Posts by OHappyDay

24

Comments You Will Not Hear at The 9-28-03 WT Study

by blondie in

comments you will not hear at the 9-28-03 wt study

reviewer comments are in black and parentheses ().

wt article quotes are in

OHappyDay

Blondie, you asked if we were all out in field service this quiet morning. I was. I enjoy field service now that we are encouraged to listen to people more. And use the Bible. Both of these things are potentially dangerous to closeminded Witnesses. My placements are way down because I am not primarily concerned with placing literature, just with talking with people.

I found this WT Study article to be devoid of spirit, holy or otherwise. Can't we get out of the Old Testament for a while? The whole article mentioned Jesus only once or twice. It had to mention Jesus in the prophecy about Bethlehem, but he was missing in action elsewhere.

Your critique of the article was devastatingly on target, as usual. I'm trying to hold on because there is nothing else out there that I feel comfortable with. But I'm feeling less and less comfortable with WT dogma as well.

I'm sure that the prophet Micah was a good guy. But I am a Christian. I want Jesus.

24

Comments You Will Not Hear at the 9-21-03 WT Study

by blondie in

comments you will not hear at the 9-21-03 wt study

reviewer comments are in black and parentheses ().

wt article quotes are in

OHappyDay

I'm also tired of this anointed-other sheep stuff. If the New Testament and the Great Commission were written/given for the anointed, where is the new book and new commission for the other sheep? If the New Testament was written for the anointed, what is its relevance to me, who would not be accepted by the WTS as anointed even if the holy spirit told me I was? Regardless of what the Spirit says, I was born at the wrong time, according to our doctrine.

"One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism." What happened to that?

We have painted ourselves into too many corners, and are too proud to crawl out.

24

Comments You Will Not Hear at the 9-21-03 WT Study

by blondie in

comments you will not hear at the 9-21-03 wt study

reviewer comments are in black and parentheses ().

wt article quotes are in

OHappyDay

blondie says:

Another thing to notice in most articles lately, is the absence of Christ or Jesus in the equation of faith and salvation. It’s not amazing then that the public do not view JWs as Christians because Christ plays such a small part in their "hope." It is not until the last paragraph that Christ as King is mentioned and only in a secondary way.

Yep, we're going to Hell over that!

It really disappoints me to see that, but our very name, Jehovah's Witnesses, puts us back into the Old Testament. Maybe we just don't understand the New Testament very well, and with the loss of Freddie Franz there are no Greek scholars left to properly interpret it for us. So we leave it alone. The Society's Commentary on the Letter of James appears to have been a one-shot deal, no other New Testament commentaries have followed. A pity, to be sure.

Thanks for a more realistic WT Study.

46

Is the WTS slowly turning into a mainstream religion?

by obiwan in

i took this off of xjw_b12's thread.

(hope you don't mind).

"when considering whether to include a pinata at a social gathering, christians should be sensitive to the consciences of others.

OHappyDay

No. The WT will never turn into a mainstream religion as long as it must keep up the tension between itself and "the world." That quote in the September 22 Awake (page 24) does not reflect new thinking. Rather, it reflects doublespeak. The Society has for long said that we should not make much of conscience matters, even while it continues to dictate and restrict everything that Witnesses must do.

The latest cultish mind control can be found in the new dictum that we must be "ministers" 24-7, that is, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We must be prepared to give a witness at all times and should never relax our guard or our grooming. No more casual clothes, even at home. I suppose one cannot even wear a swimsuit at the beach, since exposing too much flesh renders us unfit to witness.

No relaxation, you slackers! No vacations, no fun! Preach, preach, PREACH!!!

15

Here is Blondie's "Comments You Won't Hear at the 9-14-03 WT Study"

by Gopher in

blondie and irreverent are away -- so blondie has asked me to post this in her absence.. so -- with great pleasure, i present to you:.

comments you will not hear at the 9-14-03 wt study.

reviewer comments are in black and parentheses ().

OHappyDay

I wonder why the drumbeating on telling the truth? Have JWs been found to be major liars in dealing with one another?

As for truth, either Jesus returned in 1914 or he did not. But earlier the WTS said he returned in 1874. Which was it?

Either Armageddon came in 1975 or it did not. Either Christendom has "fallen" or she has not. (Church attendance is booming in many places.)

Either the many speculations of the fallible men in Brooklyn are true or they are not. So far they are batting Zero.

55

Faithful & Discreet Slave - NEW LIGHT

by Black Man in

ok........has anybody been hearing rumors about new light on the faithful and discreet slave teaching?

i recently talked to one of my ex-bethel buddies and he said that an adjustment has been in the works for awhile now and that the new light for the fds will be that they will receive their appointment before the great tribulation and that they didn't receive it at 1918-19 as previously taught.

their works (global preaching work, worldwide growth, etc) up until the point of the great tribulation will show that they have been faithful and discreet in caring for the lord's interests and worthy of "official" appointment before the end comes.

OHappyDay

Modifying the F&DS doctrine could also allow them to finally disavow the whole date and chronology thing, since it has proved to be useless and unstainable.

It is ridiculous to keep teaching that the kingdom was established in 1914 when so much time has passed since then, with no kingdom in sight.

It would also allow Witnesses to focus on serving God because it is the right thing to do, not because of a long-delayed Armageddon that is coming "soon".......

They have an opportunity to turn things around if they are wise enough to seize it.

25

Comments You Will Not Hear at the 9-7-03 WT Study

by blondie in

comments you will not hear at the 9-7-03 wt study

what about adam?

what did jesus say about the pharisees?.

OHappyDay

Excellent work. Too many Witnesses have a selective love of truth, not wanting its light to shine too brightly upon us and our organization.

Why don't we love those who "speak truth to power"? Those who make great sacrifices to point out our own faults and failings (instead of someone else's)? Why can't we handle it when truth exposes our inconsistences, our failed prophecies, our grabbing at spiritually insignificant things to make big deals of them?

To quote Jack Nickolson's character in the movie, "[We] can't handle truth!" When people among us start speaking the uncomfortable truth we have only one response: to shut them up one way or another.

It's real hard being a Witness these days. We are encouraged to read and meditate on the Bible, the word of truth. But when we see that the Bible condemns us, we shut that truth out, just like the Israelites did.

10

The Watchtower Society and Faith versus Works

by UnDisfellowshipped in

"--isa 5:23; jas 2:8, 9.

(jas 2:14-26) here james was not contradicting paul by saying that one could earn salvation by works.

the watchtower, may 1, 1976 issue, page 276:.

OHappyDay

A nice topic, but much too long!

The Society knows full well what the Bible says about undeserved kindness ["grace"], and that salvation is a free gift. But if they left it at that, they could not press us to "Do more!" in the field service. So, their agenda and man-made tradition invalidates the Word of God. Like the "evil slave" they beat and guilt-trip fellow Witnesses into more preaching.

There are no instructions for preaching by the rank-and-file in the Bible. Instructions to preach were given to the elders, and are found in the Pastoral Epistles, not in the General Epistles written to all believers. As recorded in the Bible, about the most preaching done by the rank-and-file Christian was the "informal" type, not the highly structured door-to-door activity of Jehovah's Witnesses.

So powerful is the preaching work that some Witnesses have believed, wrongly, that more time in the ministry covers over gross sins! On the other hand the Bible says that faith and belief lead to salvation, not preaching.

25

Comments You Will Not Hear at the 8-31-03 WT Study

by blondie in

8/15/97 wt p 14

6/1/52 wt p. 340

2/1/96 wt p. 19

OHappyDay

Pistoff said:

He finished by reminding us that we are SO CLOSE to the new system, and if we choose his rulership we can enjoy life in a perfect new world, he did well the first time by using system instead of world, but true to his 5 year behind the times form, finished by reverting to the phrase new world, quietly abandoned a few years ago by the blessed ones in brooklyn.

Um, I think it has reverted back to "new world" now, according to recent articles and the inside cover of Awake! magazine. You have to remember that "new light" comes and goes in nanoseconds, and if you blink you might be caught in "old light."

Just wanted to add my thanks to you, blondie, for this thread, and to the others for very insightful comments. The balance is refreshing.

I think the WT theologians should take a sabbatical and get back to the Bible. In professing to be so wise they have become biblically ignorant, and in putting on the robes of spiritual superiority they do not know that they are naked.

18

Memorial observance It isnt about Jesus at all!

by 1badmutha in

we all know that jesus is a pretty much-overlooked figure by the wbts.

they refuse to celebrate his birth for a number of convoluted reasons, which i refuse to argue.

but, it is curious that they celebrate the death of christ.

OHappyDay

Yes, better research will make your words more effective. For example, most Christians do memorialize the death of Jesus, since Jesus told them to do so: "Do this in remembrance of me." In many churches, though, it is called Communion or Eucharist.

Also, there is no proof that Russell was ever a Mason of any sort, let alone 32nd or 33rd degree. If he were that high in Masonry, there would be documentary evidence. A lot of people of his time held to Pyramidology, not just Masons. The winged sun disk may have been associated with Egypt and Assyria, but it is also found in the Bible, which mentions the "sun...with healing in its wings."

Rosicrucians are not the same as Masons.