I'm really glad to hear from you, for the reasons I noted. I've had some personally anguishing experiences with individuals who in the process of re-examining a long-held belief system were overwhelmed, seemingly with no way out, with tragic consequence.
Someone was kind enough to alert me to your post; I'll write privately. My hotmail account has been jammed, hard to keep it pared down to size limit. Great that you are posting here--take the best, leave the rest.
For me, it is not so much how JWs stand out from other groups, but one major concern is that admittedly fallible men are insisting they be looked on as de facto infallible even when unable to answer reasonable questions; i.e., a governing body that operates by vote, not even consensus much less unanimity, and a group of individuals who transmit that as "policy" or position.
One is told to be humble, wait on Jehovah. (Translation: wait on organizational change, a shift in the vote or external pressure that forces an issue.) Policies change; we've seen it many times over many decades. There are some policies they are insisting on today but offer no refutation for Scriptural arguments presented them, from all over the world. They just recite a policy, not even attempting to defend it. And if your conscience tells you otherwise, and you speak about it, you will face severe punishment and so will your innocent family.
There are very troubling issues over which the GB is not unified, and it is no secret that power struggles are going on despite public reassurances to the contrary. Some GB members are most unhappy. Where does individual conscience come in for us?
Just before its w 10/15/00 QFR on blood, the Society printed a very interesting article on Grew and Storrs, who learned "the truth" about Trinity and hellfire early on. Grew was a highly respected minister in the Methodist-Episcopal Church. The Watchtower says: "Finally, since no one could refute the things he was learning, George Storrs decided that he could not be faithful to God if he remained in the Methodist Church. He resigned in 1840." The article cites Charles Taze Russell's input from Storrs, and CTR's comment: "We ever sought not to be followers of men, however good and wise, but 'Followers of God as dear children.'"
We are ultimately accountable to God for the faith we embrace, for the course we take. Not to a faceless organization that is faltering.
As to Matt. 24 and 20, I had occasion to speak to the author of "Birth of the Messiah," and "Death of the Messiah," exhaustive works, just before his death. Of course, I came from the perspective and tradition of over half a century of seeing organizational edicts. Surely he would have an exhaustive answer on this subject. I asked about it with bated breath.
"The Great Command? Ah, yes. Christian evangelism. Know what that is?
That's one beggar telling another where the food is."
I got it.
Maximus
