Bill Bowen's visit to the Kingdom Hall:
I went to the Meeting on Sunday because I wanted to
hear the comments on the Watchtower Study, I knew that someone would say something about Dateline or the silentlambs, because the Watchtower article being studied is the March first issue that talked about the "slanderous media reports".
First, the Public Talk:
It was an impromtu Public Talk given by an Elder. It
was about the neutrality issue, with some other things
thrown in. Basically he was saying that Jehovah's
Witnesses should not take up arms and fight in wars,
and that at Armageddon JW's would not do any actual
fighting, however, he did say that JW's will have to
await instructions from the Watchtower Society, and
the JW's may have to preach a condemnation message to
the nations after Babylon the Great is destroyed. I
guess basically the message would be "It's too late to
repent -- you're all going to die, and there's nothing
you can do about it!" Wow, that sounds like "good
news" to me.
Then he said that JW's should not pay attention to the
news media's propaganda.
He also made some comment about "having a job is not
that important for JW's, as long as they are going out
in service, Jehovah will provide for them." (Not the
exact words, but pretty close)
He went on to say that we don't want to be like "those
people who some years back were stumbled because they
were serving with a date in mind, and then when
Armageddon didn't come, they fell away."
I assume he was talking about 1975, or perhaps the
Generation of 1914, but either way, the only reason
they were serving with a date in mind is because the
Watchtower Society told them to. The Watchtower
Society puts the blame on the ones who were stumbled,
instead of the ones who stumbled them.
Then he said "What if you knew that the end of this
system does not come for another 500 years, would you
still serve Jehovah? Or would you slow down on meeting attendance or field service? JW's should not be serving with a date in mind."
Now, on to the really interesting part -- THE
WATCHTOWER STUDY:
The comments on Paragraphs 5-6 were most interesting.
First, a Sister answered and said that JW's must NOT
associate with apostates, OR with those who may become apostates, that are currently complaining about the Elders or the Society!
THEN, the same Elder who gave the Public Talk,
answered and said (THIS IS THE BIG ONE!):
"It is not always apostates that spread lies about the
JW's, sometimes it is the news media. For instance,
recently there was a television show about child abuse
in the Jehovah's Witnesses, and I can't remember the
name of the show, but the news media itself really
distorted the facts about Jehovah's Witnesses in that
Program. It's like that old saying, 'believe nothing you
hear, and only half of what you see.'"
Net Soup!