by NeverKnew 32 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I respectfully and confidentially asked honest questions.
Bad move.
They immediately huddled behind closed doors and took counsel against our family, on the most expedient route to execution (read kill).
(Why does the "true religion" secretly blind its followers to the "Good News" according to Paul, Moses, Isaiah and Psalms?)
Dissed / Anna / Wanna - exactly - they wanted to start all over from square one because it seemed I had not grasped these concepts. I had only spent my entire life up to that point in the faith, pioneered, did fantastic talks, etc....
I am happy for that though - made exiting a hellofa lot quicker.
I agree with good looking Mr. Freeze's evaluation of how things do actually work with questions not easy to answer. If I was twenty years younger, the fun we could have!
"humbled" story is all too common, we claim to have "accuarte knowledge" provided to us by (what did one person say?) the "Celebrated Scholars Of The Watchtower Society" imparting a false sense of security and pride into each of us who believes 100% what is spoken. How many times did you hear the words like
"Greek Epignosis: EPIGNOSIS (pronounced e-pe'-gno-ses) is a Greek word meaning precise and correct knowledge. It is used in the New Testament twenty times: fifteen times by the Apostle Paul, one time in Hebrews and four times by the Apostle Peter. (1.)
(2) "Vines' Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words says (at C-2) Epignosis: "denotes exact or full knowledge, discernment, recognition, and [expresses] a fuller or a full "knowledge," a greater participation by the "knower" in the object "known," thus more powerfully influencing him. "In all the four Epistles of the first Roman captivity it is an element in the Apostle's opening prayer for his correspondents' well-being, Phil. 1:9; Eph. 1:17; Col. 1:9; Philem. 1:6″ (Lightfoot)."
Next Greek word was (Ginosko), as JWs we were told our knowledge was like a watchmaker who not only knows how to set the time, he also know's how to fix a watch if it was to fall down and break into a hundred pieces" see bottom note http://epignosisministries.com/what-is-epignosis/
I was told to shut up when I asked about the "New Generation" light, women are to be seen but not heard. This topic is what brought me to JWN, in 1984 I was debating what we called "the holy rollers" or "born againers" and he told me "The Watchtower Organization is a cult and they have no choice other than changing the definition of the "Generation" because their out of time". Nobody like's being called a cult and I stood up for the Organization and said "We will have the last laugh because the Generation is almost up!"
Born-Again Betty was right, we changed the definition of "generation" twice, in less than fifteen years the Governing Body out of self-preservation changed the "Generation" into a convoluted nightmare that still(as of 3-27-2013), nobody can answer or dares ask any of the higher-ups why is this such an enigma. I have been waiting almost six years for a answer that make's so sense, we were allowed to ask the c.o. "anything we wanted" and my husband looked at me and said "please don't, just please do not go there!"
Anne, my experience when a woman has brought very good questions scares the elders because the majority are skates, they do not study their lessons deeply, some would randomly use tracer-outline markers on a random sentence with their magazines so they appeared to have studied their lessons. i wrote the talks using the outlines for several brothers with poor study habits even though the outlines did the majority of the work. Sorry we lost you because the elders were too judgemental and refused to do their job of ministering to the sheep of Jesus Christ.
Lars58, that's one of your best answers and i can't disagree with what you surmised. What you said happened to me, kinda I think "
I also have a cousin who is an elder who ended up discussing in great detail some issues. Bottom line is he figured I must be demonized and have studied the most advanced apostte materials. That is, he didn't think I was coming up with these questions on my own. Then he decided, even though he said what I was telling him seemed to make sense, that whatever I came up with, somewhere in some Watchtower or WTS publication they had an answer to everything that effectively contradicted me. In other words, again, he didn't take responsibility to know this for himself.
The average witness is brain dead. They don't even known their own teachings and they figure if the contradictions don't bother the WTS, then it's not their concern. In their hearts they know this is the "true religion" and they don't see any others, so they are willing to deal with the errors."
Back to accuarte knowledge and knowledge in the Greek Language. Jehovah's Witnesses believe they are like a Swiss Watch Maker who not only can make the watch function with all it's abilities and functionality but repair the watch with their deep knowledge of how the inner workings and mechanics opperate. We know the truth, many of them can't keep their watch set once Daily Savings or "Spring Foward" Time set's in.
"(3)Vines' also says Epignosis is similar to Epiginosko (at A-3), which"denotes (a) "to observe, fully perceive, notice attentively, discern, recognize" and "suggests generally a directive, a more special, recognition of the object "known" than does [ginosko]; it also may suggest advanced "knowledge" or special appreciation; thus, in Rom. 1:32, "knowing the ordinance of God" (epiginosko) means "knowing full well," whereas in verse Rom. 1:21 "knowing God" (ginosko) simply suggests that they could not avoid the perception. Sometimes epiginosko implies a special participation in the object "known," and gives greater weight to what is stated; thus in John 8:32, "ye shall know the truth," ginosko is used, whereas in 1 Tim. 4:3, "them that believe and know the truth," epiginosko lays stress on participation in the truth."
http://epignosisministries.com/what-is-epignosis/
Epignosis is completely superior to these types of knowledge. Where do we begin on the path to Epignosis knowledge? The scriptures say the fear, reverence or terror of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7) and anyone who has understanding will desire knowledge in their heart (Proverbs 15:14). The scripture also says the intelligent person's heart obtains knowledge and the wise person's ear desires it (Proverbs 18:15). http://epignosisministries.com/what-is-epignosis/
* 1,2 and 3" http://epignosisministries.com/what-is-epignosis/
