Comments You Will Not Hear at the 12-4-05 WT Study (Shepherd)

by blondie 22 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  Nate Merit

  Hi Blondie!
  
  Who or what is the FDS some of your respondents have mentioned? I've been free of WTBTS bondage for a long time. No one used that acronym when I was a JW.
  
  Thanks.
  Nate
• 

  zeroday

  Faithful and Discrete Slave which is usually refering to the Governing Body.
• 

  BluesBrother

  Psalm 23 is , in my view, one of the most beautiful of expressions - even when hacked about by the NWT.

  I wonder if the writer, and Jesus who used the same likeness, really intended this sheep thing to be taken this far? if you think it through, what happens to sheep, in 1st cent or 21st cent?

  they get regularly fleeced...

  They get sent off to market and butchered as soon as they have outlived there usefulness. This thing about the "Loving shepherd" is bull. A shepherd only cares for sheep so as to make money of them. He has no personal affection. He could not do his job if he viewed the animals like pets to be cherished . So.. he cares for the sheep so as to make full use of them then sells or slaughters them . Hardly the most encouraging simile for the Christian family...IMHO

  the article is quite an ordinary discussion of the Psalm . And we have another thread discussing the experience in p 16.

  how about next week when it raises the "responsibilities that sheep have", Could be more contraversial.
• 

  blondie

  Hey Uncle Gary,

  What animal are you like? If ya don't say "sheep", you're not gonna make a very good Jehovah's Witness.

  It wouldn’t be bad to be a sheep if you were amongst other sheep and had truly loving shepherds. But in the WTS, the shepherds are wolves in sheep’s clothing and too many other JWs imitate them.

  Good quote, zeroday,

  Direct it into tactful and organized gospel-preaching.

  Jehovah’s visible organization

  can use you, but can get along without you too . But you cannot get along without it. Fruitless ones are eventually pruned off and never missed as new ones are grafted in.

  Not like this scripture, which shows that the individual is more important than the group.

  (Matthew 18:12-14) 12

  "What do YOU think? If a certain man comes to have a hundred sheep and one of them gets strayed, will he not leave the ninety-nine upon the mountains and set out on a search for the one that is straying ? 13 And if he happens to find it, I certainly tell YOU, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that have not strayed . 14 Likewise it is not a desirable thing with my Father who is in heaven for one of these little ones to perish.

  Good assessment, ackack,

  what percentage of study articles mention the FDS? Seems like about 90% ... is that true?

  By putting Matthew 24:45-47 in the WT-CD search, I get an average of 45 mentions every year; with 24 WT issues that is approximately 2 per article. (this is a rough guesstimate). Sometimes the only scriptural backing for a statement is Matthew 24:45-47.

  FDS (faithful and discreet slave) = GB (WTS) = God’s visible organization on earth = WT is the instrument used by FDS to convey God’s thinking

  ***

  w95 8/1 p. 16 Taught by Jehovah Down Till This Day ***

  Indeed, it has! Three days before his death, Jesus foretold that before the end of this system of things, there would be a great preaching work. "This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations," he said, "and then the end will come." Jesus went on to describe the means by which this worldwide preaching and teaching program would be directed. He spoke of "the faithful and discreet slave" that would serve as a channel, or instrument, to provide His servants with spiritual food. (Matthew 24:14, 45-47) Jehovah God has used this "slave" to oversee Kingdom interests throughout the earth.

  Today, the faithful and discreet slave is made up of the remnant of Kingdom heirs. These are anointed Christians, the remaining ones on earth of the 144,000, who "belong to Christ" and who are part of "Abraham’s seed." (Galatians 3:16, 29; Revelation 14:1-3) How can you identify the faithful and discreet slave? Particularly by the work they do and by their close adherence to God’s Word, the Bible.

  Jehovah uses this "slave" as his means of teaching people today. Those of the slave class adopted the name Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1931. Since then millions have associated with them and have accepted that name and joined in proclaiming God’s Kingdom. This magazine, The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom, is the principal instrument employed by the "slave" in the teaching work. However, other publications are also used, including books, booklets, brochures, tracts, and the Awake! magazine.

  Good point, zeroday,

  The Watchtower has ceased to be a publication intended for the general public. It has become an instrument to stem the outflow.

  And especially since the Awake has been downgraded to one issue a month. The public were not drawn to the WT. But the first few articles are still focused on non-JWs. In the 11/1/05 WT the first 2 articles are "An Unfair World" which segues into the next article "Can Anyone Really Change the World? (bold is theirs).

  Hi, Ann, glad to see you here too,

  Has anyone ever taken Belief-Net's test to see what religion you belong in? I could never understand why I always ended up an Orthodox Jew. With all the OT orientation and the almost complete absence of Christ in the WT publications, it is not a surprise.

  LOL Blondie! I'm glad I'm not the only one! (Islam is 2nd!!!!) But I don't think the reason is the 'absence of Christ.' I think it's our view of who Christ is in relation to God (my guess is you didn't check the '3 persons in one God' option). But you're right about the OT orientation.

  Islam, 2 nd , wow! I’m usually a Quaker second, must be the pacifist side of me. Too bad that BeliefNet doesn’t consider there are non-trinitarian Christians. I have been told that Quakers are not trinitarian.

  Sorry, stillawitness

  Yeah!!! I was looking for blondie's "Comment you will not hear topic" since friday evening!!!

  I should get an early start on it but it has been a long week at work and I just crash when I get home. Swimming in manure can get tiring even with my protective suit.

  Thanks for highlighting that point, Honesty.

  Spiritual food = only WT publications, because the Bible cannot be understood on its own (sounds like something the Pharisees, scribes, and Saduccees told the ordinary Jews)

  wondering why the FDS cut the Awake back to once a month

  Part of me is thinking that they don’t have the staff with the brain power to do it. The Awake articles are different from the WT ones; many times the WTS sends out "reporters" to interview people expert in the areas of science, medicine, botany, etc. The reporters have to be somewhat knowledgeable themselves. Also good researchers are not a dime a dozen anywhere and certainly not in an organization that discourages higher education.

  Hi yaddayadda,

  It is a disgrace that there is no mention of Jesus in this whole article

  Well, they do "mention" Jesus, but they degrade the part he plays which is worse than not mentioning him at all. They want JWs to remember that the are JEHOVAH"S witnesses not Christians. When they start putting up signs at the KHs reading "Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses," they might be seeing the light.

  Wow, yesidid, that was gutsy,

  That was just great. I particularly liked that you quoted the scriptures about Jesus being our shepherd.

  On the strength of that, I found another nine verses along the same vein and sent them to a WT conductor friend.

  I mentioned to him that it was sad, that although the FDS got an honorable mention, Jesus, the Christian's fine shepherd did

  Sorry, Nate,

  Who or what is the FDS some of your respondents have mentioned?

  Actually, it is a somewhat disrespectful ex-JW acronym. JWs online usually use F&DS.

  F

  aithful and D iscreet S lave

  Thanks everyone, great comments, you made my mental processes flow to new ideas,

  Love, Blondie
• 

  stillAwitness

  swimming in manure???

  oh i get it, sarcasm right? meaning your job sinks. got cha!
• 

  blondie

  That and reading the WT, stillawitness.

  Actually I like my job.
• 

  stillAwitness

  oh! i get it now. I just finished up "preparing" my WT and about to leave now. Thanx again. I am able to little by little now really understand misconstrued bible teachings. And in turn hopefully one day come to my own conclusions as to my spirituality
• 

  cyber-sista

  Yes, as long as we stay close to Jehovah, he will care for us as a loving Shepherd "to the
  
  
  length of days," even to all eternity. However, as his sheep, we have the
  
  
  responsibility to walk with our great Shepherd, Jehovah. What this involves will
  
  
  be discussed in the next article.

  Oh, Oh sounds like next week the axe is gonna fall. This is how the WT works--first they give you the kindly soft hearted stuff and then wammo they hit you with the heavy hard stuff (guilt, blame, etc) I have heard of the elders referring it as the sandwich--they give you the soft bread on either side (the encouragement) and then the heavy meat of the matter in the middle (the councel). Kind of blew me away when I heard this "sandwich" term. It is a powerful conditioning tecnique. The WT uses it regularly.

  thanks blondie,

  cybs
• 

  jgnat

  Hey, cyber-sista, I use the sandwich technique all the time with my staff. If I have to share some bad news (usually a behavior they have to change) I start out with what they do well, WHAMMO, and finish off with "I'm confident we can get over this little difficulty." Presenting this way keeps the anguish to a minimum. Whatever compliments I dish out I am completely sincere about. Hardly anybody in the world is all bad. Sandwich. Works.

  (snow is on the ground and on my head, but not in my heart)

  Nice to hear, Blondie, I am freezing!

  Two items stuck out for me in this study. In paragraph 12 we get an OT example of Jehovah's flexibility. First of all, why not a NT example? And second, why doesn't the WT live up to this? Every congregation member receives the same expectation. Pregnancy, disability, and age are no longer an excuse. They all have to put their hours in! Sure, there is lip service to the "older ones", but tell me, practically, once their hours drop and they can't make it to all the meetings any more, how fast do they get dumped from the only community they have ever served?

  The second, is a firm reminder that JW's cannot expect any miracles (Para 14, 15). Well, why not? The early Christians got them. I am sure those evidences of God's power and love made it all the easier to serve Him. Christians are fully justified to search out for fruit in their tree, and if there is none, curse it and move on. (Mark 11:13)
• 

  M.J.

  I'm so impressed, Blondie. How on earth did you ever find the FDS's unidentified references?

  It really gives me a chuckle how the FDS always backs up their reasoning with publications of Babylon the Great, the antichrist, not their own "scholars" and publications.