WATCHTOWER, 1991 - "HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT RELIGION"

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

11 hours ago, xero said:

I haven't enforced any GB rules. Just what's in the bible.

Then you are a most unusual Elder indeed  

[xero]

1 minute ago, 4Jah2me said:

Then you are a most unusual Elder indeed  

It takes a lot of work. I have been called in to salute the flag on a few instances.

(I kept my fingers crossed)

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

10 hours ago, Anna said:

Yes, this clarification is important.

Unfortunately, those who are taking the lead, and believe they are in charge of producing food at the proper time, feel, and have felt, the need to put their hope into a definite prediction of sorts, rather than just talking about a hope.....that is sometime in the future. Hence we have a reworking of the 'Generation' although as far as I am aware no one requested "new light" on this. 

And this is what shows that they are NOT the Faithful and Discreet Slave. 

11 hours ago, JW Insider said:

Hoping for the end implies faithfulness and humility. Predicting a specific time period for the end implies presumptuousness and haughtiness.

Once again, showing that all of those that have made predictions, are not of the Faithful and Discreet Slave. 

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

8 hours ago, xero said:

It takes a lot of work. I have been called in to salute the flag on a few instances.

(I kept my fingers crossed)

In the height of summer here in England, the Elders would moan at me for not wearing a jacket and tie to the meetings.  So Who makes the jacket and tie rules ? For sure it's not in God's written word.  No praise for actually being at the meeting with my wife and five children, just complaint about the way I was dressed. That's one small example of what I mean about Elders being policemen. 

 

[xero]

Just now, 4Jah2me said:

In the height of summer here in England, the Elders would moan at me for not wearing a jacket and tie to the meetings.  So Who makes the jacket and tie rules ? For sure it's not in God's written word.  No praise for actually being at the meeting with my wife and five children, just complaint about the way I was dressed. That's one small example of what I mean about Elders being policemen. 

 

I was counseled on how I walked up to the stage and that my shoes weren't shiny. I thought "What does it matter if I knuckle my way about the hall like a half-human primate? Plus, I hate dress shoes. So I found some that defied shining.?" 

I also got counseled on how I appeared to rely on human wisdom too much. So I indexed my remarks w/citations from publications. (Like the article in the awake magazine on the Heisenberg uncertainty principle as applied to free will) 

It was quite some time before I got appointed. I think they got embarrassed by the CO. What were they to do? A brother who fulfilled all his assignments, worked full time while being a regular pioneer and whose wife also was a regular pioneer? 

One brother once asked me "Have you ever wondered why you haven't been appointed as an elder?" I think I shamed/surprised him by saying "I think it's because Jehovah hasn't decided it's time yet."

You could see him get uncomfortable. (like he was thinking "wrongo bud! WE decide) 

I grew up as a gringo in Laredo, TX, so I'm used to getting picked on and hazed. I got it at home too. 

If I were to complain, what I'd get at home would be "What did YOU do to help create the situation", never taking my side.

So I'm used to taking a "What can I learn from this situation?". "I'm getting counsel. Is it biblical? Maybe. Does the brother think it is? Yes. Do I? Maybe. Do I have to tell him what I think? No. Is it good counsel for someone, even if not me? I'm sure it is somewhere and some time. Are you too proud to listen? No. Even if I think it's off."

So I think there's value in taking counsel and trying to see it from the other person's point of view.

I figured that if I help this brother use me as his crash-test dummy on giving counsel and make him feel good about the exchange, maybe he'll be less likely to do a crappy job of being an elder and maybe stop picking on people unnecessarily.

Glad to be a human punching bag. 

[Witness]

4 hours ago, JW Insider said:

Hoping for the end implies faithfulness and humility. Predicting a specific time period for the end implies presumptuousness and haughtiness.

Prov 27:1 – “Do not boast about tomorrow,
For you do not know what a day may bring forth”

And the result of “predicting”?

Matt 24:48-51 - But if that evil servant says in his heart, ‘My master is delaying his coming,’ ⁴⁹ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunkards, ⁵⁰ the master of that servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and at an hour that he is not aware of, ⁵¹ and will cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

These “servants” are anointed slaves of Christ.  (Matt 25:21)

How are the anointed Temple "stones", “beaten”?  Oh, it has been brought out so many times here, and not one JW who comments, takes note. 

1 Cor 3:16,17 - "Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?  If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple."

Is there  truly "anyone" destroying God's temple?

"Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come.  Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.  He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God."  2 Thess 2:1-4

Doesn't any JW see, that the fulfillment and the warning scriptures of the end times apply directly to the anointed? 

"Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. "

Who is the man of lawlessness that has exalted itself over the anointed Temple?   The "evil servant" of Christ who, after so many failed predictions, gathers his army of elders who "eat and drink" what the evil servant produces.  The anointed cannot bond, they are trampled by "Gentiles" who have replaced them as God's priests.  THIS is a direct order from the evil slave. (Rev 13:1,2,5-7,11,12,15)

   

 

 

 

[xero]

While I'm at it. There's this phrase we often hear. "I encouraged bro/sis X". 

I often counter something like "Well, it doesn't look that way to me from the reaction."

They react surprised.

I'll say "You may have intended to be encouraging, But intent isn't sufficient any more than telling a person you love them when they don't feel loved. It isn't about YOU it's about THEM. What makes another person feel encouraged is as different from what makes another person feel loved."

I had to explain this to my father years ago. 

I'm in IT so to use a technical illustration from the OSI model you have to have each layer of the communication stack from computer A to computer B communicate using the appropriate protocol. If one layer isn't performing the appropriate handshake and following the appropriate protocol, the message never reaches its target.

People are complicated and one size rarely fits all.

 

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

8 hours ago, xero said:

So I'm used to taking a "What can I learn from this situation?"

Yes I did all that stuff. Humility is good, but after a few years and also seeing poor sisters moaned at because their children were unsettled in the meetings, I could see that the Elders were 'lording it over the congregation'. 

I was refused baptism by two Elders in a previous congregation, a father and son that 'ran' that congregation. Then when they 'told' me I was ready, I actually wasn't, but i was humble and got baptised when they said. One Elder in that congregation later committed suicide, whilst his wife was at a meeting. He always seemed to be more friendly than the others and it was a big shock. 

[Anna]

50 minutes ago, xero said:

One brother once asked me "Have you ever wondered why you haven't been appointed as an elder?" I think I shamed/surprised him by saying "I think it's because Jehovah hasn't decided it's time yet."

Perfect! 👍👏

[JW Insider]

2 hours ago, 4Jah2me said:

Once again, showing that all of those that have made predictions, are not of the Faithful and Discreet Slave. 

I think you would have removed several of the apostles from this designation if you had lived in the first century. When Jesus failed to perform any significant miracles in his hometown (Mark 6:5) I can just see you saying: "Well, it's not him, we still have to wait for a True Anointed. Maybe in 5 to 10 years."

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

8 hours ago, JW Insider said:

I think you would have removed several of the apostles from this designation if you had lived in the first century. When Jesus failed to perform any significant miracles in his hometown (Mark 6:5) I can just see you saying: "Well, it's not him, we still have to wait for a True Anointed. Maybe in 5 to 10 years."

How sad you are, having to twist even the scriptures to suit your purpose. 

Like I've said of you before, you sit on the fence, not knowing which way to turn. You say you are an Insider, giving information, but you are too frightened to stop serving your GB.  And you, like all other JWs, seem jealous of the Anointed. 

[Patiently waiting for Truth]

9 hours ago, Anna said:

Perfect! 👍👏

Oh dear, surely you don't still believe that God chooses the Elders.