Why do Witnesses think they preach the "Good News"

by sabastious 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  sabastious

  The "Good News" is a heavy buzz term that any Witness will need no elaboration to understand unquestionably. It seems illogical, to me, for the Witnesses to call their message the "good news."

  I used to go door to door with a message of "whatever you are doing right now is wrong and will get you killed unless you preach door to door like me." That's not good news that's bad news!

  From the householder's perspective they are going to need to make a full lifestyle change. They are used to living their life the best they can and trusting in their own experience and cognitive ability. According to the Witnesses "good news" the householder's effrots, in whole, are all in vain and completely dead without going to Kingdom Hall meetings, doing personal study with the Watchtower's Bible commentaries and preaching all they learn from said commentaries door to door.

  I hate to break to them, but this is not good news.

  How can the Witnesses reconcile Jesus words in Matthew 11?

  Matthew 11: 28-30 - 28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

  Being surprised at your door with someone telling you that all you efforts are in vain and that you need to fundamentally change how you think is not light or easy, sorry.

  -Sab
• 

  Band on the Run

  This is so true, it is comical. Good news, indeed. Jesus healed the sick, inspired people. He taught us how to fully live on earth in all aspects of our being, not just our spiritual, but our social, familial, and physical. Jesus was not about the big A.

  Of course, the Witnesses find converts which shocks me. Some nothing coming along, thinking that they know better. Other religions do it, too. Someone once wrote about demons in another funamentalist religion that demons were such a large part that there was no place for Christ.
• 

  sabastious

  Of course, the Witnesses find converts which shocks me. Some nothing coming along, thinking that they know better. Other religions do it, too. Someone once wrote about demons in another funamentalist religion that demons were such a large part that there was no place for Christ.

  The door to door preaching work is a systematic and premeditated scam.

  As long as you have millions of people knocking on people's doors you will have your drones eventually run across the emotionally downtrodden. Maybe they are questioning their existence, maybe they just had a loved one die or maybe they just got off the phone with their mother who was just diagnosed with a terminal disease.

  If you question Witnesses who came in from the preaching work you will find astonishing similarities of their emotional state and circumstance. The preaching work is predatory by design. It's sole purpose is to find people to mold into a certain personality type (or at least attempt to).

  The preaching work is designed to create worker units, nothing else. That's why the Watchtower doesn't care about the internet or TV; it's because they can't create their type of unit using such mediums.

  Systematic.

  -Sab
• 

  dgp

  That's why the Watchtower doesn't care about the internet or TV; it's because they can't create their type of unit using such mediums.

  I think you're right, Sabastious.
• 

  No Room For George

  I could see it being good news if we were preaching in countries experiencing significant problems as in war-torn or famine. Or even in this country after a tragic event happens such as the most recent tornados. For the most part though I think people can see through the JW shtick. The literature shoots the JW message in the foot. For instance, the magazine on the Occult had the exact opposite effect of whatever it was attempting to accomplish. I mentioned this before but, I went to a door and my partner went through her presentation and went to offer the magazine, and the householder laughed with her kid and said, "we're not interested." So we wished them well and turned to go on our way, and the lady at the door goes, "We're in a cult LOL!" They thought it was funny, which I did too, but just to save face I laughed out loud too and looked at them to make sure they realized that I got the joke too! The most priceless face you could ever imagine on a householder's face. My partner by the way didn't get the joke as she takes this stuff so seriously. My point is though, the general public looks at the WT's message and they laugh because its so unrealistic, and the WT's view of nonJWs is a gross unrealistic generalization of average everyday people. As a result the public sees through the WT's nonsense and sad to say the average JW doesn't realize its largely a joke to most people. For more proof of that, see Weezer's latest album cover. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_qy6qmtFIZ14/TNF2Yq-KNvI/AAAAAAAAJXA/KJJZ-0m8NX8/s1600/Death_to_False_Metal_cover.jpg

  The WT and JWs have become caricatures of themselves, and the "good news" that they see themselves as delivering to the public is only good in the sense of the comedic value it presents. It gives the householder something to laugh at for the day. The sad part is this religion's adherents are in denial so much to the point that when people laugh at their message, the JW references people laughing at Noah building the ark as a way to encourage themselves and see themselves as doing God's will in the face of ridicule. They couldn't be more wrong because many people already have a hope today, whether they believe in heaven, or making love to 70 virgins while Muhamad gets off from watching in a closet. Maybe their hope is sufficient in seeing their kids grow into responsible, successful adults, and not experience the problems that they had to go through. So they're content with their beliefs, and then here comes a deranged, single pioneer to tell them that their kids are going to be destroyed at armageddon because they believe in the trinity, and the WT doesnt. Where's the good news in that?
• 

  The Finger

  They dont think, they are told.
• 

  sabastious

  Maybe their hope is sufficient in seeing their kids grow into responsible, successful adults, and not experience the problems that they had to go through. So they're content with their beliefs, and then here comes a deranged, single pioneer to tell them that their kids are going to be destroyed at armageddon because they believe in the trinity, and the WT doesnt. Where's the good news in that?

  Damn this part of your post sure resonates with me.

  -Sab
• 

  Reality79

  Oh and remember that illustration witnesses liked to use to justify their over zealous quackery:

  "If you were walking down the street and saw the roof of a house on fire, but looked inside the living room window and saw a family sitting together all happy watching TV and eating dinner, you wouldn't say, 'oh they look peaceful, I won't disturb them', you'd bang the door and yell at them to get out! Therefore, we shouldn't feel that we can't disturb people who appear content with their lives, we have to go forth with boldness and warn them of the coming destruction!"

  Some apple-and-oranges b.s. like that, anyway.

  The fact is, there's nothing "good" about their news. Harold Camping and his clique had FAR MORE success in grabbing worldwide attention in a few weeks than JWs have had for years, yet none of them were banging people's doors on a Saturday morning disturbing anyone. If the JWs were so righteous and cared for their neighbour, they'd employ far better methods to "reach the hearts" of people.
• 

  Vachi 8 He Is

  "If you were walking down the street and saw the roof of a house on fire, but looked inside the living room window and saw a family sitting together all happy watching TV and eating dinner, you wouldn't say, 'oh they look peaceful, I won't disturb them', you'd bang the door and yell at them to get out! Therefore, we shouldn't feel that we can't disturb people who appear content with their lives, we have to go forth with boldness and warn them of the coming destruction!"

  The difference here being that we have all had some kind of experience with fire. We can prove that it exists. The problem with this "coming destruction" is that it's always in a state of "coming". It's stuck in the perverbial photograph of time. You can't prove a future event because it hasn't happened yet. Now you can however use past dealings with an event to guesstimate the outcome of the new event but this isn't proof of the future. You go to a restuarant, eat there all the time, BAM you get food poisoning one day....why? Because you are using your past dealings with the restaurant to tell you it's ok to eat there. If you knew the future event that you'd get food poisoning most likey you wouldn't have gone to that restaurant that day.

  "We have to go forth with boldness and warn them of the coming destruction" is really saying "We have to scare people into believing the crap we're spewing to help secure the future of this publishing company"
• 

  Ding

  They think it's good news because the organization tells them it's good news... over and over and over.