“Stop being afraid. From now on you will be catching men alive.” - Luke 5:10
[Study 36 from ws 09/20 p.2 November 02 – November 08, 2020]
This week’s Watchtower Study article is aimed at trying to encourage Bible Studies to go preaching and get baptized.
Paragraph 3 mentions that “Jesus’ first disciples were motivated, knowledgeable, courageous, and self-disciplined.” and these qualities no doubt helped them to become effective fishers of men. So, how would you describe most brothers and sisters you know? Would it be “obligated, lacking knowledge of the Bible and many times, even understanding the Organization’s teachings, self-flagellating rather than self-disciplined”?
Is it true that “we preach because we love Jehovah” or because we feel obligated to preach the way the Organization instructs us so that we do it through F.O.G. (Fear, Obligation, Guilt). How many of us truly love(d) going from door to door? Or would we have preferred what is termed “informal witnessing” if only we were given more encouragement and help to do so?
A question to ponder is that paragraph 5 claims our love for Jehovah “is our primary motivation for doing this work”, so would you love a friend more than a kind loving father? Would it not be a kind loving father? Is it not reasonable to conclude then that may be part of the problem may be because we are (wrongly) taught by the Organization that we can only be friends of God, rather than sons of God?
Paragraphs 8-10 encourage us to deepen our knowledge of where the fish are! Is it not important to increase our knowledge of the Scriptures, so that what we learn from God’s word motivates us to talk to others? “Jesus gave clear instructions to his disciples on how to fish for men. He told them what to carry, where to preach, and what to say. (Matt. 10:5-7; Luke 10:1-11) Today, Jehovah’s organization provides a Teaching Toolbox that contains tools that have proved to be effective.” Did you notice the subtle shift from Jesus' clear instructions and the Bible to the Organization’s tools? Should not Jesus clear instructions be sufficient for us? Or is it perhaps more that Jesus did not give clear instructions that were relevant to the future, and hence the Organization has had to make them up, so as to grow as a religion?
What about those tools provided by the Organization? They are:
- Contact cards: These have only been available for a few years from the Organization, yet contact cards have been used by businesses since the 17th[i]
- Invitations: These have long been used by the Organization, but they did not invent them. Invitations by individuals and Organizations have been in use since the Middle Ages.[ii]
- Tracts: The tracts referred to in the study article only date from 2013 onwards, although the Organization has used tracts almost since its start in the 1870’s. However, tracts are not unique to the Organization. Tracts have been in use since the 7th John Wycliffe used them widely in the 14th century and so did Martin Luther in the early 16th century.[iii]
- Magazines: Magazines of different kinds started back in the early 1700’s.[iv] The Watchtower started in 1879, and the Awake some 40 years later in 1919.
- Videos: The first video was invented and made in 1888.[v] VHS videos date from the mid 1970’s. The first video by the Organization was a VHS video and was released in 1978.
- Brochures: Brochures are similar to pamphlets and date back to the very start of printing in the early 16th
- Books: As with tracts and magazines, the Organization has published books from almost the beginning in the 1870’s. However, books in general, at least printed books, started with the invention of the printing press back in the early 1500’s. Handwritten copies started hundreds of years earlier.
Are these so-called Teaching tools anything as special as the Organization would like us to believe? No, if anything, the introduction of these tools has come long after the initial use by other Organizations and religions.
Paragraph 19 states “In such lands, a fisherman’s sense of urgency may intensify as the fishing season draws to a close. As fishers of men, we have this additional incentive to preach now: The end of this system is fast approaching! The time left to share in this lifesaving work is greatly reduced.”
True, the end of this system is approaching, but whether it is fast or slow is only a matter of personal perspective. It is approaching at the same rate as it has for the nearly 2,000 years since Jesus died. The date has not been moved forward or backward, indeed we do not know the day or the hour (Mark 13:32). Also, why should the closeness or distance be any “additional incentive”? If we are doing our best to serve God and Christ at all times, which we should be, we do not need an additional incentive. The wording in the quote in paragraph 19 is solely designed to try and put psychological pressure on the readers to do more than they reasonably should.
To give an example of how this psychological pressure affects brothers and sisters. A couple (who have since passed away) went “to serve where the need was great” in the early ’70s. They sold up their mortgage-free house, in anticipation that Armageddon would come soon. 1975 (when Armageddon was meant to come according to the Organization) came and went, their health began to deteriorate. They eventually ran out of money having lived off of the money from the house sale. They returned to their home country some 12 years later and had to live of off the state and were dependant on other brothers and sisters for monetary assistance to make ends meet until their deaths. The first part of their experience is in the Organization’s literature because it fits the Organization's agenda, but the results this couple received because of heeding the Organization are omitted, no doubt because that would make others think twice before following such a course.
[i] https://www.designer-daily.com/a-history-of-business-cards-20266#:~:text=Business%20cards%20began%20in%20the,the%20middle%20of%20the%20century.
[ii] https://www.purplerosegraphics.com/the-history-of-the-invitation/#:~:text=Written%20invitations%20to%20formal%20events%20got%20their%20start%20in%20the%20middle%20ages.&text=Wealthier%20families%20would%20commission%20monks,notices%20one%20at%20a%20time.&text=By%20the%20middle%20of%20the,of%20creating%20invitations%20was%20engraving.
[iii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tract_(literature)
[iv] https://www.encyclopedia.com/media/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/magazine-industry-history#:~:text=The%20first%20two%20publications%20to,publishing%20the%20Spectator%20in%201711.
[v] https://southtree.com/blogs/artifact/first-video-ever-made#:~:text=The%20first%20video%20recording%20(or,Yorkshire)%20Great%20Britain%20in%201888.
Archived Comments
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Comment by Zacheus on 2020-11-01 20:21:56
- and then the wt/gb had the hide to say it was individuals who ran ahead of the org when it was the org that preached 1975.
Comment by Leonardo Josephus on 2020-11-02 04:18:20
Thank you Tadua for all the hard work you are putting in.
Paragraph 9 says "We preach because we love Jehovah". But what we preach is what we were told to preach. The next paragraph cites Matthew 10 and Luke 10. Note the wording in Luke 10:9 "The kingdom of God has come near to you". Surely these words were focusing on Jesus already being around. Of course, later Jesus told his followers to make disciples etc (Matthew 28:19,20). So the key message was to make disciples of Jesus, simply teaching the things he had commanded. . Jehovah never had any disciples. He had worshippers.
The Organisation has not made disciples of Jesus, whatever they may claim, because of the place they have put the GB. They are the ones who most Witnesses are serving. They have persuaded men to believe that they alone have been chosen. And we fell for it.
Just my thoughts as I went through the article today.Reply by Chet on 2020-11-02 08:42:27
In my opinion, since the purge of 1980, the JWs have become quite open in worshipping their Organization. They mantioned apostasy, and ever since, Witnesses have broken into two camps. One camp signals virtue by demonstrating unfailing loyalty to the presumed Faithful and Discrete Slave, while the other camp results in slowly backing away.
Comment by Deano on 2020-11-02 09:53:18
A desire to talk about God/Jehovah is instilled anyway into people's hearts. The biggest burden is the counting of time, counting of RV, counting always counting. If Jehovah sees all , why do they need to justify a counting of anything. I think it is because it is always a measuring stick as to how well you are doing, how well the family are doing, how well the pioneers are doing. As with everything a lot of genuine folks associated with it, but to hear some talk about not getting their time in, pioneers spending countless hours on building sites and counting time, is just a sad reflection of who are we really servicing or worshipping. When asked over a year ago, were my report was, simply told them its not happening, Jehovah sees what I do, I don't need to inform you of it. When they said I would not get any privileges or they would be removed from me ( I have served as an appointed man before) I mentioned that was fine, I understood that's how it worked, the look of bafflement is amusing and sad in a way. Is God / Jehovah happy with me, I will find out in the new system :)
Comment by Chet on 2020-11-02 12:20:23
You’d think that they could come up with some new ideas, but it’s very easy to overestimate the Watchtower, these days. Obviously, they cannot.
In this case, not surprisingly, they take Jesus’ calling of James, John and Simon, and the illustration he used, which fit their immediate situation, and try to use the same illustration on their readers. The fact that the illustration has no relevance in the lives of most modern people seems to escape their notice. Most notably, they are more than willing to place themselves in the place of Jesus, claiming that they provide the means to make us fishers of men.
Modern JWs are not always all that knowledgeable. Ask a challenging question, and they will probably direct you to JW.org, instead of endeavoring to answer from their personal fund of Bible knowledge. Claiming modern Witnesses to be knowledgeable misses one other important point; of late, the Organization has placed much greater emphasis on being knowledgeable about Watchtower publications than about the Bible. They might now openly state such a thing, but they no longer encourage independent Bible study and have even been known to counsel that we should leave such matters to them.
it is my opinion that the Watchtower is in its death throes. It may continue to exist in name, not unlike the radical changes between Russel’s Bible Student movement and Rutherford’s JWs, but the essence of it has already changed drastically and at such a point in time as when the COVID 19 measures end, I seriously doubt that they will return to the same business model as they had pre-COVID. (That will probably be true of many things, but the circumstances abet a move that the Watchtower Organization is more than happy to embrace; becoming an online religion.)
One thing that seems to be forgotten, all too often, is that the Organization had a huge prophetic failure, once the 1914 generation died off. Try as they might, they cannot escape the fact that they tied their very existence as an organization to Christ’s return having happened in 1914. Now that so much time has passed, it’s all but impossible for them to claim any sort of prophetic victory with regard to this date, and thinking people are aware of this. Honestly, they have little to offer.
These days, a restored earth is a common teaching among Christians. The Watchtower no longer “holds title” to this as anything approaching a unique belief. This was a major part of their appeal, because many people found such a hope more appealing than going to heaven. By isolating a heavenly hope to a select group of 144,000, the Witnesses presented a very appealing package to people that wanted to serve their Creator, but were not all that interested in heavenly life.
My own conclusion regarding this matter is that those called will be ruling upon the earth. It’s curious that at Revelation 5:10, the NWT renders the Greek word “epi’ over [the earth] instead of upon [the earth], as most other translations do. For this, and for other reasons, I have concluded that those chosen to reign with Christ will do their reigning from a physical presence on earth.
As regards the Jehovah’s Witnesses, I feel that they are much in the position of a balloon vendor that has run out of helium. Eventually, the helium already in a balloon will leak out, to some degree, leaving the balloon partially deflated and no longer buoyant in the atmosphere. The appeal of the product is reduced and a balloon vendor in such a situation is unlikely to make any sales. Face it, no one wants a partially deflated balloon.
The Watchtower made its mark based on the claim that they possessed insight into the return of Christ. At the time of their founding, this was a somewhat popular pursuit, with various Adventist theories being proposed. The JWs were quite successful in growing their organization by promising that Armageddon was near at hand. However, two of their most bold predictions have failed. One is that 1975 would mark 6,000 years of human history and would be a marked date, strongly implying that Armageddon would come at that time. The second, and most damning, was that the generation which saw the events of 1914 would be alive at the time of Armageddon. Both of these having failed, the Witnesses have a major credibility problem and their message is no more appealing than a partial deflated balloon which is no longer buoyant.
Their message has become deflated and unappealing. Their growth has flatlined and persons raised within are leaving the faith when they become adults at a ration of 2:1. The Watchtower has nothing left to say. All they can do is recycle the same shopworn sermons and insist that they are exclusively being used by God. They have no way to reinflate their balloon.