OHD wrote:
Can't we get out of the Old Testament for a while?
Hehe, I feel your pain. But the OT has much payoff for the officers of the corporation: Control. It is hard to threaten the faithful with the NT; Jesus is just too forgiving, and even Paul wouldn't disfellowship the ones who disagreed with him.
The lesson for today was a real stinker, and even worse at the meeting. Once there and in the study, I realized how blatanly the authors IGNORED the fact that Micah was aiming at the LEADERS in Judah; the ones taking the lead were getting speared. But how is it applied? To US, the rank and file.
Ever notice that every prophecy has a second fulfillment, but NEVER do they apply the ones about LEADERSHIP failure in Israel and Judah to the modern day spiritual Israel; apparently, that it is the only thing that will not ever apply. Hmmm. So, all of the prophecies apply, but never will leadership fail, or need to be called to account by Jah??
Some real obvious and irksome points in the WT today:
pp6: Can Micah's wicked contemporaries expect Jehovah's favor? What? Are the leaders of Judah rightly called his contemporaries? Micah was not at all in their class; he was a lowly prophet and they were haughty and wicked ones, according to the lesson.
pp7: Jehovah will not answer our prayers if we practice sin. That is certainly so if we are living a double life, concealing our wrongdoing while pretending to serve God faithfully. How in the world is concealed sin (by the rank and file) foreshadowed by what the leaders of Judah did in public??? Of course, you know what Mr company man, the WT conductor in my cong, brought up: yep, the internet. So apparently Micah in his wisdom knew that we would be typing away and venting about the lies we are told and gave his prophecy to warn us. Sheesh, what a crappy application.
More likely, it could foreshadow how the LEADERS, THE GOVERNING BODY AND THE SERVICE DEPT. are skinning the sexually abused sheep, breaking their bones and making legal soup out of them, and using our donated money in the process.
pp11: some real clinkers here. Attempts to preach are sure to fail utterly if we willfully practice sin. In that case God coult not answer our prayers for strength to do this work. We certainly cannot declare our heavenly Father's judgement messages unless the "spirit of Jehovah" rests upon us. What in the world is this? Did Greenlees and Chitty preach, and were they not successful, and do not many in the know acknowledge that they were homosexual??? Are there not in most congregations people who were very successful who it turns out later are revealed to have been "sinning" for many years? This is such an irrational statement.
The corollary to it is even more absurd: If we are successful in preaching, it means that we have God's spirit. That statement is patently false.
pp14: After noting Micah's prophecy and it's sure fulfillment, it says: Surely we should be just as confident that the present wicked system of things will end in the foretold "day of Jehovah." While not comparing themselves directly to Micah, the implication is that the end will come in the time frame that the WT has suggested, thereby begging the comparison to Micah. But remember: they are not a prophet!!!
This week's dunderheaded comments in my hall:
"Micah's prophecy applied to the heads of Judah; today we are our own heads, and so it applies to us." (!!) (Try telling an elder that from now on you will be making your own decisions about what to believe, as you are your own head.)
On pp24, brother i wanna be an elder stated that "willful sin is what this is about; that there are NO GRAY AREAS."
It was amazing to me that an entire congregation listened to this discussion of LEADERSHIP failure, and never once did they apply it to leadership in the borg; only to the individual witnesses. What kind of paranoia are they trying to inspire in us, by warning at least three times that PRACTICING SIN (never defining it either; is it gross immoral behavior? Is it a young witness feeling guilty about masturbation?) prevents us from being successful in preaching, and God from hearing our prayer. So if we are practicing sin, and pray to god for help to stop, will he then ignore us??
All the while, the stunningly stupid two witness policy, and the disfellowshiping of whistle blowers is NEVER EVEN thought of by the faithful, never mind the outright lying that the society does through it's lawyers in the sex abuse cases. It is sickening.
I agree with Gopher; this article also irked me no end.
