My First "Publication Free" Study...

HeyThere

Was not so publication free. do witnesses not know how to talk about the bible without a wt pub to guide them?

Fist, she tried to get me to start once again in the bible teach book as if i had never said i didnt want to study from the pubs, so i reminded her. she grabbed her reasoning book then and saod we would use that "for the verses" but immediately asked me to start reading from it.

The topic of the day was blood. i actually became glad she pulled the reasoning book in as it helped me support my points...who would have known!!!

she kept saying the bible tells us to abstain from blood in all forms. i explained that my understanding is that it was specifically referencing eating blood...and even says so in the reasoning book. i then broke down blood fractions and said based on that theory if the blood was broken downn i could take all fractions at once wothout violating thwir understanding, they said i could not do that, i asked for a reference in the bible....nothing. then the sister told me that the blood is the person, amd by getting their blood we get their addictions. in the end she said she would have to do further research and get back to me. there is allot more but i am on my phone and hate long posts from it.

TTATTelder

You mean to tell me .... a dub can't defend noo light from the scriptures?!!!!!!???.

What!!!!????

That's impossible.

I will have no more of these apostate lies.

I'm going back to mother(tm) cuz she always tells da truth(tm).

-TE

HeyThere

and by following most of her statements with " i just know this is the truth" and "as your relationship for jehov grows so will your umderstanding...dont let this keep you from Gof!"

i reminded her that i feel ok with my relationship with god. i simply trying to understand the biblical basis for the wt teachings and i am finding that i understamd things a bit differently. i reminded her my qiestions are about more than blood...1914, all other failed doomsday prophesies that began in the 1700s, shunning, discourage free thinking, holidays l, the fds,.selective bible use, etc. she said we will focus on blood and asked me to read from reasoning again. she was frazzled, asked if i still wanted to stidy and kept pushing to use bible teach. hmmm. no. so it will be interesting to see if she again tries to dove right in to bible teach again or reasoning...or the actual bible....hmmmm

sarahsmile

So she is getting back to you!

Your just time in her records.

Which she will keep coming by until you state your not interested.

I think it is very nice of you.

Reasoning book is full of errors on every subject. Open field for you.

AnnOMaly

The 'blood' issue is one of the very first things that got me thinking. The long medical directive which asked for us to choose options - no blood products of any description/some (permitted) blood fractions/all (permitted) blood fractions/own blood (as long as the circulation isn't broken) - was really confusing to me. On what SCRIPTURAL basis should I choose one option over another? There wasn't one, and the WT publications weren't really helping.

So I thought I would start from scratch: prayerfully read all the Bible verses relating to blood in their contexts, and discern the original intent of any mandate and what it actually involved. The first pattern I saw was that it always had to do with killing an animal and eating it or sacrificing it to God, and the first conclusion I came to was that the WT's ban on autologous use of blood didn't make sense at all - why should any blood separated from my body not be reused but 'poured out on the ground'? - I've not died, it was my blood, it was being used for my body, not to eat but in the way that God originally intended it!

That first conclusion eventually led to a few more conlusions about how nonsensical the WT's theological stance on blood transfusions is. I also started investigating and rethinking other WT doctrines too.

So, HeyThere, you keep plugging away with your JW friend and your reasoning from the Bible alone. You don't know what seeds you plant or where it may lead.

NeonMadman

Was not so publication free. do witnesses not know how to talk about the bible without a wt pub to guide them?

No, most don't. They have no idea about using the text with proper regard to context, or getting the message of the entire chapter or book as part of the study. For most JWs, the Bible is like a dictionary that they can use to look up the isolated proof texts that the publications direct them to. They know lots of individual verses, but not very much about the Bible.

Ding

NeonMadman nailed it:

"For most JWs, the Bible is like a dictionary that they can use to look up the isolated proof texts that the publications direct them to."

Just look at the doctrine of the "anointed" as an example.

"Little flock" in Luke 12... jump to Revelation 7 and the 144,000... must be the same.

But wait.

If the GB had jumped them to Revelation 4, the "little flock" would be the 24 elders.

Jump them somewhere else, it would be something else.

So much of WT doctrine is like this.

Just look at the literature and see how many verses they string together like this.

They count on JWs just accepting whatever they say.

If they change it, it's new light...

sarahsmile

Wow wonderful replies! Exactly right on both subject blood and bible!

One more thought, JWs do not think anyone can have a relationship with God but them. You reminded her that you do have a relationship with God, and that in itself will have her questioning her own cognative thoughts. It is the opposite of her trained JW mind.

You might ask her what she thinks about other prayers. Maybe even state such as Catholics.

I remember very well how I thought and hearing others explaining: I wonder which God she has a relationship with. Lol,lol! If she is not praying to Jehovah then it is the god of this old system of things. They believe you must use our heavenly father JEHOVAH. Let your name be known thinking. But in Acts I believe there is a prayer to Jesus.

Hope that helps some.

BluesBrother

then the sister told me that the blood is the person, amd by getting their blood we get their addictions.

Utter baloney ! I would like to ask her which credible medical study has stated this to be true, where and when it was published ....No doubt she "read it somewhere" , like in a "Watching The World" comment in an old magazine of the WTS. It just shows that they have to clutch at straws when pressed on the issue.

Ann O' Mally had the right aproach. Under that sort of careful approach the doctrine falls apart. I attended a meeting hosted by bigwigs of the U K HLC once. With great gravitas he confirmed that the Governing Body had decided that the fractions below the line on his chart were acceptable but the ones written above it were forbidden.

I am sorry but I no longer accept "Commands of men as doctrines"

HeyThere

sarahsmile: i have been studying with her about 6 months now. my husband is a born in dub...he was inactive when we married. just got back into it this past year, so i started stidying, became an unbaptized publisher, and then woke up. prior to waking up i thought it was christian woth a few unusual doctrines...i didnt know how cultish they were. now i do and i am trying to wake up my husband...and in the process see what i can umcover in these studoes.

my husband so far is not only rejecting all i have saod but is digging deeper into the wt. it is sad. so i am trying to learn the method to dealing with them i guess. i dont know.

oh, she did tell me i was letting unfounded negatibe apostate info squeeze out my relationship with jehovah...so i went and collected all of the old wt pubs going back to the.20's that i purchased.and assured her that my research is quite balanced. she was stumped. i told her i would just like her to help me see wher in the bible all the doctrines and changes i question are...but i did warn her i was not going to be an easy study.

My First "Publication Free" Study...

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