by slimboyfat 11 Replies latest jw friends
A brother in Vienna told me he leaned English because that way you get closer to God's channel of truth. Are such sentiments common in non-English-speaking lands?
Strange how a religiously minded Evangelical may be encouraged to learn Greek and Hebrew, but a Jehovah's Witnesses opts to learn English.
A brother in Vienna told me he leaned English because that way you get closer to God's channel of truth. Are such sentiments common in non-English-speaking lands?
I live in a non english speaking language (As my bad use of the english language probably shows), but this is the first time I hear this.
I can understand somebody trying to learn english if some of the publications are not translated into the more obscure languages. But in German (what they speak there), french, spanish, dutch etc almost all publications are available.
Strange how a religiously minded Evangelical may be encouraged to learn Greek and Hebrew, but a Jehovah's Witnesses opts to learn English.
Learning of greek or hebrew is no really encouraged :). You might actually find out something Danny
You should teach him the "pure language" which will no doubt be Hebrew like Adam spoke to Jehovah,per one of Franz' books.
Whether English is the theocratic language, it certainly seems to be the apostate medium of exchange of choice.
oh ow. touche slimboy. That hurt. I've seen plenty of spanish language apostate sites.
Yes, I there is a big one in German (mineralogist) and another in French that I go to from time to time. Channel C has a Spanish DB too.
Blondie
slim,
First of all, that brother in Vienna sounds like frustrated dub looking for ways to sex-up his boring TRROF experience. I know because I moved to an English speaking congregation before I faded away looking for new ways to get excited about the whole WTS thing.
There is something to dubs learning English to get access to some publications. They can then show off in the congregation. And the "TROOF" sounds more exotic in the language different from your mother tounge.
::Whether English is the theocratic language, it certainly seems to be the apostate medium of exchange of choice.
There is a simple explanation for it: English speaking dubs are very close to the HQ, so it's easier for them to see through the lies and scandals. TO give you an example: the UN thing only hit Polish a year ago or so. Of course there was information about it on Polish "apostate" sites earlier than that, but the Branch Office only informed the congreagations (eerrr, I mean Bodies of Elves) recently.
Pole
Yes, it's very common. To go to Gilead School you must speak english (with the exceptions of the classes they have had in Mexico and Germany). If you want to move up in the foreign bethels, it is very helpfull to know english (Do you know any branch coordinators who don't speak english?) And I imagine the majority of Branch Committee members speak english. When a Zone overseer visits, from my experience he always speaks english. Almost everything is written in English and then translated to the other languages. Some of the translators aren't as good as others. When the translation for spanish was being done in Puerto Rico, there were all kinds of complaints. The meetings of the governing bodies are in English.
English is defenitely the language of Jehovah's Witnesses. If my memory servers me I beleive you will find in their literature a few comments showing that God choose the english language and America, as it was to be the most international language and where there was more religious freedom.
English is the theocratic language?
How about this as an example,
The New World Translation is a translation from the Bible languages to modern english. The english NWT is then translated to other languages like french, german, and so on, just to make sure everyone, no matter what language they are reading the NWT in, will get the same meaning as in the english language NWT.
--VM44
English is defenitely the language of Jehovah's Witnesses. If my memory servers me I beleive you will find in their literature a few comments showing that God choose the english language and America, as it was to be the most international language and where there was more religious freedom.
As strange as it may seem, you are right gring. The "Reasoning book's answer to "Are Jehovha's Witnesses an American religion?" is:
I have not heard of any references to the usew of the English language using this type of reasoning, but if it exists i would love to see the references.They are advocates of God’s Kingdom, not of the political, economic, or social system of any nation of this old world.
It is true that Jehovah’s Witnesses had their modern-day start in the United States. The location of their world headquarters there has helped to make it possible to print and ship Bible literature to most parts of the world. But the Witnesses do not favor one nation over another; they are found in almost every nation, and they have offices in many parts of the earth to supervise their activity in those areas.
Consider: Jesus as a Jew was born in Palestine, but Christianity is not a Palestinian religion, is it? The place of Jesus’ human birth is not the most important factor to consider. What Jesus taught originated with his Father, Jehovah God, who deals impartially with people of all nations.—John 14:10; Acts 10:34, 35.
