by thomas15 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
How would a JW knocking at my door answer this question that I might ask them "You seem to know all about the Bible, so tell me please, what must I do to be saved"?
Paul answered this question Acts 16:31 "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved..." But how would the witnesses answer this question assuming that they didn't have any idea that the householder knew the Biblical answer or if they did suspect that the householder had some Bible knowledge?
What must I do to be saved?
Depends on your OS
Ctrl+S for windows
apple+s for OSX
vi :w or :wq if you want to save and quit using an old skool UNIX editor.
1. Get baptised as a Jehovah's Witness
2. Trust in the Faithful & Discreet Slave
3. Attend all the meetings, conventions and assemblies
4. Be active in your ministry and turn in your time
5. Read and study all the publications
6. Follow all the rules and requirements
7. Do more in your ministry!
8. Give talks
9. Stay in God's earthly organization
10. Keep doing more in your ministry!
What does the Bible say about being saved?
Ephesians 2:8
For by such GRACE you have been saved through faith. This does not come from you; it is the gift of God and not the result of works, to put a stop to all boasting.
Sometimes, a simple transfusion of whole blood can save your life. Often only plasma or red cells are needed.
/end sarcasm
Your question really answered by the Borg
w 1952 July 1st p.389 Answering the Question, Are You Saved?
Such persons generally evince intense concern over the destiny of their fellow man because they labor under the religious delusions that the soul is immortal and that eternal torment is the fate of all those not saved, whereas the Bible plainly states that the soul that sins dies, and that the wages sin pays is death. Death is the absence of life. (Ezek. 18:4; Rom. 6:23) However, not fear of eternal torment, but love of God, love of righteousness and love of life should make us concerned as to whether we are saved or not and cause us to ask the question, "What must I do to be saved?"
From the Scriptures we learn that Jehovah God alone has the answer to our question. And he has the answer not only in that he has the true and reliable information on the subject, but also in that he has the means by which we may get saved. Foreknowing the desire of honest persons to get saved from present evil conditions and to a righteous new world he purposed to provide that salvation before ever a child was born to Adam and Eve. This is clearly to be seen from the prophetic promise God made immediately after our first parents rebelled: "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."—Gen. 3:15.
Now you know!
fokyc
A JW would likely read to you John 17:3 from the NWT, which says something like "This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God..."
Then they'd say "so the first step is to learn about Jehovah. Say, speaking about learning, I just happen to have this book / magazine / tract...."
Hey, fokyc, I didn't see ONE instance of Jesus in those paragraphs. NOT ONE! Just the "prophetic promise" which is a down play of giving Jesus the real credit for being saved.
The witlesses will give you a self serving answer. First, you must study the Bible--and it has to be with the aid of one of their pieces of littera-trash, preferably the current one (the Bible Washtowel Teach book is it as of this posting). You will be required to set aside an hour a week, preferably twice a week, to study this book. Of course, you are expected to be prepared when they show up.
After a few weeks, you will start being required to give up the things that mean the most to you. At first, it will not be too bad--they usually start with the illegal drugs, spiritism, and the idols from other religions. At such point, they will also make a point to warn you that any information that seems to be against the religion is from Satan, and that you are wise to limit exposure to family members that do not subscribe to your new religion so they cannot sway you away from the "truth".
Next, you are invited to the Kingdumb Hell to go to the boasting sessions. Sunday is most popular as a starting point, since most people do church then anyways. Once you start going to the Sunday boasting sessions, they will start hounding you to arrange work schedules so you can go to the Tuesday or Thursday boasting sessions as well (it used to be both, but as of the beginning of 2009, they condensed it to one). Which will depend on whether your congregation has its boasting session on Tuesday or Thursday. They will want you to join the Theocraptic Misery "School(??)", including cleaning up your life of anything that blatantly contradicts the washtowel teachings. Usually, you will have had to cut ties to other religions, legalize or terminate your relationship with significant others, quit smoking if you smoke, and otherwise live a "clean" life. Pedophilia, however, is accepted--not officially, but as a matter of practice.
After a while of this, you will be required to give up other things that might "stumble" others. This includes a good chunk of your music and video library (not just the porn and very filthy music this time--anything that is even a little suggestive is "bad" this time, since others might be stumbled. If you do not, they will continually hound you and threaten that your salvation might be in jeopardy unless you comply. If you are in college, you will be asked to drop out (indirectly, of course). If you have children in college, you might also be asked to cut off funding or otherwise get them to drop out--of course, making it seem as if they made the decision). Everything about your life will now be analyzed, and whatever might stumble others is severely criticized.
Next comes field circus. You will be asked to go out in field circus "as much as you possibly can", to get a sense of what it is like and how to do it. You will have a partner that has experience, often your study conductor at first. This is supposed to be the hallmark of salvation, and of the religion.
Once you have field circus going, you will be asked to get baptized. This also is necessary, since it commits you to the organization in full. Once you take that step, you now have to remain active and faithful in order to get "salvation". Break any of the rules, fail to do field circus, or question anything the Filthful and Disgraceful Slavebugger puts out, or even show that they are blatantly wrong (with proof right from their own Bible that they are wrong), and your salvation is threatened. You must remain faithful like that until you die, or until Armageddon comes (which is supposed to be any day now, for the past 130 years).
And even then, you only may be concealed (Zephaniah 2:2-3).
Colton, you forgot step 11. Be utterly and totally bored and miserable.
Ok, right now I'm trying to regain my composure enough to ask a few questions. Please give me a second.
All right then. WTWizard, is it normal to go through all the steps you mention before heading out into the field? How long would it take on average from 1st contact at my door to first field service experience?
fokyc, your answer (besides not mentioning Jesus as already pointed out), from a quick reading I get the impression that the WT wants everyone to be so confused and intimidated that they put the question aside. Is this a correct assumption? Are they counting on the householder not looking up the Bible verse Romans 6:23? And if a person knew that they had to be saved, then they probably know that they are sinners and will die because of it, so why repeat back to the householder what they already probably know? And of course, the last paragraph, where one would normally expect to find the answer to the question, does not contain an answer. All it says in short is that there is an answer out there, just not in this article. Am I seeing this correctly and if I am, why do they do it this way?
What if, after I ask the question in the OP and I patiently listen to an answer similar to what is given above, and when that awkward moment where the witness is looking for some kind of feedback I say "well, the Philippian jailer asked the Apostle Paul the same question I just asked you and the jailer got a short 1 line answer from the Apostle". What does that do to the tone of the conversation?
thank you for your time --Tom
