To Battman, RE: Door to Door stuff

by troubled 14 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  troubled

  Hi Battman,

  You said:

  "The original Greek that was written says that Paul taught
  them in their "houses of worship" not house to house and
  not door to door. Again the WT changes/adds to "inspired"
  scriture to satisisfy their need to go door to door to sell
  mags to get the money. "

  I was wondering where you got the information on the original Greek for this scripture? Recently, I was wondering about the rendering of verses used to suppor the house to house work too, so I looked up a couple of key scriptures in a 1901 American Standard Bible that I had found at a library book sale.

  But what I saw still indicated a door-to-door approach. Especially in the scripture where it discusses if those in the "household" show peace, to let it return, but if not, to shake the dust off your feet and go on. To me, that really sounded like it was discussing actual door-to-door work.

  That's why I'm curious about this.
• 

  larc

  To Troubled, is NOT of the troll class,

  As I recall, Ray Franz comments on this in one of his books. His take on this is that early Christians went from home to home, meaning that they called on people who had shown interest by conversations about Jesus in very day social life. Franz believed that this was a more effective way of reaching people than going to every door in your neighborhood. I will take a look at his books and see if I can find anything more on this.
• 

  battman

  Hiya troubled,
  Thanks for your inquiry. I have written quite
  extensively before on this but not sure if I
  can find that thread. Will be glad to redo
  this information, maybe later today, as this
  was very insightful to me and I am sure you
  will appreciate it also.

  "an informed witness is an ex-witness"

  battman
• 

  larc

  troubled,

  I just looked at Franz'a book, In Search Of Christian Freedom. He devotes an entire chapter to this subject. I think it is a good book for you to purchase, even if you remain a Witness. His discussion of how this issue was dealt with, both by the writing department and the Governing Body is very interesting. Franz's conclusion is stated on p. 215 of the first edition, "That the apostles and other early Christians visited people in their private homes is clear. That they engaged in door-to-door activity as done by Jehovah's Witnesses today is definitely not clear."
• 

  Undecided

  Hi Troubled,

  There is a whole chapter in the book,"In Search Of Christian Frredom" that discusses those scriptures. You should read it for a good explaination of Christ words in Matt.10:9-14 and other comments about the meaning of house-to-house in the bible.

  Ken P.
• 

  NameWithheld

  The simple fact remains that the door-to-door work the JWs participate in is got to be one of the most ineffetive, gross time wasters ever embarked upon. Look at the # of hours spent per each convert (I haven't done this recently, but do some searches on this board, the numbers are astronomically high). The only reason it's still done is a) it's free for the WTBTS as they use slave labor to accomplish it, and b) it's an effetive tool for taking up yet more of a JWs little remaining time each week, thus keeping them busy in 'make work' so they cannot have time to begin to question their belief structure. Of course, those number are probably a bit off since I bet most JWs are a bit 'generous' when they fill out their monthly 'hey I'm spiritual after all' report card.

  Fact is, most other religions are growing faster than JWs, and they do little to no door to door activity, at least in the mannar that JWs do. They do however, participate in community activities, advertise in papers/radio/tv, mail flyers, and do charity work. Among other things. These require more $$ commitment from the church itself, thus the reason you would never see JWs doing that (unless they start to get desperate due to falling #'s of converts).

  I find it hard to beleive that a loving god would consider this an effective means of preaching his word to the world. Especially when that message is 'join us or you will die' (and your little dog too! <insert cackle>)
• 

  SixofNine

  Rex too???!!! <now I'm angry at god!><inserts harruummphhh!>
• 

  NeonMadman

  Actually, there's a pretty good explanation of this in the Watchtower from 1974, believe it or not. For a brief while, during the "loosening up" period in the 70s, the Society actually admitted that Acts 20:20 didn't refer to going from door to door in the sense that the JWs do. Of course, later on, there was more "New Light" (TM) on the subject.

  Tom
  "The truth was obscure, too profound and too pure; to live it you had to explode." ---Bob Dylan
• 

  troubled

  Thanks for the information, all. I do plan to read the Franz book, check out the 1974 WT, and compare with my other Bible translations. An interesting subject.
• 

  battman

  Neon,
  thanks for that '74 flash of lite. Do you know
  the exact issue.

  Troubled,
  very busy today at work but will respond later
  with more info.

  battman