Exchange of Literature between God's Organization and Babylon The Great

by garyneal 11 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  garyneal

  I read a similar thread concerning scars that a boy got from and alligator and from his loving mother and how that was related to scars in our life from Satan and God (Jehovah). Reading this and other threads here that shows how witnesses use material from "Babylon the Great" for spiritual uplifting made me think of an couple of experiences my wife shared with me during her field service.

  One experience was when she was out in service with her dad. He would stop at a preacher's house and the preacher would accept the magazines and commented to her dad that he used them for material in some of his sermons.

  Another instance was more recent when my wife and I were talking about how they deliver the literature door to door. I asked her did people accept them on a regular basis and she said yes and remarked that one woman uses them to prepare her Sunday school lessons. I thought about that then I remembered in Ray Franz's Crisis of Conscious book he stated that Bethel references material published by Christendom's church leaders in their writing department.

  Does anyone, besides myself, see the lunacy in all of this? You have the Watchtower Society on one side claiming that all of Christendom's churches are of the great whore of Babylon while on the other side some of Christendom's churches criticizes the Watchtower Society over its false teachings. Yet they borrow each other's literature.

  Has anyone else ever encountered householders who take the magazines and says that they use them at their church? On the flip side, can anyone here testify to the Watchtower Society actually using materials from Christendom at Bethel? It is already obvious that witnesses plagiarize anecdotal stories involving manners of faith in e-mails or so called testimonials.

  Thanks
• 

  snowbird

  I KNOW the Writing Department at Bethel uses Barnes' Notes on the New Testament, Vines Expository, and McClintock's & Strong's references because of the quotes from them.

  You're right, it's crazy how much fighting over nothing is carried on by "Christians."

  Syl
• 

  cult classic

  Most christian religions say pretty much the same thing. They use OT accounts to put spin on NT words. They all talk so much that they run out of ideas and need to put a fresh spin on their material.

  The reading material stockpiled in Bethel libraries and the writing dept. would surprise most witnesses.
• 

  garyneal

  Most christian religions say pretty much the same thing.

  That was my take on christian religions too which was why in the past I never cared too much about the denomination of church someone was attending. In college, I remember some of the students suggesting that we include the Jehovah's Witnesses as a denomination of christianity. My campus minister did not agree with the general idea that they were another denomination. It appears that the witnesses themselves do not agree either.
• 

  nancy drew

  I really hate these so called "inspirational stories" they just kind of make you sick even at the conventions/assemblies I never liked those embellished experiences.

  People tell the same stories over and over again in all religions spiritual urban legends
• 

  garyneal

  People tell the same stories over and over again in all religions spiritual urban legends.

  One of the things I really hated about that old indy fundy church I use to attend was how the preacher would preach urban legends from the pulpit. Not just feel good inspirational stories, but stuff like the beast in revelations is a supercomputer in Belgium, Proctor and Gamble are run by Satanists, 666 is a bar code, etc..

  His church did not last too long, his legalism and divisiveness was his demise.
• 

  cult classic

  The inspirational stories do get irritating. In christianity it pays to be completely broken down before someone higher up intervenes. Not much help for the average joe who has his stuff together.
• 

  ValiantBoy

  There was actually a sister in my home congregation that would accept religious literature when householders offered it to her, reasoning that she couldn't expect people to take her literature if she didn't take their's. She once even referenced L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics in a comment during the WT study. Thankfully most of the uneducated JWs in our small rural cong had no clue as to what she was quoting. She caught a lot of hell for trading literature from the elders and others, but she remains an active witness. She's actually quite a cool person and I like her more now that I'm not witness than I did when I was witnes---and I liked her a lot back then.

  And even though it's totally unrelated and she was old enough to be my mom, she was a very attractive woman :)
• 

  garyneal

  So no former witnesses who've encountered householders who admit to using the WT literature for their churches?

  ValiantBoy, I think it is cool that that sister was willing to exchange literature at the door. I asked my wife one time if she would do this and she shrugged and said, "I don't know, I never had that happen before."
• 

  ValiantBoy

  I was actually talking to my sister a few minutes ago and she told me she once reported the sister to the elders for taking worldly literature---we were such self-righteous little jerks :(

  To answer your question, I talked to many preachers and preacher wives and some of them actually took the magazines on a regular basis, but none of them ever told me they used them in their churches.