WT "Study" for 4th September 2016 - “Seek the Kingdom, Not Things”

by Nicholaus Kopernicus 20 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Nicholaus Kopernicus

  I’m sitting there in the Kingdom Hall just thinking how rich it is of the GBoJW to preach about materialism when they have recently been evidenced to be using Bro’s & Sis’ contributions to the world wide work to travel business class! Just that thought alone was leading me to read scripture while they were all engaged in the WT “study”.
  

  However, then it came to paragraph 17 and I blurted / choked a little. The paragraph said that “We should not imitate the people of ‘the nations,’ who have no real faith in a loving heavenly Father who cares for those who put the interests of his Kingdom first in their life.”

  Well! I thought – what an almighty cheek! What a gross presumption! Who do they (WT authors) think they are? I immediately began to mentally undermine this gross insult. In Mark 12:28, one of the scribes put’s a question to Jesus....

  “Which commandment is first of all?”

  In verses 29 and 30, Jesus gives his response...

  “Jesus answered: “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah, and you must love Jehovah your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind and with your whole strength.’”

  Now what made me think of this scripture in undermining the GBoJW’s malign disparaging of people in general, is that the scripture in no way can be regarded as being targeted at Jehovah’s Witnesses in the 20th & 21st centuries. This scripture is for everyone. It is the “first of all” commandment and thus supersedes the GBoJW’s perspective that putting “the interests of his Kingdom first in their life” is the commandment which is “first of all”. ONE DOES NOT HAVE TO BE A JEHOVAH’S WITNESS TO LOVE GOD UNRESERVEDLY as this “first of all” commandment states. So the GBoJW are far far out in deprecating people as they do in this paragraph, and have also got it wrong in terms of what is most important to put first in one’s life. This is evidence of appalling leadership. It is evidence of not being faithful to Jesus’ teachings, evidence of not being discrete and thus adhering to the Bible as the final authority, evidence of not being slave like by putting the (negative) thoughts of man above the teachings of Jesus. What a truly ghastly read paragraph 17 was!

  As for the box: “How to Simplify Your Life”

  1. 1.Identify your actual needs

  Surely the GBoJW travelling business class instead of economy exemplifies the priority of want over need on their part!

  2. 2. Eliminate unnecessary expenses

  This is good advice. I have eliminated all contributions to the world wide work of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Kingdom Hall fund etc. I do so as my conscious does not allow me to contribute to the funding of lawyers to rebut child molestation victims’ lawsuits against a remorseless GBoJW.

  3. 3. Prepare a realistic budget

  Sound advice. My budget no longer includes contributions for the WT literature I utilize. No contributions for assemblies or CO expenses.

  4. 4. Dispose of things you do not use

  Very practical. I have disposed of copious amounts of WT and AW bound volumes and other items of WT literature.

  5. 5. Cut back on secular employment

  Not such good advice. I enjoy my employment. I’m a health professional and find my occupation quite gratifying in many respects. So I’ll ignore this advice. This advice is intended to free one up to join in one of their evangelizing schools as a pioneer or something. To be a pioneer one has to "cooperate with the body of elders" - this requirement alone rules out such a career change at a stroke! I'm not a follower of man!

  6. 6. Plan how to expand your ministry

  I have accepted this advice and expanded my ministry. This is via contributing to the online Christian community who have been and are victims of the “Man of Lawlessness”. Not what the GBoJW witnesses had in mind I’m sure!
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  menrov

  Well said and reasoned.

  It got me thinking a bit: why the continued push to the rank&file to do more in the JW ministry? There is internet and with some clever promotions, JW dot org will attract far more people (initially) than all these house visits. Therefore, if spreading the JW message is the objective, internet is far more effective (and efficient).

  No, it is not about spreading their message but about membership. Members generate money. Money generates power. Power generates respect (in this world).

  Jesus never started an organization. He was not interested in the money He could generate, the power it would give Him. He was not interested to become King that way. He really was only interested to spread the good news.

  What a contrast with religious denominations / organizations (incl. WBTS) in this world.
  
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  stuckinarut2

  Yep! Great hypocrisy indeed.
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  hoser

  I'm not going to the meeting today. I'm working at an evil secular job. I work way too many hours and need to cut back. It's not healthy anymore.

  The magazine article being studied today is meant to keep the sheeples in line . As soon as you have a measure of financial security many options are available to you. The watchtower doesn't want the competition. Poor people are easier to control.
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  WTWizard

  Identify my actual needs? You mean the bare necessities, or the practical necessities? There are plenty of things I did without for a while, nicely, before they were invented but are practical necessities these days. Direct deposit of your pay is one. The Internet--how many things I have ordered online with a debit card, another item I did nicely without for a while. I remember writing those paper checks and sending them with a paper order slip, and waiting 3 or 4 weeks for the item to show up where it takes a week or less today.

  I have eliminated support of the whole jokehovian religion. This means Worldwide Damnation Fund donations, suit dry cleanings, and paying toward car maintenance for the pious-sneers. It also means much less wasted on poisonburgers and high fructose corn syrup shakes. I also spent more on quality items, nearly eliminating ongoing replacement costs. Using quality NiMH batteries and chargers, I have slashed my costs for alkaline AA batteries. Now, I have that much more to spend on silver.

  I would not, however, recommend cutting back on secular employment unless you are working 18 hour days, 7 days a week. Going below full time (usually around a 40 hour work week) is asking for financial disaster, unless you have inherited a huge amount of wealth, you are retired, or the nature of your job allows you to work part time and be well off. I definitely do not recommend cutting yourself back into poverty. That is, unless you wish to damn your soul to more of the same.
  
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  hoser

  Wt wizard.

  I'm working 7 days a week. I need to cut back. This is killing me.
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  prologos

  The end is coming, you can anticipate it for you, by looking at your families age of death, and see how many years you have left. Wt has been wrong on all predictions about the future, why would it be different this time? If you will not be comfortable when you can not work any more, give it a big spurt of earning so that you are. You deserve your golden years to be golden, not wt's, or their glorious ones'. you have slaved enough.
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  FedUpJW

  I noticed the box had seven suggestions about How to Simplify Your Life.

  The first five are in practice very good suggestions, but in no way are they some kind of "inspired" spiritual guidance. Those financial suggestions can be found in any secular financial planning guidebook. The sixth could be a practical suggestion depending on the personal circumstances of a person considering cutting back on secular employment. The seventh is just another case of the WTB&T$ continuing the "do more" beating.

  The box was tied in with par. 20 giving five "suggestions" about ways to "seek the kingdom first". and every one of them were things that cost money.

  Of the twelve total "suggestions" they were all things that would mean a sheeple should give more to the WT and have less for themselves. There is no way the WT can get around or deny their motivations in this article.

  HYPOCRITES!!
  
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  Listener

  Bethel workers are required to put in full time hours, if not more. This should be the first place where they reduce their physical work load to allow them more time to spend in the witnessing work. Then next are those in the construction work.
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  stillin

  I'm a loser. I never got much of an education. My job is menial. My friends are shallow but most of them manage to parrot answers from the paragraphs. I drive a clunker, my home is a dump. All of this is proof that I put the Kingdom first.