "governing body" but by an individual, the apostle Paul. Paul had his own disagreements with certain members of the Jerusalem "governing body." And he instructed the congregations to follow him only as he himself followed Jesus Christ, the true Head of the congregation.
• 

  mizpah

  Ohappyday:

  It's rather ironic that the Watchtower quotes from Ephesians to try prove the existence of a GB in the first century. Paul makes a very clear that it is Christ who heads the congregation and makes appointments. I wished the GB had read more carefully Paul's counsel in Ephesians: "...I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love..."