Posts

Showing posts with the label Thinking with the Bible
 

What the "Faithful and Discreet Slave" Is Not [Opposers Dismythed]

Image
Updates listed at the bottom of the post. Last updated Mar 8 at 2:25 PM. FINAL EDIT with conclusion. Author's Note:   This post focusses on the actual context of the words and related symbolism, not on incidental peripheral concepts unimportant to its interpretation. Many of their opposers have criticized Jehovah's Witnesses on "the faithful and discreet slave." But let us examine the merits of our critics arguments on the verses in question. The method of discovery used here is proof by exhaustion, a tried and true method. But first, let us review the Scriptures and the stand of Jehovah's Witnesses. Source: “The Faithful and Discreet Slave” Jesus himself related the prophecy, saying: "Who really is the faithful steward, the discreet one, whom his master will appoint over his body of attendants [or "domestics"] to keep giving them their measure of food supplies at the proper time? Happy is that slave if his master on coming finds him doing so! I te...

Do the Scriptures Really Take a Stand on Blood Transfusions? [Opposers Dismythed]

Image
Many have challenged our stand on Blood transfusions because such ones claim that the prohibition on blood refers only to eating blood. But is that true? Does the Christian prohibition on blood only extend to eating blood? Let us take a close look at all the scriptures relevant to this stand and not just the few that our opposers like to exclusively focus in on. A Decision by the Apostles Jehovah's Witnesses stand by the standard set by the first century Christians. This was the result of a decision based upon whether non-Jewish Christians from among the nations were under obligation to observe the law. The first century centralized body of apostles and elders in Jerusalem, (Acts 15:2) by the influence of the holy spirit, (Acts 15:28) concluded that there were three things in the law that were still binding upon all Christians because they precede the Law of Moses. (Acts 15:29) This was no doubt because they were restrictions on all of mankind that existed before the law an...

How Do We Know That Paul Wrote Hebrews?

Determining the author of Hebrews is a matter of internal and historical evidence. The book, All Scriptures is Inspired of God and Beneficial (1990), published by Jehovah's Witnesses, says this about the evidence of Paul's authorship of the book of Hebrews: The internal evidence of the book is all in support of Paul’s writership. The writer was in Italy and was associated with Timothy. These facts fit Paul. (Heb. 13:23, 24) Furthermore, the doctrine is typical of Paul, though the arguments are presented from a Jewish viewpoint, designed to appeal to the strictly Hebrew congregation to which the letter was addressed. On this point Clarke’s Commentary, Volume 6, page 681, says concerning Hebrews: “That it was written to Jews, naturally such, the whole structure of the epistle proves. Had it been written to the Gentiles, not one in ten thousand of them could have comprehended the argument, because unacquainted with the Jewish system; the knowledge of which the writer of this ep...

Does the Faithful and Discreet Slave "Mediate"?

On multiple occasions, I have come across those claiming that the “WTBTS” (They love to make us look like puppets of a corporation,) acts like a “mediator” between us and God, but let's take a look at Christendom* and then compare them to Jehovah's Witnesses, and see who really are acting like the mediators. I think we all know that the Catholic Pope openly claims the position of mediator. Then there are the ministers, priests, reverends, deacons, presbyters, evangelists and self-professed prophets who claim to be the sole channel through which revelation is coming to their congregations. They will say “I'm right and I'm never wrong.” Many have taken the words of Wycliffe, Wesley, Luther and Calvin as the sole determiners, or the foundation, of modern doctrine. Many of them, especially evangelists and the Pope, like to sit upon gold thrones and take “prayer requests”. (1 Corinthians 4:8-13, 18-21) When people ask Jehovah's Witnesses to pray for them, we say, “i...

Jehovah's Witnesses Have the Freedom to Think — Do You?

Note: The following article is written in a rare second person delivery toward the reader. That is because I wish to directly address individuals from the religions of the world who specifically target Jehovah's Witnesses so that I may rouse their thinking abilities. Do you claim that Jehovah's Witnesses are not allowed to think? That we are instructed to think only thoughts approved by the Watchtower? That is what our detractors like to claim. But does that claim have merit? On what do you base such a claim? Jehovah's Witness Publications Support Free Thinking Consider the fourth study article in the September 2013 Watchtower. Its title is " Make Personal Decisions Wisely ". If someone has been taught by their pastor that we are only allowed to think Watchtower approved thoughts, they would think that an article with this title is telling us what to think. A question like the one in the third paragraph of the article would seem to support that view: ...