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Food for Thinking Jehovah's Witnesses
“‘But you are seeking great things for yourself. Stop seeking such things. For I am about to bring a calamity on all flesh,’ declares Jehovah, ‘and wherever you may go, I will grant you your life as a spoil.’”
Disclaimer: this site does not claim to hold the truth. The reader should be able to exercise good judgment, carefully examining the Scriptures as to whether these things are so. (Acts 17:11)
Robert King (e-watchman)
Jehovah’s Witnesses Respond to Russia’s Religious Ban
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By Russia’s legalistic definition Jehovah’s Witnesses are an extremist cult. But so were the original Christians. Jehovah’s Witnesses are charged with breaking up families. Why should they deny it? Did not Jesus say in Matthew 10:34-37: “Do not think I came to bring peace to the earth; I came to bring, not peace, but a sword. For I came to cause division, with a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. Indeed, a man’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever has greater affection for father or mother than for me is not worthy of me; and whoever has greater affection for son or daughter than for me is not worthy of me.”?

kirill-putin Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (R) kisses Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill during an Orthodox Easter service in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow April 23, 2011.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are charged with fostering hate. Again, guilty as charged, at least according to Jesus: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” —Luke 14:26 As Jesus’ teachings reveal, sometimes families are driven apart due to one’s following a spiritual path and others not. It is an unavoidable consequence of one embracing truth in a world ruled over by the father of the lie. Banning the preaching of followers of Christ is nothing new either. The original Christians were faced with a ban as soon as they began preaching about the risen Christ. When brought before the Jewish rulers in Jerusalem the high priest said to the apostles: “‘We strictly ordered you not to keep teaching on the basis of this name, and yet look! you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you are determined to bring the blood of this man upon us.’ In answer Peter and the other apostles said: ‘We must obey God as ruler rather than men.”’ —Acts 5:27-29 Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia are faced with this same order. Already to placate the authorities the Russian Witnesses have ceased using their information carts on the streets. They have stopped using Watchtower literature in their meetings. Will they stop preaching altogether if so ordered? Only if the Watchtower’s lawyers cut some kind of backroom deal. There is another aspect of this impending ban on the activities of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia. There is no question that the Russian Orthodox Church is behind the suppression of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Since the dissolution of Soviet communism, which had banned religion altogether, the Russian Orthodox Church has experienced a resurgence. Evidently Vladimir Putin was secretly baptized in the Orthodox Church during the Soviet era. And now the much maligned Putin is the Church’s strongest advocate.
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Not only does this powerful church/state alliance pose a threat to the existence of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia, an outright ban poses a daunting challenge to the teachings and authority of the Governing Body. How so? As all of Jehovah’s Witnesses know, the very cornerstone doctrine of the Watchtower is that Jesus Christ began ruling the world in 1914. And since that time the gentile nations have supposedly had their day. They can no longer impede the King of kings. Not only that, but since 1919 God’s people have been released from Babylon the Great. No longer can false religion impose any restrictions upon the work or activities of Kingdom proclaimers. Yet, the reality on the ground is that the Russian Orthodox Church is moving to absolutely crush Jehovah’s Witnesses —confiscating their headquarters and every kingdom hall in the vast Russian realm. But if Christ is ruling as King why ought it be necessary for eight million of Jehovah’s Witnesses to be deployed to write letters pleading with Russian officials not to ban the work? If the worldwide work of preaching the Kingdom is sponsored and directed by Jesus Christ shouldn’t true Christians plead with God to intervene instead? After all, that is what the apostles did. When ordered to stop preaching the account in the fourth chapter of Acts states that they supplicated Jehovah and pleaded with him, saying: “And now, Jehovah, give attention to their threats, and grant to your slaves to keep speaking your word with all boldness …”
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Given the present atmosphere of Russophobia that is gripping America and Europe, which began when Putin intervened militarily in Syria and thwarted the overthrow of the Assad government, it appears as if the Watchtower is looking to garner sympathy from the West by this highly publicized letter-writing campaign. The fact that the Watchtower is hoping to use public opinion to pressure the decision of the court, which is expected to make a ruling on the 5th of April, and has made no appeal to Jehovah’s Witnesses to supplicate Jehovah on the matter, is most telling. This strategy is following a long pattern of political influence peddling that goes back to Rutherford’s shamefully pandering to Hitler. In their PDF instructions to Jehovah’s Witnesses on jw.org on how to compose a proper letter, the Watchtower’s lawyers merely request JW’s to make their letter writing efforts a matter of prayer, but no exhortation is given to supplicate God for the resolution. Of course, if their letter writing strategy works and the court rules in favor of the Watchtower Jehovah will be credited with having given the organization another resounding theocratic victory. Will the Watchtower prevail? If so, at what cost? Will the leadership of Jehovah’s Witnesses strike a compromise with authorities in an effort to save its property? Will that mark the beginning of the foretold apostasy that must come first? Or will the Watchtower be shut down in Russia by the influence of Babylon the Great? April 5th is looming large.
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the existence of God

If a Christian, and especially a Jehovah's Witness, is asked to provide proof of the existence of God, it is very likely that he will quote verse four of the third chapter of the letter to the Hebrews, "every house is constructed by someone, but the one who constructed all things is God".

The reasoning may be right, nothing came from nothing but everything on earth is due to the will of a designer, it is still good to note that Paul was not trying to argue about the existence of a Creator. He spoke to his Hebrew Christian companions who certainly did not question the fact that the universe was ruled by a powerful being who is behind everything. Moreover, in antiquity the problem was certainly not the non-belief in God but rather the opposite: people tended to believe in a multitude of gods. Furthermore, Paul, on one occasion, noticed that an altar dedicated to an unknown god had been made, certainly for fear of forgetting to revere a deity.

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Acalia & Marta
Parables for Our Days (Part 1)
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What do the parables of Jesus have to say to us? Are they related to our days? First, we must identify and understand which of them have a prophetic application. For example, the parable of the prodigal son contains an excellent teaching for us, but is not prophetic, it announces no event! How then to distinguish the types of parabolas? As usual, it is very simple: we will stick to what Jesus Christ Himself said, without adding or taking away. We will limit the interpretations to the only elements that can be derived directly from narratives or other particular and relevant texts. For the rest, we will gladly content ourselves with the Lord's reply: "It does not belong to you to know the times or seasons that the Father has placed in his own jurisdiction" – Acts 1:7
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