Any questions for Jehovah's Witnesses?

[JehovahsWitness]

Lots of people have questions about Jehovah's Witnesses what we believe and why.

[Purple Knight]

But, if you really think about it, anyone who believes the message of traditional conservative Christianity should be doing the same. If I thought that you were really really going to spend an eternity in excruciating torment¹, and that I could be an agent to prevent that from happening, simply by presenting to you that which I know to be true, I could not justify to myself not at least trying to make you listen.

Agreed. I almost wonder why we don't see Christians falling upon one another of different sects and shaking each other, crying, "Nooooo you've got it slightly wrong you might go to Hell!"

[Miles]

But, if you really think about it, anyone who believes the message of traditional conservative Christianity should be doing the same. If I thought that you were really really going to spend an eternity in excruciating torment¹, and that I could be an agent to prevent that from happening, simply by presenting to you that which I know to be true, I could not justify to myself not at least trying to make you listen.

Agreed. I almost wonder why we don't see Christians falling upon one another of different sects and shaking each other, crying, "Nooooo you've got it slightly wrong you might go to Hell!"

Perhaps because they don't think in terms of "slightly" and "might," but rather "Nooooo you've got it incredibly wrong you will go to Hell!"

.

[2timothy316]

But, if you really think about it, anyone who believes the message of traditional conservative Christianity should be doing the same. If I thought that you were really really going to spend an eternity in excruciating torment¹, and that I could be an agent to prevent that from happening, simply by presenting to you that which I know to be true, I could not justify to myself not at least trying to make you listen.

Agreed. I almost wonder why we don't see Christians falling upon one another of different sects and shaking each other, crying, "Nooooo you've got it slightly wrong you might go to Hell!"

Jehovah' Witnesses have a principle that we live by. "So keep strict watch that how you walk is not as unwise but as wise persons, making the best use of your time, because the days are wicked. On this account stop being unreasonable, but keep perceiving what the will of Jehovah is." Ep 5:15,17

Jehovah's Witnesses do not fear hellfire as we do not believe it to be a scripturally sound teaching. However, we do try to keep perceiving what the will of God is not out of fear of hell but it benefits us and all mankind. It also beings us closer to being friend with Almighty God Jehovah.

You might say only being slightly off is not so bad. But would you get into aircraft were one of the engines was 'slightly off'? Or lets say that you were on a spaceship headed toward the moon and mission control said that your trajectory is 'slightly off'' would you ask for a correction?

Take the scriptural commandment at Luke 6:35,36, "On the contrary, continue to love your enemies and to do good and to lend without hoping for anything back." This is just one commandment but would you say that people that call themselves Christians are 'slightly off' from following this commandment? What harm as come from it?

Lets consider the hellfire doctrine again for a moment. There are many, including Witnesses that believe this doctrine is responsible for holding people hostage so that clergy get people to do what they want with threats of burning eternally. Though this teaching is only slightly off, can you see the damage it is capable of? Imagine if the hellfire doctrine was widely accept as false.

Things being slightly off doesn't not seem to be much at first. But over time can lead to gigantic suffering. Are Jehovah's Witnesses perfect? No way! When we are slightly off we often pay for the consequences. The question becomes, will we correct course? This is why we keep perceiving what the will of God is and making adjustments. We strive to be as close to on course as possible when it comes to doctrine. We will even change any teaching to conform to what the Bible says.

"Narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it.”​—Matthew 7:13, 14 Witnesses believe there is little room for being off course, even a little, on a narrow and cramped road.

[Purple Knight]

Jehovah's Witnesses do not fear hellfire as we do not believe it to be a scripturally sound teaching. However, we do try to keep perceiving what the will of God is not out of fear of hell but it benefits us and all mankind. It also beings us closer to being friend with Almighty God Jehovah.

Biblical Scholar Bart Ehrman doesn't believe Hell is really canon either. All this afterlife stuff is Greek. To the ancient Jews you were either alive or dead. That's why Jesus had to promise bodily resurrection.

You might say only being slightly off is not so bad. But would you get into aircraft were one of the engines was 'slightly off'? Or lets say that you were on a spaceship headed toward the moon and mission control said that your trajectory is 'slightly off'' would you ask for a correction?

Not only do I resoundingly agree with you, but I don't fly at all unless I have to. Sometimes I do have to, because I breed cats and I can't just inbreed. I have to go and get new genetic diversity. If there's a good, healthy, available one in Pennsylvania then I have to go to Pennsylvania.

But it depends whether you're in an airplane or a car. If a car fails you can almost always just pull over. Given that we're imperfect and this was all part of his plan, I really do hope he'd give us the metaphorical car, and not the metaphorical airplane, to ride around in. If he endowed us with airplanes and not cars, the fact that we'll fail is kind of him stacking the deck against us.

Take the scriptural commandment at Luke 6:35,36, "On the contrary, continue to love your enemies and to do good and to lend without hoping for anything back." This is just one commandment but would you say that people that call themselves Christians are 'slightly off' from following this commandment? What harm as come from it?

Lets consider the hellfire doctrine again for a moment. There are many, including Witnesses that believe this doctrine is responsible for holding people hostage so that clergy get people to do what they want with threats of burning eternally. Though this teaching is only slightly off, can you see the damage it is capable of? Imagine if the hellfire doctrine was widely accept as false.

Scaring people into doing good? Yep that's the airplane. But do you see why it's the airplane? Because it itself, is somebody holding that their thing is absolute and we must fly in the airplane or else.

One of my friends used to say about car accidents is that it generally takes two idiots to have one. Somebody has to make a mistake or take a risk, and somebody else has to not be paying attention. I think this is emblematic-level true about my beef with dogma, and that the conflict where two Christians both think the other guy being slightly wrong is going to make him burn in Hell is sort of an acid test of that dogma. That's kind of what I was getting at, actually.

But even this Hell stuff... It might function as a placeholder. Children below the formal operational stage think mostly in terms of punishment. If you ask one of them why he is not sneaking from the candy jar, he'll say because he'll be punished. And if you imply he ought to just not do it because it's the right thing, he probably won't understand. But if you ask an adult Christian if they're following the Bible out of fear of Hell, you will always get the answer that no, they would do the right thing anyway.

Things being slightly off doesn't not seem to be much at first. But over time can lead to gigantic suffering. Are Jehovah's Witnesses perfect? No way! When we are slightly off we often pay for the consequences. The question becomes, will we correct course? This is why we keep perceiving what the will of God is and making adjustments. We strive to be as close to on course as possible when it comes to doctrine. We will even change any teaching to conform to what the Bible says.

"Narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it.”​—Matthew 7:13, 14 Witnesses believe there is little room for being off course, even a little, on a narrow and cramped road.

We might both be right. And it might in fact be the case that just not building up a bunch of crippling dogma is surprisingly difficult, making that path narrow. Christians like parables so let me construct one. This one takes into account that I believe you about not being judgmental and accepting you're not perfect being a good rule. But it's mainly about dogma, and how that can hurt, rather than help. Keep in mind that I believe your sect is canonically correct about a lot of Biblical stuff that the lay-Christian seems to just get wrong.

There was once a little boy who was not as good as his fellows at riding a bike. His parents made sure his bicycle always had training wheels. Unlike the other children, who grew and never fell again, if the training wheels were ever removed, he would always fall sometimes. As he grew, though, the training wheels became less effective, and once again the boy was falling a lot. Since there weren't training wheels designed for older children's bikes, they had to construct some, and they ended up being big, heavy things that stuck out and accentuated every one of the boy's wobbly movements. The big training wheels slowed him down quite a lot, and he finally thought to himself to just remove them. He still fell without them; he was not like the other children who learned how not to, and he would never be like them. But without the bulky training wheels, he fell less often.

[2timothy316]

[Replying to Purple Knight in post #24]

As Jehovah's Witnesses we realize through the study of the Bible that deviation from God's approved way to serve Him doesn't end well. For example if we look at ancient Israel they, tried to worship other gods as well as Jehovah. Mixing worship. This was strictly forbidden. This lead to people that were supposed to be Jehovah's chosen people to burn their children in fire to Molech. It started simple enough. First it was offering incense to another god, when they don't get the results they want, then an animal, and then their children. No one just starts off burning their children, it is something that takes time to convince someone to do this.

Today, Christmas, a holiday JWs feel is not approved by God, leads to all sorts of problems. Debt, stress, and some economist say that Christmas spending actually isn't good for the economy. There are even isolated reports of whole families being killed by other family because of losing their job just before Christmas. While these cases are few how many deaths would we accept in our family? Depression often follows Christmas for some people. Its called Seasonal Affective Disorder. Christmas started simple enough. A celebration for the birth of Jesus. What's the harm in that right? Yet for some it as morphed into something ugly.

So Witnesses avoid that and a lot more woe by trying to stick to what God approves as close as possible.

[TheRootOfDavid]

Lots of people have questions about Jehovah's Witnesses what we believe and why.

Why is it that you think it is alright,
to bring your little pamphlets and doctrine,
knock on my door at any time of the day, waking me up or
interrupting what I am doing and interjecting yourself
in my life, without an invitation, but when asked where you live
so I can come do that to you or I do show up with
a bible on your doorstep, you throw a fit and want no part of a bible study?

[otseng]

[Replying to TheRootOfDavid in post #26]

The intent of this subforum is to allow members to ask questions directed towards a particular group of people (Christians, Atheists, Ex-Christians, Democrats, Fundamentalists, etc). Debating is not allowed here. Any comments considered to be demeaning or sarcastic about any groups will not be tolerated. The purpose here is simply to gain knowledge from others about a particular group. If the conversation leads to something that you want to debate, then open a new debate topic in the appropriate debate subforum.

[JehovahsWitness]

...Why is it that you think it is alright,
to bring your little pamphlets and doctrine,

If we take this to be a genuine enquiry:

- we preach because it is a command from Jesus (see Matthew 28:29, 20). We go house to house because that is how we can find people to preach to (compare Acts 20:20). We offer literature because some people may wish to learn more after we are gone.

...waking me up or interrupting what I am doing and interjecting yourself
in my life, without an invitation, but when asked where you live
so I can come do that to you or I do show up with
a bible on your doorstep, you throw a fit and want no part of a bible study?[/b]

We cannot know if people are sleeping but generally try to call at times most people are awake (avoiding early in the morning or late at night). You (or anyone) is welcome to go from house to house just as we do , and if you find me by employing the same methods as Jehovah's Witnesses , I personally will be more than happy to listen to what you have to say.


I hope this has answered your questions,


Have a most excellent day.



JEHOVAH'S WITNESS

[TheRootOfDavid]

...Why is it that you think it is alright,
to bring your little pamphlets and doctrine,

If we take this to be a genuine enquiry:

- we preach because it is a command from Jesus

I say that you use that as your justification
as to recruit people. I can show you many commandments
of Jesus written in the bible that you and the JW's do not obey.

[TheRootOfDavid]

...Why is it that you think it is alright,
to bring your little pamphlets and doctrine,

If we take this to be a genuine enquiry:

- we preach because it is a command from Jesus (see Matthew 28:29, 20). We go house to house because that is how we can find people to preach to (compare Acts 20:20). We offer literature because some people may wish to learn more after we are gone.

...waking me up or interrupting what I am doing and interjecting yourself
in my life, without an invitation, but when asked where you live
so I can come do that to you or I do show up with
a bible on your doorstep, you throw a fit and want no part of a bible study?[/b]

I personally will be more than happy to listen to what you have to say.

I do not believe you. If I came and nocked on your door
with my bible, you would not have bible study with me in your home.