One congregation I served had two of the most awful humans I have ever met serving as PO and Assit. PO. They DF'd more people out of one congregation than several circuits put together. I think their model was Judge Roy Bean the Hanging Judge.
Would Elders You Knew Have Ordered Stonings If They Could Have?
by Cold Steel 81 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Glander
This is a good question.
As elders, we were told that DF'ing was the same as a death sentence (should Armageddon arrive before such one could be reinstated).
For a relatively small congregation, my guess is we DF'd about 6 people on the JC's I served on. They were all pretty clear cut, except one, that still haunts me to this day, over 30 years later.
I know I would have never have participated in a DF'ing if it was to end in a literal execution.
I can think of more than one elder I knew who would have self-righteously cast the first stone.
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BlindersOff1
*** w11 8/15 p. 31 par. 16 Pursue Peace ***
One account involving Jehu shows that God's righteousness takes priority over peaceableness. God sent Jehu to execute His judgment on the house of King Ahab. Wicked King Jehoram, the son of Ahab and Jezebel, rode in his chariot to meet Jehu and said: "Is there peace, Jehu?" How did Jehu respond? He replied: "What peace could there be as long as there are the fornications of Jezebel your mother and her many sorceries?" (2 Ki. 9:22) With that, Jehu drew his bow and shot Jehoram through the heart. Just as Jehu took action, elders must not compromise with willful, unrepentant practicers of sin for the sake of keeping peace. They expel unrepentant sinners so that the congregation can continue to enjoy peace with God.-1 Cor. 5:1, 2, 11-13. -
blondie
notjustyet, (posted above)
*** w52 11/15 p. 703 Questions From Readers ***
We are not living today among theocratic nations where such members of our fleshly family relationship could be exterminated for apostasy from God and his theocratic organization, as was possible and was ordered in the nation of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai and in the land of Palestine. “Thou shalt surely kill him; thy hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. And thou shalt stone him to death with stones, because he hath sought to draw thee away from Jehovah thy God, . . . And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness as this is in the midst of thee.”—Deut. 13:6-11, AS.
Being limited by the laws of the worldly nation in which we live and also by the laws of God through Jesus Christ, we can take action against apostates only to a certain extent, that is, consistent with both sets of laws. The law of the land and God’s law through Christ forbid us to kill apostates, even though they be members of our own flesh-and-blood family relationship.
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But I get what you mean...........(added) but what if in the WTS earthly paradise....could the "scrolls" give humans the right to kill apostates?
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MrFreeze
blondie, that is what I was thinking. The idea from the OP is if the GB ran the world. If the GB ran the world, that would get rid of mans laws. They could say anything.
Think about it, they are willing to destroy families to keep people mentally trapped. If they were in charge, why wouldn't they try to go back to the OT laws?
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Gojira_101
Many good comments so far and I do want to add my two cents.
I guess one of the reasons why the JW's are so afraid of people going for higher education is for the fact you almost always have to take Psychology classes. One of the basic things you will learn about human beings is the majority of people have the herd mentality. So with that is mind if you have one powerful elder or say even 2 or 3 elders who were to start "stoning" the herd mentality or the fear of how others would respond to us not joining in...oh wait doesn't the WT talk about this...what was it called....Oh yea, peer pressure....even if certain elders were against it, I think in some cases they would join in because everyone else is doing it. But there also might be some who would not join in. I know Psychologists have studied this A LOT and it's pretty compelling to see these cases. If you look at some of Philip Zimbardo's work he conducted some experiments that delt with this very thing of "power" It's interesting stuff.
Would elders stone someone? In a "non violent way" do they not do that to those who are DF'd? My family if we lived back in bible times would have stoned me just this week because they found out I was inactive and have all shunned me.
Have I known some elders that would stone someone? Yes. Almost ever elder I have met, I think would be capable of stoning me.....I have been in 3 congregrations over the years and everyone was the same. Men in power wanting full control and loyalty from the congregation and when my family or I would question them because they went against the bible....I can't even count how many times we have been threatened by the elders.
Those are my two cents
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gone for good
In one of his (religiously themed) novels, John Updike wrote that
in the entire written, Jewish, secular history, there is not one cited
example of a girl or woman being stoned for adultery. Anyone know if this is factual or artistic license?
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dazed but not confused
Wow. Thanks for that Blondie. I didn't ever hear that stated before. I stand corrected.
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blondie
dazed, neither did I until I actually looked it up in the publication rather than just depending on an outside quotation.
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notjustyet
Thanks Blondie,.
When I read between the lines from that quote I see "We're chomping at the bit to kill us some apostates, if we were back in old times, the good ole days, I would be completely okay with killing me some apostates, family first of course"
So with this one pargraph, the WTBTS has flipped a switch on in the JWs heads that gives them the thumbs up and permission to murder those that call them out for trying to enslave us into a cult.
How screwed up is that?
NJY