does god command christians to go from door to door preaching the gospel?.
source:http://www.thercg.org/questions/p070.a.html.
based on a quick reading and misinterpretation of acts 20:20, many believe that the apostle paul preached the gospel of the kingdom from house to house, to those who were unconverted.
"I wonder why they did it on Friday nights Bungi Bill."
I would have thought that was obvious:
- during those years, in Christchurch at least, they still had late night shopping in the CBD on Friday nights.
The shoppers were the people being targeted, and those doing the street witnessing themselves moved on once the shops closed at 9pm.
So much for "targeting drunks"!
Bill.
PS: You may have been home when the JWs called, but then again you are not everybody, as you ought to be able to realise.
does god command christians to go from door to door preaching the gospel?.
source:http://www.thercg.org/questions/p070.a.html.
based on a quick reading and misinterpretation of acts 20:20, many believe that the apostle paul preached the gospel of the kingdom from house to house, to those who were unconverted.
stillthinking,
I am going to go ahead and answer what you posed as a rhetorical question - i.e. "How many times have you had a face to face conversation with someone telling you the good news about Jesus in a public place?"
That used to be a common occurrence in Central Christchurch during the mid-1970s, and it was by no means unknown there during the decades after that, either. (When I lived in Christchurch between 1997 - 2001, they were still active about the CBD most Friday evenings). Also, these ones actually talked about Jesus, rather than merely attempting to offer literature (and little JW literature has much to say about Jesus, let it be noted!) Furthermore, unlike those ones mentioned by NewChapter, none that I recall ever sported the "Thousand Yard Stare."
As for calling "when they are at home"; very much in the industrialised countries, the only time people are at home is at night. Call then, and you only succeed in frightening them (I had several such bad experiences like that, thinking - like you were suggesting - that I was doing the right thing by calling when they were home, only to have people think that I was a home invader).
Mine was not the only experience like that, either.
Bill.
PS: Like you, I no longer believe in a god of any sort, either.
does god command christians to go from door to door preaching the gospel?.
source:http://www.thercg.org/questions/p070.a.html.
based on a quick reading and misinterpretation of acts 20:20, many believe that the apostle paul preached the gospel of the kingdom from house to house, to those who were unconverted.
still thinking,
With over 5000 publisher-hours spent for every baptism (many of whom, anyway, are young persons who were raised as JWs), the "personal touch" of door knocking is something of a blunt instrument.
Also, the benefits of talking to people "face to face" are not applicable when nobody is at home;
- and usually never at home at the times that JWs call.
Anyway, do you not think it possible to have "face to face" contact with people while in public? I saw it done often enough in Third World countries.
Bill.
does god command christians to go from door to door preaching the gospel?.
source:http://www.thercg.org/questions/p070.a.html.
based on a quick reading and misinterpretation of acts 20:20, many believe that the apostle paul preached the gospel of the kingdom from house to house, to those who were unconverted.
The last two posts carry the impression that the ONLY way to reach people with a message is door to door.
All I can say is that where I live, whenever we get a bushfire emergency, the authorities use much more effective methods than that to order an evacuation:
- otherwise we would have all been cremated long ago!
A lot of effort has been expended, all-right:
- by the WTS trying to twist scripture around, in order to bulldoze the R&F into hauling their bookbags door to door.
Bill.
so we had spent years building our "theocratic library" of bound volumes, books and other materials.
personally, i boxed everything, taped the boxes closed and threw them in a dumpster at a construction site.. i did actually feel bad though.
that was a lot of paper which could have been recycled!.
It gave me a feeling of great satisfaction to load them all into an incinerator, pour several liters of kerosene over everything:
- then put a match to the bloody lot!
(My only regret is that I left it for 20 years after I should have consigned them to the flames).
Bill.
does god command christians to go from door to door preaching the gospel?.
source:http://www.thercg.org/questions/p070.a.html.
based on a quick reading and misinterpretation of acts 20:20, many believe that the apostle paul preached the gospel of the kingdom from house to house, to those who were unconverted.
If you have lived in places like Papua New Guinea, you would likely have got more of a feel for the way in which the early Christians attempted to reach out to the public.
In countries like PNG, people still go to the local markets more for just something to do - and also to meet other people - than they do to buy and sell goods.
The more savvy of the JWs in PNG realize this, and focus their attentions on the local markets. Further, it almost goes without saying that the other evangelistic religions in that country concentrate nearly all their attentions on the local markets; i.e. where the people are - NOT where they are not!
This equates with accounts in the New Testament in which the apostles and others preached in the market places.Back in those times in the Middle East, the markets were where people congregated.
True to form, though, the WTS in Papua New Guinea still insists on "door to door";
- either in the main residential areas of the cities, where every house is set back behind a high security fence, topped with razor wire (and usually with a pair of dobermans loose in the yard). There, you can stand all day outside the gate, rattling the padlock, and nobody is going to take a blind bit of notice of you.
- or alternatively, in the squatter settlements that surround the cities, where entry by a non-resident is an almost certain way in which to get mugged.
Scriptures that supposedly tell of First Century Christians preaching from door to door are - to say the least - open to debate. However, if you have lived in countries like PNG, it is not hard to to realize where they did concentate their attentions;
- i.e. where the people congregated, mainly around the local markets. In other words, the First Century equivalents of either the Internet , or in front of a television screen.
My own observations, based entirely on experience!
Bill.
not to sound like the gloom and doom cult we were apart,.
but are we heading for an collapse in our society?.
iam sure we all are familiar with the signs that bring about.
Given that we were being told this 40 years ago (by an organisation that shall remain anonymous!) - and yet we are still here in 2012 - I don't believe ya!
Furthermore, I make no apology for saying so.
Bill.
2pm, january 9, 2010 san juan, puerto rico.... jws from all over the island take turns to use the biggest coliseum in the caribbean (jose miguel agrelot coliseum).
the big event... a brief 2-hour assembly featuring brooklyn bethel celebrities including anthony morris iii.
there had been a lot of excitement building up in the days preceding this event as there were rumors circulating that the society had a very special announcement to make.. after 2 ambiguous talks from 2 bethel speakers, anthony morris iii finally takes the stage and everyone is so thrilled to see him up close or on the big screen behind the stage.
This sounds like every "Special Talk", "Special Assembly" etc . that I ever attended;
- afterwards, you were left asking "Why did I bother going to it ?"
Bill.
when you left the wts, how long did it take you to realize that most of the people around you are decent folks, not "worldlies" or "bad association"?.
how hard was it for you to accept this reality?.
it seems to me that even after realizing ttatt, it often takes a long time to realize the extent to which the organization's indoctrination still governs attitudes and thoughts....
Some years after breaking with the JWs, I realised the need to rediscover the person I was before the Watchtower Madness took hold. Part of that included contacting many of the people I used to be close to.
It was then that the realisation hit - I actually used to know many excellent people who were "Worldlies." Furthermore, these same "Worldlies" were actually better people than many of the JWs that I knew.
I was particularly impressed by the way many of my former friends readily accepted me back:
- particularly after the way I had attempted to "witness" to them back then, about the imminent "End of the System" and other similar such nonsense. They would have had very good reason to believe that I had taken complete leave of my senses, but obviously no longer held that against me. Quite the opposite (with one only exception) to my JW family.
So, yes, their propaganda about "Worldlies" is just one more WTS lie.
Bill.
howdy guys and girls!.
how many of you have heard the jehovah's witness urban legend about the demonised teddy bear?.
if you're from north london and were a witness during the late eighties and early nineties, there's a good chance you would have heard it.. i was lucky enough to have played a part in the actual account!.
King Solomon,
Of course, much was read into the fact that the thing blew up when quizzed about the year 1975!
Bill.
