Watchtower Study Article 23/10/16 from August edition

by BluesBrother 8 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  BluesBrother

  https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/watchtower-study-august-2016/do-you-see-the-need-to-train-others/

  Much of the article is the usual thoughtless mush that we have come to expect these days. The rank and file bros. are urged to reach out to train the new ones...

  OK, I suppose . The points in para 3 though

  To serve effectively, a worshipper of Jehovah must follow a routine of Bible study.[ stet. emphasis my own] We do well to help Bible students grasp that fact.

  So how do they encourage Bible Study ?

  para 5

  You may ask, ‘How can I train my student to study the Bible regularly?’ A good start is by showing him how to prepare for the study you conduct with him. You might suggest that he read portions of the appendix of the What Does the Bible Really Teach? book and look up cited scriptures. Help him to prepare for the meetings with the goal of commenting. Encourage him to read every issue ofThe Watchtower and Awake! If the Watchtower Library orWatchtower ONLINE LIBRARY is available in his language, you can show him how to use it to answer Bible questions. As a result of such help, very likely your Bible student will soon be delighting in his personal study of God’s Word.

  So to encourage the BIBLE STUDY , one is to promote study of WT publications instead of reading The Bible and researching points of interest in Bible Dictionaries and the like. Surely, something wrong somewhere ??
  
  
  
  
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  prologos

  Every living moment of jws lives is to be spend in wt indoctrination.
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  skin

  Para 2: " Worldwide, the number of people accepting the good news is growing."

  Has this changed? When i used to follow the figures found in the year books, these numbers were dropping.
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  nonjwspouse

  As they preach the Kingdom message, new publishers need to learn that perseverance is sometimes necessary. A brother in Ghana placed literature with a young man who thereafter hid from him for weeks. After repeated visits, the Witness finally contacted him, but the young person tried to end the conversation. When the brother offered to show him how to study the Bible, he agreed. From then on, he no longer hid from Jehovah’s Witnesses. Some months later, the young man was baptized at an assembly.

  This sounds like stalking!
  
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  blondie

  Few jws read the assigned material each week, let alone "study." That is why most of the answers are basically read from the paragraph and turned around calling it putting it in their own words. Ten year old jw children still being that prompted at the WT study and stumbling over the words as if it were the first time they saw them, words they did not understand the meaning of. Elders that showed up for the book study having not read the material and trying to conduct. Elders who show up at the meeting and didn't even know they had a part....despite the diligent reminders from the platform and the little slips teenage boys gave out the week before. Jws who have never once read any bible completely through (many fibs about that one). jws who after 10 years baptized cannot explain the basic teachings of the WTS to another jw.....
  
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  scratchme1010

  One the first things i saw when I started realizing that the WT is full of nonsense is the fact that they claim that they are all about the bible yet, they have gazillions of publications to explain, interpret and allegedly facilitate its understanding.

  I for once, started preaching at a very young age, as a child, and I remember leaving in people's hands lots and lots of WT publications, but can't remember once leaving a single bible to anyone.
  
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  blondie

  Here are a few comments for this Sunday:

  WT Study 10/23/2016

  Pp1

  Although Philip was busy as an evangelizer, he no doubt helped his four daughters to become effective in sharing Scriptural truths with others

  --

  The leaves out that the bible says they were prophetesses, that they had the gift of prophecy from the holy spirit, something that only a few Christians then had.

  Paragraph 2

  brothers need to be encouraged to work hard in order to qualify for appointment as ministerial servants and elders

  And elders will find out that it is the elders manual that they will go to first….not the bible…just using the scriptures in the manual…and if no scriptures supporting the teaching…the GB’s teachings

  Paragraph 3

  Are jws reminded they eat 3 times a day literal food; how often do they read the bible?

  Paragraph 5

  Students are taught to answer from the paragraph and not to have personal ideas; if lucky they might read the cited scriptures; otherwise they become another jw that says “the paragraph says” “the magazine says.”

  Paragraph 6

  Of course, we should not pressure anyone to read and study the Bible.

  ---------------------at least not until they are baptized

  Paragraph 8-10

  Converse with people…….I was a jw for 45 years and heard more canned presentations at the door than I care to admit. Not me because I love getting past the formal presentation, not preach at people, hear their ideas. But if people are only getting in hours to protect their everlasting life, no fruitage required, how hard will they try?

  Paragraph 13

  How can we help new ones grasp the importance of helping their brothers and sisters?

  Start with teaching the jws at the congregation to show giving without expectation of something in return. Not just “mature” jws…oldtimers who pull the weight in that area.

  Develop men in the congregation…no more teaching in a school…..MS who see how unprepared most elders are, who take them with them on Saturday, only to pick up dry cleaning, prescriptions.

  I grew in a divided family as did my cousins. Their mothers trained them well, without any help from the elders or MS. I saw elders run after other families’ problems not being there for their own children. I saw the elders appoint 2 men who could not read to be MS, and did not see that they learned to read. Elders that appointed men who were abusers and practicing alcoholics, men who couldn’t hold a job, didn’t want to hold a job and let their wives support the family.

  This article shows that things are not well in Oz on many issues.
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  Mephis

  What I got from that is that they know that they're not converting people on the doorstep, and the little paragraph at the end there about perseverance hints at far more than just 'new ones' feeling it's all a bit pointless. The problem with the men who stay inside really not wanting to climb the WBTS leadership ladder is making them increasingly shrill about it. Probably is not helped by them trying to guilt elders into doing even more.
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  Spiral

  BluesBrother, you are SO correct to call the studies these days "thoughtless mush". I think a lot of the problem the org is having these days is that people are just plain BORED out of their MINDS at the meetings and with freading the literature. It just doesn't engage any more, and people seem to be just going through the motions because of family.