Shouldn't the Watchtower study be renamed the "congregation bible study"?

by yadda yadda 2 13 Replies latest jw friends

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  yadda yadda 2

  Why rename the "congregation book study" the "congregation bible study" (a broad, generic term that could be applied to all meetings really) when surely it would have been more appropriate to rename the "Watchtower study" that?

  After all, the Watchtower Study is touted as a "bible study" by the whole congregation, right? JW's consider the Watchtower study as the main weekly study of the bible that they do as a congregation, right? And yet the 'home book study' is being renamed the 'congregation bible study'? Doesn't the Society boast that the purpose of the Watchtower magazine is to study the bible and don't they herald that this is first and foremost their concern as "bible students" - to study the bible!

  Doesn't make sense. It implies that the book study is more biblically oriented than the Watchtower study. New ones will be thinking: "I guess the 'congregation bible study' must be more important than the 'Watchtower study' because the CBS is mainly studying the bible and the latter is mainly studying a magazine".

  They surely missed a trick here. They should left the book study as the "congregation book study" and renamed the Watchtower study as the "congregation bible study".
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  Johan Hultgren

  Maybe they also change the watchtowerstudy to "congregation bible study" and merge them together? Maybe thats the next step?
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  yknot

  Yadda good point ...

  Johan,

  Welcome to JWD !!!

  ahhh to one meeting only..........not even in Christendom.
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  blondie

  When a jw, I would ask the elders why when we studied with people it was a "bible study" and why when we studied as a small group it was a "book study". I never got a straight answer. I wonder how long jws will be stumbling over this new "pure" language? I can remember when they changed it from "backcall" to "return visit".
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  janemissy

  Hi Johan!

  Nice to see you here!

  I feel I'm all over the place at the moment, taking a big dive into the apostateworld.

  Jane
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  OnTheWayOut

  I fully agree with what you are saying. Their main-course for newbies is to invite them
  to the public talk and Watchtower study. This is where they start. It would be a good
  time to indoctrinate them to the feeling that this study from the magazine is a study of
  Bible points and is extremely important.

  I think they goofed up in doing so, also.

  I never refer to their students as "Bible" studies. They, too, are doing a book study so
  I call them "literature" students. I have never been called out on that since my fade
  started. That's the most surprising thing about doing that.
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  undercover

  The Watchtower Study is correct because that's what they're studying...The Watchtower.

  The Congregation Book Study was also correct...because they study a Watchtower Society book.

  Witnesses never study the Bible. They study Watchtower books and use the Bible as a reference book.
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  easyreader1970

  This is mere speculation, but I believe that they won't be studying books, per se, in the "congregation bible study" anymore. I think that the Bible reading portion will be removed from the Theocratic Ministry School and shifted into this "congregation bible study". There will be a means to discuss whatever the assigned chapters are for the week for 25 minutes or so and that will be it.

  The Ministry School will be the same but without going over the assigned chapters. So pretty much just an instruction talk and then the publisher parts 2-4.

  That's just my thinking, anyway. It's based on the fact that they haven't been putting out many meaty publications lately. They've primarily been focusing on books to distribute in the field ministry. It's all surface information that most JWs don't need to study anyway.
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  RebelWife

  I thought this said "coagulation bible study".
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  OnTheWayOut

  I think that the Bible reading portion will be removed from the Theocratic Ministry School and shifted into this "congregation bible study". There will be a means to discuss whatever the assigned chapters are for the week for 25 minutes or so and that will be it.

  Okay, now that's a good speculation. They don't even have to print new books or brochures
  when they tighten the belt at Bethel another knotch. They can just actually get people to
  study older WT publications about the chapters of the Bible. Hence, the name.

  I like it. (I mean I like the way you are thinking, not that I like the study.)