Is Field Service Going To Be The Key To The End Of The WatchTower Society? (page 2)

Wasanelder Once

"A man coonvinced against his will is of the same opinion still."

The venue of door to door has been ably described and it aint about learnin.

Never give up, never surrender.

W.Once

TheListener

Here's my take.

Plant seeds. Perhaps someday they'll grow.

But, for most dubs, they want to believe the society is right. Therefore if a householder says something thought provoking to the dub, the dub will either forget it and laugh it off with the car group as some blinded fool; or look it up in the society's literature with the cd rom and blindly accept the society's written information. Thus confirming to themselves that the society had already thought of this point and completely discredited it.

I know - It happened to me on more than one occasion.

Now, I look back and wonder how many of those things I laughed off as stupid householders who didn't research their bible really affected me after all.

Plant seeds. If they grow it will take quite some time. But, it's worth it.

Elsewhere

The biggest advantage the JWs have over the people they talk to is they have a thorough understanding of their doctrines and their "proof-texts" in the bible.

For someone to defeat the JWs at their own game, the people being talked to must have a thorough understanding of their own doctrines and their own "proof-texts" in the bible.

Right now most people have their beliefs, but they have never put the needed time and energy into preparing for a defense of their beliefs and this is what the WTS teaches JWs to take advantage of. They basically use a highly organized arsenal to go out and attack unarmed people.

TheListener

Elsewhere, that's right on.

Then after they discuss the bible with people who don't agree with the dub prooftexts they classify them as stubborn or unwilling to listen. The dubs feel that they must be stubborn and blinded because they couldn't offer any proof texts of their own to defend their faith - therefore there must not be any defense of their faith.

garybuss

Witnesses here that I know, have reduced their door to door activities to just presenting the religious literature mass produced by the Watch Tower Publishing Corporation. Just presenting the literature is their "witnessing". In their minds the householder has either accepted or rejected "Jehovah" by accepting or declining cheaply produced literature.

ithinkisee

Seed-planting by a pastor who was prepared to deal with JWs was a significant step in my questioning JWs.

The first time I TRULY began taking stock of what I believed was in 1995. My wife and I were newly married and we were enjoying the first year of marriage. Out in service one day we came upon a carpenter working on a beautifully ornate staircase in a waterfront home. He wasn't the owner of the house, but was working there and had keys to the place.

The carpenter was probably in his late 50's and had a pleasant but authoritative demeanor. He reminded me of a strait-laced family doctor. He was gentle and kind, but had a certain steely resolve.

Upon finding out we were Witnesses, he smiled and said he would LOVE to talk to us. He went and grabbed his bible and proceeded to take us on a step-by-step course of the trinity, Jesus resurrection, immortality of the soul, etc.

To this day I am impressed with the kind manner in which the carpenter spoke to us, and the apparent accuracy of his statements. He was very gentle. Almost as if he was holding our hands and leading us through the wilderness. With no sense of confrontation whatsoever, he showed us from the bible what the original Greek or Hebrew was of various Bible texts, and how the New World Translation badly misconstrued certain words, or how the liberties were taken. He even knew the names of the translations and bible commentators that the Society drew from for their interpretations. He was talking about Westcott & Hort and AT THAT TIME I had no idea what he was talking about. (How embarrassing!)

He also pointed out how coincidental it was that the Society took a certain slant on scriptures, and it always seemed to coincide with their doctrinal developments of the time.

He never said anything derogatory about the New World Translation. He didn't have to. We had our Bibles in front of us, and if he was correct - it was not good.

My wife and I were fuming mad by the end of the discussion. Funny, but this seems to be a common reaction when JWs are unable to answer questions put to them in a kind manner. I have learned this over the years. As a general rule it is either anger, or the JW will simply change the subject.

An embarrassing point: In true JW fashion, I still tried to pawn a set of magazines off on him at the end of the conversation. The carpentar smiled and, in a very accomodating tone, said, "Sure. I'll take your magazines. But I have one rquest of you. If you do nothing else from this discussion - look into the original languages. I am sure it will help you gain a greater appreciation for the Bible."

We said our goodbyes and left. My wife and I never really talked about it again - except saying to the car group and a few other people that we had a long discussion with this guy that was "getting all into ancient Greek and stuff". Everyone just rolled their eyes and said, "Ahh, one of THOSE guys."

This visit with the carpenter stuck with me though - for a LONG TIME. I was angry, for sure, but he had prodded me to do research I had always neglected to do. I began writing scriptures in margins of my bible and in the back of my bible regarding the trinity,etc. I actually still have some of these notes in my bible to this day. I began doing a lot of research in the Society's literature on the Trinity, immortality of the soul, etc.

Of course, using only the Society's literature only confirmed my Jehovah's Witness beliefs. Back then, my confidence was still firm in the society's literature. I relished the thought of being able to meet another guy like the carpenter and being able to go toe-to-toe with him on these kinds of issues. I wanted to have a good foundation in Greek or Hebrew or Latin – or at least the critical words for the basis of my arguments.

I had this desire to do lots of research, but the cares of life and the sheer task of trying to keep up with the Society’s literature and my congregation responsibilities and taking care of my wife quickly crowded it out. But the researching was definitely on my mental “to do” list.

Anyways, you can tell your students that in my case it took TEN YEARS before I got the courage to exit, but that pastor's seed-planting stuck with me since then.

-ithinkisee

ithinkisee

Sonnuvabeach ....

Sorry Honesty ... I didn't realize you were already quoting a Cliff's Notes version I typed up of that account.

-ithinkisee

MerryMagdalene

When I was a JW kid and teen going in FS, the people who had the most impact on me were those who were intelligent, informed, and who very kindly, gently questioned me on a few key points I had no good answer for (even armed with the Reasoning Book). I would often think more about it later. Or question an adult who had no good answer for it either (thus reinforcing what had happened to me at the door).

The other people who were able to get past my "spiritual armor" were those who were simply sympathetic to how difficult what I was doing must be for me. "Aw, you poor kid, having to be out in this weather [heat, cold, whatever]. Bet you'd much rather be ___[doing something fun]." Stuff like that.

~Merry

Rod P

One of the problems of 'Postates like most of us here on JWD is that we know too much about JW's, WTBTS/GB- their doctrines, their practices, their interpretations, their tactics and strategies, as well as their whole litany of lies, hypocracies, false prophecies, etc.

If a JW came to our door, and didn't know we had been a JW, and we invited him/her in for a discussion, it would not take them long to "smell a rat" here. They would sense by the things we would be saying to them that we sound like we were Witnesses too, and so they would probably ask if we had been a JW, and if we were disfellowshipped.....It happened to me.

Damn! I just can't figure out how to "dumb myself down" to have one of them nice little friendly discussions. LOL

Rod P.

Skimmer

I keep a copy of one of the volumes of Crazy Russell's _Studies in the Scriptures_ handy. It's the real thing, about a hundred years old, complete with a WTBTS imprint on the copyright page along with the fold out pyramid chronology chart.

All I have to do is to show this to the hapless JWs at the door and suggest that this was not the only thing that the GB is hiding from them, and that further information is only a Google search away.

It's amusing that the "happiest people on Earth" can have such angry expressions at times.

Is Field Service Going To Be The Key To The End Of The WatchTower Society?

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