Franz is an idiot. He could probably get you people to believe that the moon is made of green cheese. The Scriptures are very plain about the matter. Paul said that he handed men over to Satan. That means that it was against their will that they were removed from the anointed congregation. Paul also said "remove the wicked man from among yourselves." The truth of the matter is very simple and easy to understand for anyone who loves truth. / You Know
You couldn't have provided a better example of what I was speaking about in my post above in this thread. The scriptures you cite are quite plain and valid. But because the scriptures state "A" (if you don't know what I mean by that, please read my above post), you are willing to accept as being 'scriptural' the "B" and "C" that the Watchtower adds.Or perhaps you could also point out the scriptures that authorize secret judicial committee meetings, absolute shunning of disfellowshipped ones, including family members, and disfellowshipping for organizational offenses (for example, declaring someone "apostate" if he disagrees with any published teaching of the organization)? (With regard to the last item, I see much evidence in scripture of doctrinal disputes among first-century Christians, even resulting in major congregational problems, but I don't see a single case of one of the disputing ones being disfellowshipped for "apostasy".) Tom "The truth was obscure, too profound and too pure; to live it you had to explode." ---Bob Dylan