Thought from tonight's meeting

by jula71 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  jula71

  Just a thought from tonight's bible reading that kinda hit in a funny way. In all my years I've never heard this scripture used like this. Here it is:

  *** Rbi8 1 Samuel 21:12-13 *** 12 And David began to take these words to his heart, and he became very much afraid on account of A'chish the king of Gath. 13 So he disguised his sanity under their eyes and began acting insane in their hand and kept making cross marks on the doors of the gate and let his saliva run down upon his beard.

  What the speaker, an Elder, said is that Davis used deception and seemingly dishonesty to protect himself knowing what God's purpose was for him. Likewise today we may be forced to be deceptive, dishonest or even lie when engaged in spiritual warfare to protect God's name and his organization. To me, knowing what I know, it was like a green light to lie to protect the interests of the organization, all I think of is molesters and/or pedophiles. Did anyone else hear this?
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  Nocturne

  I've never heard of anything like this, but it truly sickening .
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  Quotes

  Does anyone have a recording of this? A transcript would be perfect for the quotes web site.
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  jula71

  Na, no recorder or anything. It was the bible highlights talk.
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  jeanniebeanz

  Well, according to another poster here, Schizm, the society speaks very highly of it's leaders lying and teaching others to lie. They call it "theocratic warfare" in spite of the fact that it is immoral, unethical, highly suspect scripturally and designed to defraud the everyday members and block law enforcement personnel.

  Openly in violation of all accepted Christian principles in spite of what they just changed their name to. What a joke...

  J
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  garybuss

  The Witnesses were advocating dishonesty to promote the Watch Tower Society back in the 50's and 60's. It's called theocratic war strategy. They have been using it for years, hell, they're famous for it.
  
  
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  Eyebrow2

  years ago, during a watchtower study I think, of the wall of jericho..and Rahab was it...remember when she hid Joshua and his buddy (was this Caleb...too lazy to get out the bible this late) and the city guards came round asking where they were..she lied and said that they had run in a different direction. I believe that she hid them on her roof.

  Anyhoo..the elder conducting the study said that she wasn't really lying in the eyes of god, because the city guards did NOT have a right to know the truth. That is the first time I REALLY felt uncomfortable about a teaching. Hey, I think she did the right thing, but why not say, hey, she lied to protect the men..her telling the truth would have been a much greater sin...blah blah blah.

  I do believe that you should be honest whenever possible. But I do think there are some exceptions...very few, where it may be necessary and sometimes even appropriate to lie. (I cannot recall yet having to do this...hey I am not perfect, I have been guilty of white lies before, but usually am a very honest person) I often wondered, if the great tribulation started, and the cops came to my door looking for my witnesses I had hidden, how could I convince them they weren't there by lying? Oh the moral dilemna...apparantly this comment by the elder cleared that up. But, they way it was presented just left a bad taste in my mouth.

  So, is "food at the proper time" just a code phrase for: on a need to know basis, or YOU DON't HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW ???
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  FairMind

  I do believe that you should be honest whenever possible. But I do think there are some exceptions...very few, where it may be necessary and sometimes even appropriate to lie.

  Sounds like a balanced and reasonable viewpoint to me.
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  ValiantBoy

  I have heard this Theocratic Warfare strategy as well, along with the reasoning that some people do not deserve to know the truth.It was always in reference to times of persecution. It also made me very uncomfortable...seemed like a cop out. And, of course, I would not be a bit surprised if it was used in conjunction with the child abuse policy.
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  jaredg

  didn't moses lie to the egyptians about sarah. he said it was his sister instead of his wife to protect her. i think the WTS uses this example to justify lieing to protect themselves and promote "theocratic warefare".