by ozziepost 19 Replies latest watchtower bible
Ozzie,
You are right that I am not, nor have I been a JW. But two years ago I became convicted to understand JWs and be prepared to reach out when ever possible. So your comments throw me when I read them. Thank you for answering, I like to be able to back up what i say with WTS literature whenever possible. But I still maybe able to use this information.
Thanks, Triple A
Triple A:
A noble burden!
Reaching out to dubs is more difficult than most evangelism, it seems to me. Paul said, "to the Jew I became as a Jew, to the Greek etc etc" you know what I mean. The thing is that it's necessary to know the mindset of a dub. My suggestion is to simply tell them what you believe and what a great time you're having at whatever fellowship you have. Y'see the dub can't imagine it. He/she believes that all is darkness away from the Watchtower. Show them that it's not!
Cheers, Ozzie
Easy to see the hypocrisy here?
Thanks Ozzie, Great advice that I need to follow. I am truely blessed in my life. But I am also a little bull headed, so I hope you do not mind if I continue to research.
Lift a Fosters for me, Art
Also not mentioned in this paragraph is the enforcing of a levy (tithing???) on each Witness in the form of compulsory donations "to the World Wide Work". Yet the WTS has the gall to condemn the churches
I regret that I must take issue on the accuracy of the above statement. The "World Wide Work Fund" is the voluntary donation arrangement that replaced the fixed prices at the Kingdom Hall when individual dubs pick up their supplies of books for 'ministry' and personal use. eg rather than paying £1 for a certain number of Watchtowers, the dub is confronted with a contribution box in which he is conscience bound to place the £1 . The amont depends on what literature is taken, and to liken it to tithing is not realistic. Anyway, speaking as an ex secretary, the levels of money received plummeted when that arrangement came in . Trying to get the so and so's to cover the value of what they had taken was an impossible task.
To Schism
All for "nothing," you say. There could never be a more false assertion made by anybody!
Your comments refer to a promise in which the fulfilment is delayed..If that were the case then I might agree with you..The point is that many of us have spent decades serving that organisation, having been misled into believing that we were serving the God Almighty..Hell, we even kidded ourselves that we had a "Relationship with Jehovah" based on our service to that cause..
When one awakes from mental inertia and takes off the metaphorical blinkers, one realises that it is NEVER going to happen , that our lives have been spent chasing a dream that is no more than a vain hope..
Perhaps some have had enjoyable lives, learned how to live within the borg successfully, but even that does not make up for the fact that it is just not true!
BB:
Notice that the word "tithing" is put in parenthesis and question marks!
I was/am raising the thought that the use of obligatory donations to the "World Wide Work" is reminiscent of the use of tithing in some christian churches.
You might know that where tithing is used, it's not universal within the church body but there is an obligation.
It seems to me that there is a similar obligation on the part of the R&F to donate to the WWW. It matters not whether they do in practice, as you observe it was somewhat difficult to get them to "cough up", the point is that there is an official position.
Cheers, Ozzie
To SchismAll for "nothing," you say. There could never be a more false assertion made by anybody!Your comments refer to a promise in which the fulfilment is delayed..If that were the case then I might agree with you..The point is that many of us have spent decades serving that organisation, having been misled into believing that we were serving the God Almighty..Hell, we even kidded ourselves that we had a "Relationship with Jehovah" based on our service to that cause..When one awakes from mental inertia and takes off the metaphorical blinkers, one realises that it is NEVER going to happen , that our lives have been spent chasing a dream that is no more than a vain hope..
Perhaps some have had enjoyable lives, learned how to live within the borg successfully, but even that does not make up for the fact that it is just not true!
Just because YOU do not believe in the Bible, and it's promise that death will one day be done away with, and that man will finally be able to enjoy life forever, doesn't prove that these things won't come to pass. Just because YOU choose to believe that "it is just not true" doesn't prove anything, other than the fact that YOU wasted those "decades" that you make reference to. Just because the time that YOU invested turned out to have been a waste of energy doesn't prove that everyone else wasted their time as well. Yes, YOU are convinced that every JW is only wasting their time in attending meetings and sharing their belief with other people, but YOU being convinced of that doesn't prove that it's so. The fact is, you CAN be mistaken in the way you see things. In fact you ARE mistaken. And what's more, the day will come when you will see that you've been mistaken.
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To Schizm:
Just because YOU do believe in the bible, and some of it's semi-incoherant ramblings that death will one day be done away with, and that man (what about women schiz or are you sexist too) will finally be able to enjoy life forever, doesn't prove that these things will come to pass. Just because YOU choose to believe that "it is the truth" doesn't prove anything, other than the fact that YOU have high hopes. Just because the time that YOU invested turned out to have been not a waste of energy, in your mind (cough) doesn't prove anything. Yes, YOU are convinced that every non-JW is only wasting their time in not attending meetings and sharing their time a with cult which has a pedophile problem, but YOU being convinced of that doesn't prove that it's so. The fact is, you CAN be mistaken in the way you see things. In fact you ARE mistaken. And what's more, the day will come when you will see that you've been mistaken.
Copycat!
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