The Carrot or the Stick?

by doubtfull1799 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  doubtfull1799

  In my time as an Elder I attended many Elders Schools etc and we were often instructed to use the carrot, not the stick. Use commendation and encouragement as opposed to pressuring or guilting the brothers into field service etc.

  It seems in that approach we were not imitating Jehovah. Read Deuteronomy chapter 28: Carrot - first 13 verses. Stick - the remaining 55 verses! Seems Jehovah takes far more pleasure in using the stick. And what a horrible stick he uses!!! No quick painless death for His servants. NO, he really wanted them to suffer first.... Now tell me again, why we said the concept of Hell did not fit God's personality?
• 

  Saethydd

  Because God obviously wouldn't use someone like the Devil who was doing bad things to punish His wayward children. Well... unless you count that time He had the wicked Assyrians carry out His discipline on the Israelites, or the time He had the pagan Babylonians enslave the Jews for 70 years, or that time He used the bloodthirsty Romans to besiege and destroy Jerusalem. Oh and let's not forget the fact that He supposedly had his people enslaved to the Egyptians for hundreds of years just because He felt like they should suffer awhile as slaves before they got to enjoy the "Promised Land."
• 

  doubtfull1799

  Thanks for the contribution @Saethydd - all great points.
• 

  stuckinarut2

  Great observation doubtful1799!

  Yes, The god of the bible is a very bloodthirsty and petty being who tries to coax "love" out of his creatures with the threat of punishment if they dont conform....
• 

  steve2

  People imitate the god or gods they worship.

  If we are ever puzzled by the punitive outlook of JW organization and its representatives in local congregations, JW elders, and we ever reflect upon the level and intensity of bitchiness and judgementalism that not only exist but flourishes in local congregations, we need look no further than the routine pages of "Holy Scripture". It is an unreoresed hotbed of vindictiveness and blood-lusting retribution from beginning to end.

  It is no coincidence that Christianity's stock in trade - a putative Savior's death by bloody torture and "washed clean" with his blood - lends a high tolerance for a hard earned, blood-soaked salvation for those who have been won over to this routinised blood-letting. And punishments unimagined for everyone else.