Painting an empty apartment knock at the door
Ron the elder doing not-at-homes.
Comments on: Well how you doing Dave? Been a long time...then....
And so how are you doing spiritually?
Dave: Well I'm pretty much inactive (as Ron well knows)
Ron goes on to talk about his own experience, jussst about getting caught up in materialism, but realizing, jussst in time, how much time his job was taking away from the "Truth".
Dave reassures. Its not materialism, just a combination of a lot of things.
Ron takes a new tack and says brothers are all imperfect but we must remember it's the "Truth".
He must see some reaction to the word "Truth" in Dave's face because, right away, he says, "Don't tell me you're that far gone".
Dave: It depends how you define "Truth" I guess. Take for example the Generation thing. What you thought was true, what I thought was true, what everyone thought was true, what the WT taught was true.... I guess wasnt really true, was it?
Ron: Well you know the verse about the light getting brighter.
Dave: A lot of the friends would have made different decisions if the WT, the GB, and the speakers at the assemblies hadn't been constantly telling everyone it was the end of the generation and what they should be doing with their lives. W e always thought the Catholics were wrong to believe the Pope was infallible because we all knew he wasn't. T he JWs say they know the GB aren't infallible, but they seem to forget that fact. What's printed in the WT is called the "Truth". What is even worse is if you aren't in complete agreement with what is actually just "current GB understanding" you get kicked out. I remember bro. C. at an elder's meeting, joking about a brother who didn't agree on Sodom and Gomorrah. Instead of waiting on Jehovah to enlighten his organisation, the brother decided to run ahead. He got kicked out, when all he had to do was wait for the organisation to catch up. In the end, the organisation came around to this brothers view. The C.O. laughed about the brother foolishly running ahead but when you really think about it, it was the brother that got kicked out who had the "Truth", don't you think?
Ron: Come on Dave, Gods servants are all imperfect and when they make mistakes they admit it.
Dave: Another example is the King of the North and the King of the South. We used tell everyone the King of the North was the U.S.S.R., and the communists were going to invade and conquer, and sometime after that there'd be Peace and Security. Now the U.S.S.R. doesn't even exist. And peace and security...
Ron: The Society corrected that. Now we know its difficult to pinpoint just who the King of the North is. The new book says we have to wait on events to reveal who the King of the North is.
Dave: Oh, well that's good. That's more like it. Maybe the King of the North will be Bush ha-ha. Instead of getting into conjecture when we are imperfect, fallible men we wait and see. Yeah, that makes more sense. I like that. Because those verse-by-verse explanations of every detail used to really get to me.
Ron: Dave, we never did verse by verse...
Dave: Well I mean like for example the Rev. book. When I used to conduct the study, it bothered me to read that this resolution, and this assembly, and this tract, was prefigured by a seal, or a trumpet call or a pebble etc. And when the sister or the brother answered and I'd say like "exactly" or "right on the point". After all, we all knew it was just current understanding and would probably be changed in a year of two, didn't we?
Ron: Yeah, well we got a new Rev. book now Dave.
Dave: You know I'm a third generation Witness and if you went back to the teaching and the publications in the time of my grandparents, I think you'd be shocked. You probably wouldn't believe JW's were ever taught and believed these "Truths".
Ron: I know, J.D. showed me some of Russell's books he has. Some of it was true, but a lot were some pretty strange ideas. But Dave, you know that God has his faithful servant. And we have the "Truth". And we're all part of God's organisation. And with all the world events we know the end is just around the corner. So aren't you thinking of maybe coming back?
Dave: Well Ron. I won't even try to predict the future because I'd probably end up running ahead. Who would have ever guessed 10 years ago that I'd be in the position I'm in today. So I think the best policy is just to wait and see.
Ron: Well I'd like to encourage you to pray and just remember everyone's imperfect. I got to go now. Others are waiting on me.
Dave: Yeah well good to have seen you.
Ron: Yeah, well don't forget to pray now
I look at my watch 10:23. I pick up my brush and think hey, its coffee time at Tim Hortons.