Spiritual Hierarchy Within The Jehovah's Witnesses

[Anna]

I don't like admitting it, but I have a big problem with this paragraph. I had thought it had been a while since we had made similar remarks, but here it is, as recent as last year. (Noble Berean mentioned it in one of the threads too).

Study WT Nov. 2016 p.16 par. 9

"Some may feel that they can interpret the Bible on their own. However, Jesus has appointed the ‘faithful slave’ to be the only channel for dispensing spiritual food. Since 1919, the glorified Jesus Christ has been using that slave to help his followers understand God’s own Book and heed its directives. By obeying the instructions found in the Bible, we promote cleanness, peace, and unity in the congregation. Each one of us does well to ask himself, ‘Am I loyal to the channel that Jesus is using today?’

What do others interpret this to mean? Surely, one thing is dispensing, and another is interpreting...

[Noble Berean]

21 minutes ago, Anna said:

Should be able to go to edit at the bottom of your first post..and from there you can change the title....

Adjusted  ?

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

Wasn't Charles Taze Russel an Apostate who read the Bible on his own, and was despised by his "Christian Contemporaries"?

I know Sir Isaac Newton derived the EXACT  same basic core philosophy we have .... and he did it based on reason and logic applied to the Bible ... presumably alone.

He, like myself, may have had a real problem ... with Caleb and Sophia.

[TrueTomHarley]

26 minutes ago, Anna said:

And you keep searching for it as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of Jehovah, And you will find the knowledge of God".

Is this only the privilege of the Slave/GB or is it all of the anointed and by extension those who are associated with them, the great crowd?

Too many seem to think these two things are mutually exclusive - growing spiritually and following theocratic headship. I do not. 

Paul spoke somewhere about the pattern of the truth. Be around long enough and you pick up on the pattern. To say to headship: "you're all wet!" is not part of the pattern. There is no biblical precedent for it, beyond an individual yoyo or two like Naman that one must do end runs around. But muttering against theocratic headship on any significant scale is always associated with disaster.

Spiritual growth does not require you butt heads with it. It is better enabled if you do not. I comment frequently in my home congregation. I write a lot. I almost never give "the answer" from the paragraph. I have picked up on the pattern of the truth, and it is not necessary or even desired for a mature one to simply spit out what is in writing. 

Often I am surprised that where I go within the pattern, no one seems to have gone before. Sometimes I am surprised that they stick to what is (to me) dull and do not reach for things more subtle and interesting. Maybe I could set up my own "Institute of Deeper Understanding" but I don't. Others will catch on if it is worth catching. Or it may turn out that I am wrong - or just irrelevant and what intrigues me is just so much mental cabbage.

I am amazed at how many think it is necessary to walk in lockstep. It isn't. That said, I would never blow off as nothing counsel about obedience. Even counsel about hanging out verbally with unsavory ones I do not blow off - I would be much worse without it. 

[Anna]

2 minutes ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

 Caleb and Sophia.

Please leave the poor kids out of this, it's not their fault

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

.... pregnant mother crocodile shedding a tear as she chews on a human she grabbed off the banks of a river ...

" I only did it ... for the CHILDREN!

[Anna]

6 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

intrigues me is just so much mental cabbage

Now you've piqued my curiosity

[TrueTomHarley]

5 minutes ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

He, like myself, may have had a real problem ... with Caleb and Sophia.

OH NO! I just saw the latest release. Caleb and Sophia are surly teenagers now and they go to your house to beat you up! They have heard how you trash them.

20 minutes ago, Anna said:

"Some may feel that they can interpret the Bible on their own. However, Jesus has appointed the ‘faithful slave’ to be the only channel for dispensing spiritual food. Since 1919, the glorified Jesus Christ has been using that slave to HELP his followers understand God’s own Book and heed its directives. By obeying the instructions found in the Bible, we promote cleanness, peace, and unity in the congregation. Each one of us does well to ask himself, ‘Am I loyal to the channel that Jesus is using today?’

I have capitalized one word, which I think explains it all. Neither comments not thinking need be boiler-plate. See my previous post on this thread.

[Anna]

3 minutes ago, TrueTomHarley said:

25 minutes ago, Anna said:

"Some may feel that they can interpret the Bible on their own. However, Jesus has appointed the ‘faithful slave’ to be the only channel for dispensing spiritual food. Since 1919, the glorified Jesus Christ has been using that slave to HELP his followers understand God’s own Book and heed its directives. By obeying the instructions found in the Bible, we promote cleanness, peace, and unity in the congregation. Each one of us does well to ask himself, ‘Am I loyal to the channel that Jesus is using today?’

I have capitalized one word, which I think explains it all. Neither comments not thinking need be boiler-plate. See my previous post on this thread.

Yeah, I get that and I agree with you. But I've highlighted the sentence that I wish had somehow slipped off the printing press and vanished down a deep hole, never to resurface again...

[TrueTomHarley]

It's a bit heavy-handed, i admit. Maybe R.L. went down in flaming fire before @JW Insider hurled him out the door.  But the capitalized word softens it. It is always well to recognize the overall context. I don't think the context - not just sentences but paragraphs fore and aft - indicate Witnesses need feel strait-jacketed.

[Evacuated]

7 hours ago, Noble Berean said:

You said that there isn't a hierarchy in the organization

NO No Noble Berean, you are reading too quickly! I said this "Any other "heirarchical perception" exists only in the minds of those men who hold it I'm afraid, whoever they are."

I didn't say that there isn't a hierachy, I said that any hierarchy that attaches a position-related value to individuals within it exists only in the mind of those who hold that perception. Interesting how an unreality can be part of an unfortunate reality don't you think? 

Anyway, don't worry yourself unduly over it. It will all get ironed out. "Next, the end, when he hands over the Kingdom to his God and Father, when he has brought to nothing all government and all authority and power." 1Cor 15:24.

Seems best to get in line now to me...really! It relieves a great deal of stress and wasted effort. 
 

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

..and now for something completely different, to releve a great deal of stress and wasted effort .... a short musical interlude ...