SHORT CHRISTIAN READINGS SELECTED FOR FORMER JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
EDITOR: I post this for former JWs who have been out so long enough that they may need reminding of certain humorous things which occurred during life inside the Cult, and they now can find such highly AMUSING!!! One of the last times I went out in field service, I worked one Sunday afternoon with a carload of Pioneers who literally drove back and forth across the territory after each stop. In three hours, I knocked TWO DOORS, and noone was home at either. I believe that the three Pioneers talked at one door. Fraudulently starting and counting time was not merely taught "on the job" -- such regularly was included during the Service Meetings -- both at the Kingdom Hall and at Circuit Assemblies. Almost without exception, whenever a new deception was rolled out which had not been first taught at the Kingdom Hall or Assembly, the "revealer" would relate that they had learned such while "working with the Circuit Overseer", or the CO's wife. What all this means is that the 1.4 BILLION -- or whatever -- HOURS annually reported by door-knocking JWs worldwide is a FRAUD -- just like most other elements of the WatchTower Cult. Divide their numbers by 5 to 10. So, laugh at and enjoy your recollections concerning "time counting".
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The Two Sides of Field Service
Author Unknown
(edited)
Side One - Forced To Perform
Here I was, an over zealous Jehovah's Witness with a strong burning desire to speak the bible and the Watchtower Society's unique interpretations to the public. I thought of Jeremiah who had a burning desire to preach, who stated "And in my heart it proved to be like a burning fire shut up in my bones; and I got tired of holding in, and I was unable to endure it." (Jer 20:9)
The elder in charge didn't like field service -- that is the preaching door to door. So he would slow things down for others with driving directions, organization, and garage sales, preventing them from working.
If you're "pioneering" with the Watchtower Society's obligation of meeting the requirement of 83 hours a month (1000 hours a year) in the preaching work, how can you possibly count the 3 or more hours per day to meet this monthly requirement ? ( I have known many who exagerate their hourly numbers, to keep up and look good spiritually in the eyes of the Watchtower)
Anyway, some of us brothers had to speak up, resulting in this elder being counseled by his fellow elders. The point is, this poor elder was being forced to perform works by the Watchtower organization and all the Jehovah's Witness followers, including myself. This elder had some great gifts, but unfortunately, they were being overlooked in a legalistic system of sacrifices that over rode mercy.
Side Two - Forcing Others To Perform
Young over zealous pioneers push the rest of us spiritually weak brothers with a fast pace, out done, careless push. It's not all their fault .. it's guess who ... that's right "the mother organization", the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.
The Society keeps pushing "Pioneering", "Pioneering," ... "Can You Pioneer?" ... "What Can You Do To Pioneer?" .. and so on. I just say to myself, what the "F" is Pioneering? I mean really, where in the scriptures is it? It's not in there folks. The Nazarites of the Israelites does not set precendence of any type. The law of Christ does not pertain to external works, but rather an internal circumcision of the heart, exhibiting love, mercy and justice to all others.
The point here is, the Watchtower Society pushes and forces others to perform works, causing them to obtain an imature, unbalanced zeal, becoming judgemental of others. This spiritual poison existed within myself. As I became more and more aware of it, I also awoke to the misguided zeal in many Circuit and District Overseers and from articles directly written from the Watchtower Society's Governing Body of Jehovah Witnesses themselves.
The Counting of Time
Can you imagine Jesus Christ filling out a slip of paper at the end of each month to count the amount of hours he preached to others? Or his deciples sign up to "Pioneer" and then handing in their slips of paper to meet hourly requirements for Jesus, so he can inspect them? On the contrary, Jesus stressed walking in an invisible faith, not by sight. He stressed "love of neighbor" with "mercy and not sacrifice." Performance of works were based on love, justice and mercy, not regimented, detailed, organizationally outlined sacrifices. The apostles scriptural knowledge was important, but the knowledge needed for life was of Jesus, the person, not doctrines. Having this knowledge of him was the same as having the knowledge of love, for "God is love" and "he that loves is born from God." (1 John 5:1; 4:8; Math 22) The Pharisees had scriptural knowledge and correctly performed works of sacrifice, yet without love, mercy and justice, they were intellectually blinded into legalism, rejecting the true meaning of the messiah, the same as the Watchtower Society blindly counts hours, literature placements, meeting attendance and thousands of detailed manmade scriptural interpretations, rejecting the true meaning of love and mercy.
The entire actions of counting time, "Auxiliary Pioneering" and "Pioneering" are no where in the scriptures and completely out of line of the teachings of Christ Jesus. Our service to God is based on a free gift. No matter how many hours we perform works of sacrifice by going out in field service, we are unacceptable to God, as sinners. It is only with the blood of Christ, that makes us acceptable to God, whether we go out preaching one hour or one thousand. The point is, we should NEVER feel guilty because of our lack of works of sacrifice. Rather it is works of mercy that God wants and not sacrifice. It is faith in him that he wants, not hours spent going door to door. Faith is having the assurance and confidence in God's ability to care and help us, freely relying on him and making the first course of action, while yet under a degree of uncertainty. Our faith is then rewarded by God and is what pleases him, much more then field service hours could ever do. Anyone who reads the scriptures apart from manmade interpretations can see that there are absolutely no "Pioneers" and Auxilary Pioneers" meeting some hourly requirements. "Pioneering" is nothing short of "washing the hands to the elbows", that is, adding to the scriptures what is not there and therefore making "the word of God null and void."
Our faith tells us, that even if there were only a human army of 2 persons preaching to the entire world, we could trust in God, having the full confidence that he will care for, provide for us and accomplish his purpose. For it is God's spirit that does the work, not the flesh of man, as Jesus stated "the stones would cry out" if God wanted them to. When King David took a count of his men, to see how strong of an army he had, he was punished, for it revealed David's trust in flesh and not in God's Spirit. It is the same with the annual count of hours, bible studies, magazine placements & etc. that the Watchtower Society and Jehovah's Witnesses so meticulously observe. By counting and listing all of the printing facilities, full-time servants, bible studies and placement of literature, the Watchtower is putting their trust and faith in the flesh, not of God's spirit. They are as the ancient nation of Israel who put their trust in their gold and silver and not God. Certainly the God, who does "not despise small beginnings", does not need a large religious "visible organization" to do his work. For it is "not by a military force, nor by men, but by God's spirit" that will accomplish his purpose. Again, if God really wanted to, "he could make the stones cry out", for "we are walking by faith and not by sight."
Our works or deeds are important, but they are not limited to "sacrifices" or a preaching work, for sacred service to God is "mercy" and the "doing good things and the sharing with others." Performing the sacrifice of preaching is only a part of sacred service to God and is not the primary identifying mark of true followers of Christ, where time should be counted as of high importance, and congregation positions should be based on the amount of hours a brother preaches per month. I personally know of ministerial servants who were told by the elders to increase their 10 hours a month of field service to 15 hours a month, in order to be appointed as elders. Truly, this misses the entire point of Christianity. There are also brothers who are constantly being deleted for lack of hours or browbeaten with a "heavy load on their shoulders" to increase their service hours.
Sacred service to God is to be internal, "written on the heart", not an external record of activity acting as a barometer of measuring one's spiritual activity. Whether it be meeting attendance, amount of verbal participation, or the preaching activity to other people, these are merely external actions that do not show the true internal intimacy a person either has or does not with God. The only barometer that really can be seen are acts of mercy and love. Field service preaching is sacrifice, not mercy. The account of the Good Samaritan, who did not have accurate knowledge, confirms this.
The result of putting priority on external activities, working hard to please God, is the mechanical following a regimen of service almost with a stopwatch and checklist in hand to be sure one has "put in their time." When this is done, one can feel good. When the service is not performed, guilt sets in. Somehow the point is missed that service to God is not supposed to be an end in itself but a means to an end. God does not want external sacrifices and service as a work to please him, rather he wants our internal devotion, intimacy and faith in him. He wants persons hearts and not just their time put in. If our external activities help us to get to our internalization of love and faith for God, then they are helpful. But if they do not, they can be very harmful.
To give an example, many today put emphasis on various formulas of external service for a maximum marriage and have raised great expectations that often lead to frustration. Not that these formulas are all invalid, for many are practical, beneficial and helpful, but the real issue is internal intimacy, faithfulness and love. It is an internal service to each other that keeps the marriage together. If this love is lost, then the marriage does not last.