23 Februari 2024 Hello Brothers in the Writing committee, I just finished reading Study article 20 in the latest WT. I would like to point to some scriptures that I would have liked to be included in this article so that it would have given a more full and balanced picture about the subject, preaching out of love. Paragraph 2: “With each passing day, our ministry becomes more urgent. Why? Because time is running out. Consider what Jesus foretold about the preaching work in the last days. (Read Mark 13:10.) According to Matthew’s parallel account, Jesus said that the good news would be preached in all the inhabited earth before “the end” comes. (Matt. 24:14) That expression refers to the complete end of Satan’s wicked system of things. Jehovah has set the “day and hour” for the events that will soon unfold. (Matt. 24:36; 25:13; Acts 1:7) Each day brings us one day closer to that time. (Rom. 13:11) Meanwhile, we must keep preaching until the end comes.” For a more balanced approach to the preaching work, we need to follow Jesus reasonable instructions concerning it: Matthew 10:11 Into whatever city or village you enter, search out who in it is deserving, and stay there until you leave. 12 When you enter the house, greet the household. 13 If the house is deserving, let the peace you wish it come upon it; but if it is not deserving, let the peace from you return upon you. 14 Wherever anyone does not receive you or listen to your words, on going out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. 15 Truly I say to you, it will be more endurable for the land of Sodʹom and Go·morʹrah on Judgment Day than for that city. So as reasonable persons, do we need to return to households or cities that have refused the good news? According to Jesus’ instructions, how long should we let go before we return, or do we need to return at all? Could apostle Paul’s example help us to understand? Romans 15:19 so that from Jerusalem and in a circuit as far as Il·lyrʹi·cum I have thoroughly preached the good news about the Christ. 20 In this way, indeed, I made it my aim not to declare the good news where the name of Christ had already been made known, so as not to build on another man’s foundation; 21 but just as it is written: “Those who received no report about him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.” 22 This is also why I was many times hindered from coming to you. 23 But now I no longer have untouched territory in these regions, and for many years I have longed to come to you. 24 Therefore, when I journey to Spain, I hope that I will see you and be accompanied partway there by you after I have first enjoyed your company for a time. Paragraph 3 “As we reflect on our ministry, we do well to consider a soul-searching question: Why do we preach the good news? Put simply, love motivates us to preach. What we do in the preaching work reflects our love—our love for the good news, our love for people and, above all, our love for Jehovah and his name. Let us consider these one at a time.” Should not for a more complete paragraph our love for Jesus be included, in view of the following well known scriptures: Jesus said: John 10:11 I am the fine shepherd; the fine shepherd surrenders his life in behalf of the sheep….17 This is why the Father loves me, because I surrender my life, so that I may receive it again. John 15:13 No one has love greater than this, that someone should surrender his life in behalf of his friends. Matthew 10:37 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. John 14:23 In answer Jesus said to him: “If anyone loves me, he will observe my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not observe my words. Many people who join a church in the world do it because they are so touched by the message that Jesus died for their sins. Sadly that is seldom the reason why someone becomes a Jehovah’s witness. Sadly paragraph 5 is a testimony of that: “Think back to how you felt when you first learned the truth from God’s Word. You discovered that your heavenly Father loves you, that he wants you to be part of his family of worshippers, that he has promised to end pain and suffering, that you can hope to see your dead loved ones come back to life in a new world—and much more. (Mark 10:29, 30; John 5:28, 29; Rom. 8:38, 39; Rev. 21:3, 4) Those truths warmed your heart. (Luke 24:32) You loved what you were learning, and you could not keep those precious truths to yourself!—Compare Jeremiah 20:9.” Concerning paragraph 13, what about the scriptures talking about being witnesses of Jesus? True Acts 15:14 says: “Symʹe·on has related thoroughly how God for the first time turned his attention to the nations to take out of them a people for his name.” So, Christians in the first century were a people for Jehovah God’s name, because they made it known that they believed in him as the one who is the true God and the one who resurrected Jesus Christ. But in distinction from the nation of Israel that served as a witness of Jehovah according to Isaiah 43, Christians were to be witnesses of Jesus. Paragraph 13: “Jehovah has called us to be his “witnesses.” (Read Isaiah 43:10-12.) Some years ago, a letter from the Governing Body stated: “The greatest honor that any of us could enjoy is that of being called one of Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Why is that so? Consider an illustration. If you needed someone to be a character witness for you in a court case, you would choose someone you know and trust, someone whose reputation would make his testimony trustworthy. By choosing us to be his Witnesses, Jehovah shows that he knows us well and that he trusts us to testify that he is the only true God. We feel so honored to be his Witnesses that we seize every opportunity to make his name known and to combat the many lies that have been told about him. By doing so, we live up to the name that we are so proud to bear, Jehovah’s Witnesses!—Ps. 83:18; Rom. Apostle Paul was proud to be a witness of Jesus: 1 Corinthians 2:1 So when I came to you, brothers, I did not come with extravagant speech or wisdom declaring the sacred secret of God to you. 2 For I decided not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him executed on the stake. Hebrews 4:14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold on to our public declaration of him. John 15:26 When the helper comes that I will send you from the Father, the spirit of the truth, which comes from the Father, that one will bear witness about me; 27 and you, in turn, are to bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you, and you will be witnesses of me in Jerusalem, in all Ju·deʹa and Sa·marʹi·a, and to the most distant part of the earth.” Revelation 1:9 I John, your brother and a sharer with you in the tribulation and kingdom and endurance in association with Jesus, was on the island called Patʹmos for speaking about God and bearing witness concerning Jesus. Revelation 2:3 You are also showing endurance, and you have persevered for the sake of my name and have not grown weary. Revelation 3:8 ‘I know your deeds—look! I have set before you an opened door, which no one can shut. And I know that you have a little power, and you kept my word and did not prove false to my name. Revelation 11:3 I will cause my two witnesses to prophesy for 1,260 days dressed in sackcloth.” Revelation 12:17 So the dragon became enraged at the woman and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her offspring, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness concerning Jesus. Revelation 14:1 Then I saw, and look! the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who have his name and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. Revelation 14:12 Here is where it calls for endurance on the part of the holy ones, those who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 17:6 And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. Well, on seeing her I was greatly amazed. Revelation 19:10 At that I fell down before his feet to worship him. But he tells me: “Be careful! Do not do that! I am only a fellow slave of you and of your brothers who have the work of witnessing concerning Jesus. Worship God! For the witness concerning Jesus is what inspires prophecy.” Revelation 20:4 And I saw thrones, and those who sat on them were given authority to judge. Yes, I saw the souls of those executed for the witness they gave about Jesus and for speaking about God, and those who had not worshipped the wild beast or its image and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand. And they came to life and ruled as kings with the Christ for 1,000 years. In view of these and similar scriptures in the Christian Greek scriptures would it not be more scriptural if we were known to be not only Jehovah’s witnesses but likewise Jesus’ witnesses? Why not change our name to Jehovah’s and Jesus’ witnesses? So I offer my help to you the Writing Committee, before publishing an article please let me give a possibility to check. I might have something valuable to add. Your brother Jan Kosonen
If there is one thing I have learned in my fifty years, it is this: The hardest thing to do in this world is to change someone else's mind. People generally do not change; it is one of the rarest and most profound events I have ever witnessed. Therefore, what is the only thing we can do? Us... Another very prominent aspect of our modern world is confirmation bias. Everyone thinks they know everything already. When that is applied to biblical studies, we tend to see certain levels of fanaticism. When we think we know something that someone else doesn't, it tends to lead to a superiority complex—a desire to teach others rather than offering fine soil for our Father to work with. Now, I'm not directing this toward you but toward everyone, including myself. I am just thinking out loud. The odds are that the letter opener at the WT will trash your letter after reading just a few lines, and the writing department will never see it. I appreciate your effort and desire to help, but I wonder if there might have been any better ways to occupy your time. Planting a single seed in the minds of others could save a life, brother. The old saying is, "You catch more flies with honey than vinegar." Not that you don't already do this, but it's about the approach to me. It's about continuing to drive myself toward a more appropriate attitude in the work. If that makes sense... Jesus confronted the Jewish leaders of His day by calling out their hypocrisy. And no doubt there is a place for that as the end nears, but if you are already taking the time to write a letter to the WT, why not write letters to individuals? If you could save one life, imagine the joy in heaven. IDK, I don't have an opinion on your letter other than it reads a bit like you are attempting to teach the WT something. And that approach never goes well with anyone, let alone a billion-dollar non-prophet with millions of members. I guess my opinion would be it would be nice to see a letter to ordinary people... Joshua
Hi Joshua, thanks for inviting me to post on your forum so I can share biblical things that are very important to me. You suggested that I should write letters to brothers and sisters instead of the WT organization. Not a bad idea. But about two weeks ago I was at home because of a calf injury for two weeks and I had nothing to do so I wrote 4 letters to the WT organization. Last time before that was more than a year ago. But I have been praying for our brothers and sisters that they would be sanctified by means of the truth as Jesus said. And as I had a lot of free time I thought I have to do something more than just pray about it. But last summer I started to send SMS messages to all witnesses I could remember. I searched for their name and surname on the internet and found mobile numbers for many of them. Also I just googled mobile numbers to Jehovah's witnesses and I found about 100. So I started to send them all a new message every day for a while. But it did not bear fruit. So after 6 months I completely stopped sending these messages. But I believe Jehovah God and Jesus Christ use the WT organization to gather the great crowd for everlasting life on earth. So, I try to do my best to lead them into the truth, because this is important. And I am confident that one day the Governing Body will not resist me. How this will be solved I don’t know. By the way, Wednesday evening I was at the meeting with a Russian speaking congregation and I felt encouraged. I would estimate that this congregation is for the moment the most loving of all congregations I have visited in Stockholm. It is also an ethnically mixed congregation. There were Latvians, Russians, Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Belorussuans, Moldovians, and probably Jewish, and Koreans and more different nationals. And all speak fluent Russian in addition to their native languages. They know Russian because of the USSR and the Russian influence that still exists. So I am waiting to get justice and a victory from Jehovah God through Jesus Christ who is the head of the congregation.
Greetings, brother... I certainly did not mean to write to "brothers and sisters." That would be a very dangerous thing to do. You could possibly stumble someone unconsciously and cause them to lose faith. "But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." Mth 18:6 My suggestion of writing to individuals was more about writing to atheists. The healthy do not need a physician; the sick do. "And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." Mth 18:6 You must understand that Jehovah's Witnesses tie their entire salvation to the WT, and if you collapse that belief structure, you run the risk of collapsing their faith. This is not a trivial consideration... Regardless of our opinions on its doctrinal stances, the WT currently houses Christians. The ones who genuinely need our help are those who do not know the good news. Are they not? Joshua
Yes I agree that people in the world need the good news. I do my best to find deserving ones as Jesus instructed to do. In 2021 I had a website about the good news running and I had google adds for 50 USD a month to get people to my website. I monitored statistics and saw that tens of thousands got exposed to my website. I did run this website for 10 months. But to my disappointment people who came to my website mostly read only one page, despite the fact that I had more than 25 pages there. I thought I would come into contact with interested ones and that I would find bible studies. But no, either my content was bad or there are hardly any deserving ones left to find. Maybe almost all the deserving ones are already in the Jehovah’s witness congregations and there is nothing more to find. By the way, I was at the circuit assembly last weekend. The circuit was split in two, one half on Saturday and the other half on Sunday. In total there were 1500 in attendance and only one person got baptized. So, just think about that. All the preaching work the whole circuit had done since the last convention and only one got baptized. And probably he was raised by Jehovah’s witness parents. What about you Joshua, do you go to Jehovah’s witness meetings?
I'm curious: Given that your letters to the WT probably come to a single-letter opener and are thrown away after reading the first few lines, why do you do it? I tend to think more about your effort rather than your results. The only thing you can do is you; you can't force anyone to do anything. "So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow." 1Cor 3:7 It is not that we should take pride in doing what we should already be doing in the Work, but should we not accept the peace of mind from Jehovah knowing we are working? The results are nice; however, they are far from explaining why we do what we do. Right? We do it because Jehovah deserves our devotion through His honor, truth, and righteousness. Perhaps it's not the destination that is our responsibility, but rather the journey... That is interesting, brother. It feels like the final deathstrokes of a dying entity—the last few breaths before a finale. I spoke to a dear friend earlier today about the times in which we lived. There is something different about the world today. Things have changed in the last twenty years in ways that have significantly affected this previously unseen level of knowledge. Never before has everyone on the planet had access to the entire wealth of human knowledge at their fingertips or been able to receive news at any moment at the speed of light. Just as technology has allowed knowledge to grow, it has also allowed evil growth at rates that seem connected to a collective consciousness worldwide. And in my opinion, this growth of evil coincides with the emergence of biblical truths. Before our day, one had only the Bible or scrolls laid out across one's floor. Technology has allowed some to unlock secrets within Scripture that would have been impossible before. I read biblical studies from such people as Sir Isaac Newton and recognized just how much their hands were tied. Our day feels very different from any other time and may be the answer to scoffers. "They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 2Pt 3:4 Rarely. Today, my relationship with Jehovah has only one mediator: Jesus. I don't need anyone to speak for me if that makes sense. Keep up the good fight... Joshua
I'm also surprised that there are not really many baptisms at our circuits. Live in BC, Canada and here there are still people who are very religious and enjoy having Biblical conversations. The preaching work here in my area is still interesting. I also still go to the meetings and I'm in good standing in our hall and have responsibilities, such are AV, mics, and soon reader.
Hello, Jan, I haven’t updated my site for a few years (baruq.uk), but, if it’s any consolation, with almost 5,000 visitors per month at the time, despite 110 pages, each in 5 languages, most visitors only read one or two pages. The important thing is to realise that perhaps reading just one page opened someone’s eyes.