Meleti Vivlon

Articles by Meleti Vivlon.


Jehovah Blesses Obedience

I was doing my daily Bible reading a few days ago and came to Luke chapter 12. I’ve read this passage many times before, but this time it was like someone had smacked me in the forehead. “In the meantime, when a crowd of so many thousands had gathered together that...

Christianity, Inc.

I recently shared a link to Brother Geoffrey Jackson’s testimony before the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse with a couple of JW friends. I went out of my way not to be negative or challenging. I was simply sharing a news...

Where Else Can We Go?

I was raised as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. I engaged in the full-time service in three countries, worked closely with two Bethels, and was able to help dozens to the point of baptism. I took great pride in saying that I was “in the truth.” I truly believed I was in...

The Role of Women

“…your longing will be for your husband, and he will dominate you.” – Gen. 3:16 We have only a partial idea of what the role of women in human society was intended to be because sin has skewed the relationship between the sexes. Recognizing how male and female...

Pending Launch of Our New Site

A Look Back Before We Look Forward When I first started Beroean Pickets, it was intended as a means to contact other Jehovah’s Witnesses who wanted to engage in deeper Bible research. I had no other goal than that. The congregation meetings do no provide a forum for...

TV.JW.ORG, A Missed Opportunity

“Go therefore and make disciples of people of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all the things I have commanded YOU.. . .” (Mt 28:19, 20) Short of the command to love one...

God Is Love

Back in 1984, Brooklyn headquarters staff member, Karl F. Klein wrote: “Since I first began taking in ‘the milk of the word,’ here are but a few of the many excellent spiritual truths Jehovah’s people have come to understand: the distinction between God’s organization...

May TV Broadcast on tv.jw.org

An Historic Broadcast Brother Lett opens this month’s JW.ORG TV broadcast with the statement that it is historic. He then lists several reasons we might consider it to be of historical importance. However, there is another reason he does not list. This is the...

Vindicating Jehovah’s Sovereignty

Does the Bible have a theme? If so, what is it? Ask this of any one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and you’ll get this answer: The entire Bible has but one theme: The Kingdom under Jesus Christ is the means by which the vindication of God’s sovereignty and the sanctification...

The Governing Body Loves Us!

In this month’s tv.jw.org TV broadcast, Governing Body member Mark Sanderson concludes with these words: “We hope that this program has assured you that the Governing Body truly loves each one of you and that we notice and appreciate your steadfast endurance.” We know...

The Earthly Hope Paradox

When one of Jehovah’s Witnesses goes out knocking on doors, he brings a message of hope: the hope of eternal life on earth. In our theology, there are only 144,000 spots in heaven, and they are all but taken. Therefore, the chance that someone we might preach to will...

Satan's Great Coup!

“He will crush your head…” (Ge 3:15) I can’t know what went through Satan’s mind when he heard those words, but I can imagine the gut wrenching feeling I’d experience if God pronounced such a sentence on me.  One thing we can know...

Rendering Worship – How? To Whom?

We’ve just studied the meaning of four Greek words that are translated in modern English Bible versions as “worship”. True, each word is rendered in other ways as well, but they all have that one word in common. All religious people—Christian or not—think they...

What is Worship?

[This is the second of three articles on the subject of worship. If you haven’t already done so, please get yourself a pen and paper and write down what you understand “worship” to mean. Don’t consult a dictionary. Just write down whatever comes to mind first. Set the...

The Geography of Worship

[Before we get started, I’d like to ask you to do something: Get yourself a pen and paper and write down what you understand “worship” to mean. Don’t consult a dictionary. Just write down whatever comes to mind first. Please don’t wait to do this after you read this...

Help Us Spread the Good News

We began Beroean Pickets in April of 2011, but regular publishing didn’t begin until January of the next year. Though initially started to provide a safe gathering place for truth-loving Jehovah’s Witnesses interested in deeper Bible Study far from the watchful eye of...

How Can You Learn About God?

The #3 Student Talk in the Theocratic Ministry School has changed as of this year.  Now it includes demonstration parts with two brothers discussing a Bible topic. Last week and this week it is taken from pages 8 and 9 of the newest edition of the New World...

WT Study: Why We Must Be Holy

[A Review of the November 15, 2014 Watchtower article on page 8] “You must be holy.”—Lev. 11:45 This promised to be an easy review covering a non-controversial subject. It has turned out to be anything but. Any honest, astute Bible student is going to encounter a...

The Hypocrisy of the Pharisees

[A Review of the August 15, 2014 Watchtower article, ”Hear Jehovah’s Voice Wherever You Are”] “13 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut up the Kingdom of the heavens before men; for you yourselves do not go in, neither do you permit those on...

Dealing with Persecution

  [This is a continuation to the article, “Doubling Down on Faith”] Before Jesus came on the scene, the nation of Israel was ruled by a governing body made up of the priests in coalition with other powerful religious groups like the scribes, Pharisees and...

Doubling Down on Faith

[An opinion piece] I recently had a friend break off a decades-long friendship. This drastic choice didn’t result because I attacked some unscriptural JW teaching like 1914 or the “overlapping generations”. In fact, we engaged in no doctrinal discussion at all. The...

Playing the Victim

“…YOU are determined to bring the blood of this man upon us.” (Acts 5:28)  The chief priests, Pharisees and scribes had all conspired and succeeded in killing God’s Son. They were blood guilty in a very big way.  Yet here they are playing...

The Greater Korah

A discussion based on the July 15, 2014 Watchtower study article, “Jehovah Knows Those Who Belong to Him.”   Over the decades, The Watchtower has repeatedly referenced Korah’s rebellion against Moses and Aaron in the desert whenever the publishers felt the need...

Lovers of Darkness

I was telling a friend the other day that reading the Bible is like listening to classical music. No matter how often I hear a classical piece, I continue to find unnoticed nuances which enhance the experience. Today, while reading John chapter 3, something popped out...

The Shadow of the Pharisee

“. . .And when it became day, the assembly of elders of the people, both chief priests and scribes, gathered together, and they led him into their San′he·drin hall and said: 67 “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them: “Even if I told you, you would not...