i have to echo 'puffdragon'....
we had a district overseer that used the term 'mother' repeatedly...and i must say, after one year of working closely with him, it rubbed off on me.
and trust me, i wasn't trying to sound all 'earnest' or doing it for attention: i really believed it.
somehow, it was a beautiful idea when i had my 'eyes' closed.
memories like that do more to force me to work on humility...more than ANYthing i ever read in a bible...
to this day, it all reminds me that everything i know can be WRONG...even now.
life is not static: it changes, and so do i.
'once and for all' decisions are impractical and dangerous for a being that is literally changing by the second.
im a teeny tiny human being.
"Mother" knows best
by discreetslave 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Unlearn
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Badfish
See our mother put to death
See our mother die
Smoldering decay, take her breath away
Millions of our years in minutes disappears
Darkening in vain, decadence remains
All is said and done, never is the sunFire
To begin whipping dance of the dead
Blackened is the end
To begin whipping dance of the dead
Fire
Is the outcome of hypocrisy
Darkest potency
In the exit of humanity
Color our world blackened -
sherah
As a child, I've heard the org called 'mother' in the 80's. It confused me until an old timer explained it.
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Bobcat
Here is what Galatians 4:21-5:1 (NWT) says about a Christian's spiritual mother:
21 Tell me, YOU who want to be under law, Do YOU not hear the Law? 22 For example, it is written that Abraham acquired two sons, one by the servant girl and one by the free woman; 23 but the one by the servant girl was actually born in the manner of flesh, the other by the free woman through a promise. 24 These things stand as a symbolic drama; for these [women] mean two covenants, the one from Mount Si′nai, which brings forth children for slavery, and which is Ha′gar. 25 Now this Ha′gar means Si′nai, a mountain in Arabia, and she corresponds with the Jerusalem today, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
27 For it is written: "Be glad, you barren woman who does not give birth; break out and cry aloud, you woman who does not have childbirth pains; for the children of the desolate woman are more numerous than [those] of her who has the husband." 28 Now we, brothers, are children belonging to the promise the same as Isaac was. 29 But just as then the one born in the manner of flesh began persecuting the one born in the manner of spirit, so also now. 30 Nevertheless, what does the Scripture say? "Drive out the servant girl and her son, for by no means shall the son of the servant girl be an heir with the son of the free woman." 31 Wherefore, brothers, we are children, not of a servant girl, but of the free woman.
5 For such freedom Christ set us free. Therefore stand fast, and do not let yourselves be confined again in a yoke of slavery.
A Christian's "mother" is the new covenant. Unfortunately, the Society denies that most JWs are in that covenant (and thus don't partake at the memorial). This leaves most JWs mother-less. They think of the great crowd as slaves of the Anointed. (Cmp w08 1/15 pp.24-26 pars.1,2,6) Which, for all practical purposes, means the GB.
Interesting that during the DC part on this, no mention was made of the above verses from Galatians. (Interesting, not unexpected.)