"So they just made one of their staunch supporter into an enemy, sounds good"
They do that with so many loyal ones. The loyal one does something that the WT does not approve of and they get rid of that one. They make their supporters into enemies.
Rolf Furuli Disfellowshipped Last Week
by Sea Breeze 45 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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StoneWall
Another one freed from the clutches of the WatchTower.
This Independence Day (July 4th in 'Merica) just got better with news like this. -
Phizzy
"Another one freed from the clutches of the WatchTower.". If you read the Thread he is far from "freed", he still believes in over 90% of JW teaching.
As the saying goes, in his case, sadly," You can take the boy out of the Religion, but not the Religion out of the boy".
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Vidiot
re. Off-shore accounts...
...do organizations deliberately begin building up emergency nest-eggs because they’re actually expecting financial decline or collapse?
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slimboyfat
As regards Rolf Furuli, something occurred to me this morning that I hadn’t fully appreciated before—that is just how odd Furuli’s particular combination of beliefs now are.
Because I have known quite a few JWs who take the position that JW chronology is flawed, and will probably be abandoned at some point, but they nevertheless believe that Jehovah is using the “faithful and discreet slave” to lead his people, and so loyalty is justified.
Furuli on the other hand appears to believe the exact opposite. He thinks that Jehovah isn’t using the “faithful and discreet slave”, and never has done, and yet JW chronology is correct and should be defended.
It’s a particularly odd combination because it seems to me that the “faithful slave” doctrine is a more fundamental aspect of JW teaching than 607/1914. Evidence for this includes the fact that critics and supporters alike have suspected for decades that 1914 may be dropped at some point. By contrast, there has generally been no expectation that they would abandon the idea that Jehovah uses a faithful slave to give spiritual food at the proper time.
Perhaps the GB brought this on themselves with the recent tinkering with the “faithful slave” doctrine and narrowing it down to only the GB members, and confining it to the period after 1919. I suspect, if they had maintained the traditional belief that the anointed class in general constitute the “faithful slave”, from the apostles until today, then it might not have become as attractive a target for criticism somehow. The old “faithful slave” doctrine at least had the illusion of mystical connection with anointed worldwide, and aura of long-standing tradition about it.
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TD
Perhaps the GB brought this on themselves with the recent tinkering with the “faithful slave” doctrine and narrowing it down to only the GB members
Well you gotta admit... That was apostasy by their own definition of it
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slimboyfat
Yes they’ve certainly departed from the “teachings handed down to us”.
I think it also displays the GB’s lack of insight into the perspective of longtime JWs. Many JWs have carried around the vague notion for decades that Jehovah somehow mysteriously directs the organisation by means of the “anointed class” scattered worldwide. It seemed impractical and unlikely, but perhaps all the more seductive as an explanation for the mechanism of divine direction for those reasons. Many old JWs have fond memories of old anointed brothers and sisters who they have always regarded as part of the “faithful slave” class. Some of them will have been be grandparents, great uncles and aunts. Plus it was reassuring to believe there was a chain of anointed believers, and a faithful slave from the time of the apostles, down to Russell, and to our own day.
It must have come as quite a shock to many old JWs—even an act of doctrinal vandalism—for the current GB to unceremoniously demote the anointed in general, Russell, the apostles, everyone in between, and even great grandma, from being part of the “faithful slave”. It’s the sort of thing that would make older JWs stop and think, “hang on, was everything I believed about how God is guiding us wrong all these years? Or is it the GB who have got it wrong?”
It really was a big ask, for the GB to inform old JWs that they must now revise their entire understanding of the “faithful slave” and how God used (or didn’t use) old anointed ones in the congregation as his unique channel. Faced with the choice, I can imagine some old JWs would have chosen not to rewrite their understanding of a crucial part of their belief system, of their own history and identity, including anointed people they knew personally, and would choose instead to think the unthinkable: maybe the GB has lost its way.
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Beth Sarim
TD
Perhaps the GB brought this on themselves with the recent tinkering with the “faithful slave” doctrine and narrowing it down to only the GB members
"Well you gotta admit... That was apostasy by their own definition of it "
I do believe the GB have painted themselves into a corner with the 2013 July understanding of the 'faithful slave'. A great many of long time, old school JW's seem disillusioned with it.
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TD
SBF
And in addition to that, you still have all the arguments for why the GB were not spiritually superior to the rest of the anointed. --They were simply fellow slaves taking the lead in the preaching work because somebody had to.
You still have all the comparisons to unsavory characters in the Bible for anyone who would presume to grab that kind of authority. You still have comparisons to the Catholic Church and the Pope as living proof of where that kind of haughty attitude leads.
All this and more is still in JW literature for anyone to read.
I've suspected for a long time that the current crop of leaders do not have the grounding that even an unwashed heathen like myself has by virtue of marriage to a JW,
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Vidiot
Beth Sarim - “...I do believe the GB have painted themselves into a corner with the 2013 July understanding of the 'faithful slave'...”
Let’s be honest.
These days, all they do is paint themselves into corners.
😏