Fred and Ray on Door-to-Door: the Truth

by compound complex 33 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • compound complex
    compound complex

    Dear Yaddayadda,

    I am very grateful for your reply and am once again reminded that many minds must come together to correctly assess a matter. When reading your comments on the distributive and consecutive senses, I recognized that you were going further on the matter than touched upon in the book. You obviously have done your homework, and now I have more to work with. Additionally, you have offered a balanced outlook that I truly appreciate. My understanding is that, surely, first-century Christians could very well have gone from one house to another. But we know where the Society has taken this, and why.

    You have gone to great effort to prepare this material. I feel privileged and humbled as its recipient!

    Grateful Thanks,

    CoCo

  • yaddayadda
    yaddayadda

    You're very welcome Coco. Glad you found it helpful.

  • steve2
    steve2

    It's interesting that the GB was governed by two modern-day contingenies in interpreting house to house in its modern-day literal meaning:

    1) Keep the rank and file busy (otherwise they'll watch TV) and 2) keep the enormous printing presses economically viable (i.e., selling literature door-to-door).

    Here's a perfect example of how a religious group can claim to simply "go back" to the Bible, in fact do anything but "go back" to what the Bible says.

  • Narkissos
    Narkissos

    The problem with the WT interpretation of kat'oikon cannot be simply be solved by determining a general "distributive" use of kata + accusative. For in the NT this particular expression clearly refers, in a semi-technical way, to communitarian meetings in private homes of wealthy Christian patrons hosting the ekklèsia, or part of it. Cf. its use in Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19; Colossians 4:15; Philemon 2 which is neither "distributive" nor "consecutive" as it refers to one place of meeting in every instance.

    In Acts this expression is both parallel and contrasted with to hieron, "the temple" (2:42), for the "breaking of bread," or ritual communitarian meal; the same parallel and contrast is found in 5:42 for equally collective teaching and preaching.

    The same can be said of the plural form kat[a tous] oikous: this is where Saul looks for and finds the ekklèsia (8:3) -- he doesn't go from door to door in the whole city, nor even looks for every private Christian home, but targets the places of meetings. This is where Paul taught, not unbelievers but the elders of the ekklèsia in Ephesus(20:20).

    Undoubtedly unbelievers could join the "services" of the ekklèsia kat'oikon (as is implied in 1 Corinthians 14:23, for instance), but it is absolutely ludicrous to isolate this expression from its overall NT contexts and imagine it depicts the apostles knocking at the homes of unbelievers to preach the Gospel privately to each and every one of them.

    Incidentally Luke has a different expression for "from house to house" (ex'oikias eis oikian) in Luke 10:7, pointing to what the missionaries should not do (changing hosts in the same town).

  • compound complex
  • compound complex
    compound complex

    bttt for truthseeker

  • compound complex
  • NewYork44M
    NewYork44M

    Even though this is an old thread I will comment.

    The primary purpose of the d2d ministry is to coercively control and judge the r&f. While it may have started as a mechanism of recruitement, the method has proved to be ineffective.

    So why continue? Those in charge must have a means to control the flock. This is a perfect tool. No matter how successful or unsuccessful a person is in the ministry he or she will always be judged unworthy because you can always do more.

  • lovelylil
    lovelylil

    good thread, thanks guys. Lilly

  • katiekitten
    katiekitten

    I am currently reading "In Search of Christian Freedom".

    Its an excwllwnt book, and every much as thought provoking as CoC. Every single chapter makes me think 'WHY DIDNT I SEE THAT WHEN I WAS IN??' Its all such obvious stuff.

    Theres no way that religion is even close to the right one.

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