Door to Door Preaching

by Ding 9 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Ding

  For those on the board who are more familiar with WTS history than I am:

  The WTS claims that one of the marks of the true Christian faith is door to door preaching. They even claim that Jesus and his disciples preached door to door. Let's leave the claim about Jesus and his disciples aside for now and focus on the modern era.

  1. Did Russell's Bible Students preach systematically door to door? If so, when did they start?

  2. If not, when did the WTS start doing so?

  3. Before Russell or the WTS began door to door preaching, what group or organization was preaching "the good news" in this fashion?

  4. If the answer is "none," then how is this consistent with the WTS' claim that there were true Christian worshipers of Jehovah throughout all the centuries from Jesus' day to the present?
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  leavingwt

  the WTS' claim that there were true Christian worshipers of Jehovah throughout all the centuries from Jesus' day to the present?

  This claim is pure fiction. Who was the 'Slave' when Russell decided to begin writing magazines and books? Why didn't he contact the Slave to get the Slave's permission? How dare he run ahead of Jehovah's organization -- which has always existed on Earth.

  The issue of door-to-door preaching is covered quite extensively in Ray Franz's second book, In Search of Christian Freedom.
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  leavingwt

  
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  leavingwt

  
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  Ding

  Leavingwt,

  Your comments highlight something that has often puzzled me about WT teaching.

  On the one hand, they claim that there have always been anointed ones on earth since Jesus' day and that Jehovah has always had an organization.

  But on the other hand, they claim that in 1918-1919 Jesus had to make an investigation to find out who they were! He had to inspect all the religions to see who was providing pure spiritual food at the proper time so he could appoint them to be "the faithful and discreet slave."

  Jehovah already knew who the spirit anointed ones were and what organization they were running, didn't He? Didn't He have angels watching over them and protecting them? So why did Jesus have to make an inspection? Was it obvious? If not, why didn't Jehovah just tell him?

  Jesus supposedly returned invisibly in 1914. Wouldn't one of his first orders of business have been to protect Jehovah's faithful ones on earth and supervise the preaching work? Did it really take him 5 YEARS to figure out who they were -- which professing Christian organization was genuine and which ones were false?

  And why would he pick Russell's organization? Russell started his own organization rather than joining one that had existed since the first century. Wouldn't that discontinuity eliminate Russell from consideration automatically?
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  ProdigalSon

  It's interesting how the Watchtower took advantage of the radio back in Boozer's day (Old Light), but with today's communications technology that's a million times better, they refuse to use it (New Light). Why? Such communication is anathema to a $$$$Billion-a-year (propaganda) printing company. What a waste of trees.
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  leavingwt

  Ding: For outsiders, it's easily recognized as pure rubbish, on the same scale of Joseph Smith's golden tablets. Only for the seven million people under the influence of thought reform does the WT theology make any sense. It's truly a no-brainer. Further, the WT keeps the members very ignorant of the history of the organization. If an outsider were to read Penton's 'Apocalype Delayed', he'd honestly conclude that the leaders of the organization have always been crazy.
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  garyneal

  If this were facebook, I would've hit the like button.
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  Ding

  Leavingwt,

  I agree. I'm looking for ways to get JWs to think. A lot of them don't want to ask such questions, but some will. Maybe some of those are lurkers. Still others may be family and friends of people on JWN.
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  blondie

  Rutherford and the WTS stopped using the avenue of radio because

  a) it was no longer new and they had competition

  b) Rutherford came down hard on the Catholic Church which started exercising its influence in the business world making it more and more difficult for the WTS to operate

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/scandals/115448/7/Golden-Age-Goodies