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The items in red are comments from me!
The quotes are taken from the March 15, 1986 Watchtower pages 12-14 * w86 3/15 12-14 'Do Not Be Quickly Shaken From Your Reason' *** Have No Dealings With Apostates 7 Now, what will you do if you are confronted with apostate teaching—subtle
reasonings—claiming that what you believe as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses
is not the truth? For example, what will you do if you receive a letter
or some literature, open it, and see right away that it is from an apostate?
Will curiosity cause you to read it, just to see what he has to say? You
may even reason: ‘It won’t affect me; I’m too strong in the truth. And,
besides, if we have the truth, we have nothing to
fear. The truth will stand the test.’ In thinking this way, some have fed
their minds upon apostate reasoning and have fallen prey to serious questioning
and doubt. (Compare James 1:5-8.) So remember the warning at 1 Corinthians
10:12: “Let him that thinks he is standing beware that he does not fall.”
This scripture is quoted above: *** Rbi8 James 1:5-8 ***
Says we are to ask God not the Society.
8 With loving help from caring brothers, some having doubts sown by
apostates have recovered after a period of spiritual turmoil and trauma.
But this pain could have been avoided. At Proverbs 11:9 we are told: “By
his mouth the one who is an apostate brings his fellowman to ruin, but
by knowledge are the righteous rescued.” Jude told fellow Christians to
“continue showing mercy to some that have doubts; save them by
9 Tragically, others have gone into complete darkness, even going back
to Christendom’s erroneous teachings. The apostle Peter wrote about the
tragic outcome for some who first walked in the truth but then turned aside.
He said: “Certainly if, after having escaped from
the defilements of the world by an accurate knowledge of the Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, they get involved again with these very things and are
What if the Societies teachings does not go along
with what the Bibles says?
10 When a fellow human tells us, ‘Do not read
this’ or, ‘Do not listen to that,’ we may be tempted to ignore his advice.
But remember, in this case Jehovah is the One who tells us in his Word
what to do. And what does he say about apostates? “Avoid them” (Romans
16:17, 18); “quit mixing in company with” them
(1 Corinthians 5:11); and “never receive [them] into
your homes or say a greeting to [them]” (2 John 9, 10).
Jehovah's advise is to stay away from apostates. We are not an apostate to Jehovah, Jesus and his true teachings. The Society puts itself on the same level playing field as with Jehovah. The Society doesn't want you to look at their past teachings, that is why they go to such great lengths to scare you not to look. Jehovah warns us stay away from such ones as in the following scriptures: *** Rbi8 Matthew 12:36-37 ***
*** Rbi8 Deuteronomy 18:20-22 ***
*** Rbi8 1 John 4:1 ***
** Rbi8 Ezekiel 13:8-9 ***
*** Rbi8 Matthew 7:15-16 ***
*** Rbi8 2 Peter 2:1 ***
*** Rbi8 Ephesians 5:6-10 ***
11 Let us illustrate matters in this way: Suppose your teenage son received
some pornographic material in the mail. What would you do? If he was inclined
to read it out of curiosity, would you say: ‘Yes, son, go ahead and read
it. It won’t hurt you. From infancy we’ve taught you that immorality is
bad. Besides, you need to know what’s going on in the world in order to
see that it’s truly bad’? Would you reason that way?
12 Well, if we would act so decisively to protect our children from exposure to pornography, should we not expect that our loving heavenly Father would similarly warn us and protect us from spiritual fornication, including apostasy? He says, Keep away from it! 13 But suppose we are preaching the good news and people raise questions
or objections similar to those raised by opposers? Of course, if a person
is not sincere and merely wishes to argue, usually it is best to excuse
ourselves and go to the next door. But if someone sincerely asks about
certain claims of apostates, what can be done? First, we can ask what,
exactly, has caused the concern. It may be only one or two points. Then
we can stick to these and answer from the Scriptures, from the Society’s
publications, and from what we truthfully know about the subject.
We need not conclude that we have to read a book or a pamphlet that is
filled with slander and half-truths in order to refute the false claims
and teachings of opposers.
What half truths have I presented to you, all
I have shown you is from the Bible and from the Societies own old light
literature. The truth does not change. Remember thay don't want you to
read anything negative about them. How could you fairly set on a jury trial
if you only took one side. You have to examine the whole truth not just
what is presented to you from Brooklyn.
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