December 1,2014 watchtower saying buying house is bad

by hoser 67 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  hoser

  page 15

  "Take for example a christian couple in asia. In their younger years, they admired those who could afford to own a house. So they decided to buy one with their savings and money borrowed from a bank and relatives. Soon,however they began to feel the burden of high monthly payments. They took on more work, putting in long days, which left them little time for their children. "The stress, pain, and lack of sleep felt like a heavy rock on my head. It was suffocating." said the husband.

  In time they remembered the words of 1 tim 6:6 and decided the only solution was to sell the house. It took two years before they were finally relieved of their burden. What did this couple learn from their experience? "Looking at material things from a spiritual perspective is a protection," they concluded"

  1 tim 6:6 "To be sure there is great gain in godly devotion along with contentment"
• 

  sir82

  To be fair, the advice seems to be against buying a house you can't afford. Which is good advice, whether it comes from the WTS or not.

  But many JWs will take it as you have indicated -- they will view "just buying a house" in itself as a sign of "spiritual weakness".

  The galling thing is that the WTS knows that many JWs will interpret their words that way, but they intentionally go ahead and print them anyway.
• 

  hoser

  That's what I got out of it too sir82. This couple got in over their heads, but the watchtower elders and circuit overseers will use this to dissuade young witnesses from investing in their future.
• 

  AlphaMan

  You wouldn't believe the snide comments during meetings and the counsel people tried to give me for building a house. Their reasoning was why are you building a house when Armaggedon is so close. Look at world events, the end can come anytime now. Only a fool would let himself be diverted by building a house right now.

  Well.....that was over 25 years ago. The JW's proved to be the fools by living their lives according to the Watchtower bullshit. You know, looking back....as much money I gave and things I did for that KH, not one of them assholes came one day to help me do anything in building my house.

  Let's review......IT'S A CULT!!!
• 

  bemused

  Perhaps the couple should have cut down on field service to be with their children more and still paid the mortgage?
• 

  jgnat

  There are heavy consequences in this part of the world if one does not buy a house (within our means of course). With a vacancy rate of 1%, rent rates are higher in many cases than a mortgage!

  It must be very difficult for ageing witnesses with no tangible assets to speak of to make rent, food in the fridge, and decent transportation. All of that on a subsistence pension.

  I am looking forward to my mortgage-free day.
• 

  darkspilver

  Most Germans don’t buy their homes, they rent. Here’s why:
  http://qz.com/167887/germany-has-one-of-the-worlds-lowest-homeownership-rates/
  
  Brits buy homes, the Germans rent – which of us has got it right?
  http://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/mar/19/brits-buy-germans-rent

  Housing in Europe:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_in_Europe
  
  That's all folks!
  
  DarK SpliveR
• 

  Oubliette

  But the quote does NOT say they bought "a house they couldn't afford," it just says that "they began to feel the burden of high monthly payments."

  Where I live many people pay much more to rent than their neighbors that have purchased their homes. The difference is that renters cannot buy because they haven't saved enough for a down payment.

  The whole rent vs. buy debate is more complicated than what is suggested in the WT, no surprise there!

  It's just more bs control crap from the borg.
• 

  Finkelstein

  Instead of planing for your personal future, it would much better to put Godly things first like pioneering and distributing are literature.

  The wicked system of things is coming to a close anyways, therefore put your endeavors toward Jehovah and his will and purpose.

  .

  When Armageddon comes you can chose any house you want from the many killed worldly people.
• 

  hoser

  jgnat that is why I bought a house all those years ago. The house we were going to rent got sold from under us and we almost ended up living on the street in October. That's when we decided to buy. The payment was about the same as rent at the time, but interest rates went down and rent went way up over the years. Now that the mortgage is done it is just paying the property tax, utilities and whatever small repairs come up