by Nathan Natas 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
for the past week or so the above phrase has been bouncing around inside my head.
I think it is from a talk to a graduating class at gilead, but I cannot for the life of me nail down the source.
Does this ring a bell for anyone? Do you recall when it was said, and by whom? Can you point to a source?
Thanks.
It rings a bell with me. It might be something that Knorr said, quoted in Penton's Apocalypse Delayed.
AlanF
WT movie: "To the Ends of the Earth." Is that it?
"It might be something that Knorr said, quoted in Penton's Apocalypse Delayed"
What?!!!
Knorr said that?!! Doesn't sound very encouraging or upbuilding!
--VM44
"Go to your assignments and spend the rest of your life in this system of things there' is maybe what you heard.... Although, "go there and die" is probably nearer the truth. A lot, and I mean lots of missionaries dont last more than a few years in their assignments. I know this from a conversation I had years ago with Jack ( John) Barr of the GB.
It sounds as if they were sent to their deaths or a lifetime of exile away from home, must be hard.
In my conversation with Jack Barr he told me missionaries werre instructed not to speak about their "home" but rather their "country of origin"...their assignment was their home from now on.
I graduated from Gilead in 1959. At our graduation, the Saturday night at the non-public evening for graduates only, Nathan Homer Knorr, then president of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society uttered the words to the graduating students
GO TO YOUR ASSIGNMENTS AND DIE THERE IF NECESSARY!
I will remember those words for as long as I live. I went to my assignment and damn near died of fever and jaundice. No thanks to Nathan Korr, who fired me out of the missionary home and off the list as a misssionary. Turn in my missionary booklet and leave the premises of the missionary home were his instructions relayed to his staff to write to me.
In October of 2001, I posted this question: Who said the above words?
No one replied to my post, and I was disappointed. and I forgot about the post.
Lisa and one other replied in June, 2002, but I must have missed their replies.
Today, I have been working on a project with my wife assisting someone on the board who is doing a project that involves NH Knorr. By coincidence, I came across this post from months ago.
Here is the site from which you all may have remembered these words.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/13199/1.ashx
There may be another post that I revealed this information. I know, when the suicide bombers started to show up in the middle east, that the memory of Knorr's words returned to my mind. I was again disappointed that no one saw the comparison.
belbab, angry and tearful at the memory of those words.
((((belbab)))))) The good news is sweet heart...you DIDNT go to your assignment and die! Tho Im sure that you put your whole soul into your work when you were there.
Consider who it was that "fired" you...you were rescued from the jaws of the beast, and I have to believe that God had something to do with that.
Dont cry honey...we're so glad you are here with us. Safe. Alive. Free
My god. The level of extremism... any action, any stance, any atrocity, any sacrifice can be justified given the right mental context. If you believe in a resurrection to a better life, and that acting in a certain way will guarantee you that resurrection, then it is completely logical to GO TO YOUR ASSIGNMENT AND DIE.
Or to move to Africa, drink poison, and to force your little children, your babies, to do the same.
Or to fly an airplane into a tall building at hundreds of miles an hour.
Or to stand on a street corner with a kalashnikov and shoot everyone who walks by--they will get resurrected if they die before Armageddon, right?
Or to waste your entire life, the one shot you have, the one chance at living, in superstition, fear, oppression, and fruitless, mindless, aimless subservient activity. Forego having children. Forego using your abilities. Forego every beautiful possibility this world places in front of you because you are expecting a bright, perfect future.
