Sheep and Goats

Category: Watchtower Study

  • The Owner’s Manual

    This thought I liked from yesterday’s Watchtower Study and compared it to an ad for online therapy now making the rounds in my neck of the woods:

    “After they rebelled, Adam and Eve immediately experienced the consequences of their violating God’s law​—a law that was “written in their hearts.” (Rom. 2:15) They could sense a change in themselves​—and not for the better. They felt compelled to cover portions of their body and hide like criminals from their Creator. (Gen. 3:7, 8) For the first time, Adam and Eve were subject to feelings of guilt, anxiety, insecurity, pain, and shame. To one degree or another, those feelings would plague them until their death.​—Gen. 3:16-19” (para 10)

    The ad for therapy asserts that it can help since “we’re all figuring it out.” Not to diss therapy; it probably can help—if not always, at least sometimes. But it seems like it can help a whole lot more if you if you augment  counselors yet “figuring it out” with sources that have figured it out, sources that tell us where “feelings of guilt, anxiety, insecurity, pain, and shame” (para 10) come from in the first place. Those emotions bubble up and reappear in settings far removed from their origin, but it is still good to know what their origin is. 

    The illustration that resonates with Witnesses is that of an owner’s manual for a product. You’d be crazy not to heed its directions. Witnesses figure the Bible is the owner’s manual for the product that is us. They draw that thought from scriptures such as 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness,  so that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.”

    Since God made us, it’s only going to create internal discord to go against what is “written in our hearts,” from Romans 2:15 again in that paragraph. You really do have to cooperate with the owner’s manual. The point of this post is not to devalue therapy. It is to elevate instruction from our Maker.

    ******  The bookstore

  • Paul—“An Insolent Man”

    Early Christians were afraid of Paul. He’d been a violent enemy. When he turned around, they didn’t believe it. Barnabas (always good for that sort of thing) had to escort him around and ease the way.

    Some of those Christians probably always were afraid of him. The Watchtower study of last week (3/15/26) included the printed point: “Can you imagine how Paul must have felt when he visited a congregation and met those he had persecuted or the family members of those he had persecuted?” It may have been tougher on him personally when they forgave.

    Every so often he would run into one of those persons. If they didn’t remind him of what a hothead he had been, his own conscience would have—-he, the guy that, as Saul, would “ravage the congregation. He would invade one house after another, dragging out both men and women and turning them over to prison.” (Acts 8:3)

    So some were afraid to approach. Probably some of them always were. He’s okay if you agreed with him in every particular, but if you cross him in any way, they’d think, recalling strong statements he’d made in his letters, and every so often, he’d say to himself ‘Yeah, you know I really still am an insolent man’, (1 Timothy 1:13) I just switched sides.’ Anyone who wields authority benefits from this.

    We like to think we have made progress in our lives. What a downer to taste, even for a moment, that we have not. It’s like when someone recalls the harsh traits of their dad and says “I’m never going to be like him’ and they go for years thinking they are not, only to one day look at themselves in the mirror and say, ‘Huh, I’m exactly like him. Strip aside the superficialities, and I’m exactly like him.’

    Of course, you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink. Paul’s violent past would lead him to the contemplative water of past sins, but he didn’t have to drown in it, nor drink it in. He had counterbalancing thought of how Christ’s death had repurchased him, forgiven him, and would cleanse him as though a new person. He accepted that forgiveness. He never took it for granted, spending the rest of his life building up the congregations, suffering no end of hardship in the process.

    It did equip him to spot the “superfine apostles” though, slicksters of tongue (2 Corinthians 11:5-6) who wanted his office but not his work. To them, he detailed his hardships: 

    “I have done more work, been imprisoned more often, suffered countless beatings, and experienced many near-deaths. Five times I received 40 strokes less one from the Jews, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I experienced shipwreck, a night and a day I have spent in the open sea; in journeys often, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from my own people, in dangers from the nations, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brothers, in labor and toil, in sleepless nights often, in hunger and thirst, frequently without food, in cold and lacking clothing.” (2 Corinthians 11: 23-27)

    Perhaps it faded in time, or maybe that past when he opposed haunted him even more with increasing years. That Watchtower Study corralled three statements of his to that effect:

    “For example, when he wrote his first letter to the Corinthians in about 55 C.E., he said: ‘I am not worthy of being called an apostle, because I persecuted the congregation of God.’ (1 Cor. 15:9) Some five years later, in his letter to the Ephesians, he described himself as being ‘less than the least of all holy ones.’ (Eph. 3:8) When writing to Timothy, Paul referred to himself as being formerly ‘a blasphemer and a persecutor and an insolent man.’ (1 Tim. 1:13)”

    It was another one of those studies—most of them are these days—in which healing and imitating the Christ is the theme. Are such meetings boring? These days they focus heavily on applying the Bible in one’s life, putting on the new personality and all. That’s not appealing to a lot of people, who are more into telling other people what to do.

    The Study made good use of Psalm 139: “You observe me when I travel and when I lie down; You are familiar with all my ways. There is not a word on my tongue, But look! O Jehovah, you already know it well. Behind and before me, you surround me; And you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is beyond my comprehension. It is too high for me to reach. (verses 3-6)

    That being the case, that God knows us better than we do ourselves, the psalmist could ask: “Search through me, O God, and know my heart. Examine me, and know my anxious thoughts. See whether there is in me any harmful way, And lead me in the way of eternity. (23-24)

    “Anxious thoughts.” Sometimes we feel off and if asked why will respond that we don’t know. Just what is it? We don’t know. We may not want to know. Here, we are encouraged to go to Jehovah in prayer who searches us though.

    They even threw in the Potter molding the vessel, someone “try[ing] to imagine Jehovah molding us and trying to make us better people. This brings us closer to him.”​ It’s like when you hit a wall, as Paul apparently did at times, bad traits having caught up with you, or at least the memories of them, and you say, ‘I’m no good.’ Nah, you’re not no good. You’ve just hit a lump that continued molding will work out.

    ******  The bookstore

  • “The Best Way to Respond to Injustice”-a Study

    I found that return visit at home who had previously told me he cuts back on the news because it gets him all cranked up. So I decided to show him that paragraph from Sunday’s Watchtower study (1/23/25: The Best Way to Respond to Injustice) which recommended exactly that course. I even left it with him. Given the choice of digital or print, he said he preferred digital, so I used that transfer feature on the app to email the article to him.

    I had commented on that paragraph during the study. There is a new Watchtower conductor now and I can’t lean into him so readily as I could with the old conductor, so I have to look comments over carefully before letting fly. For sure I won’t get in as many. But that’s not really a bad thing. It means other people do.

    That paragraph (12) went: “What can help us to control our feelings of anger over an injustice? Many have found it helpful to be selective in what they read, listen to, and watch. Some forms of social media are full of posts that sensationalize injustices and that promote social reform movements. Often, news agencies report information in a biased way.”

    Yeah. Anyone on social media knows that the political stuff encroaches like an invasive species. You have to keep pruning it back or it will take over. Some Witnesses just uproot it on sight, or more thorough yet, avoid social media altogether. I’m not one of them but I do understand the response. It gets you all worked up. One sis even recalled a visit to a U.S. city much in the news lately for a certain protest. A few Witnesses had been there, she said, and they got their faces on TV! Like that commercial, I told her afterward, where the guy helps himself to the cotton candy of the kid in the stadium row before him and it is captured by the Kiss Cam and displayed on the Jumbotron! Yeah, like that, she agreed.

    Then, there was the sister cited in paragraph 9, recalling her former protest days, who the paragraph quoted: “When I was at protests, I would question whether I was on the correct side,” contrasting that with “Now that I support God’s Kingdom, I know that I’m on the right side. I know that Jehovah will fight for every victim of oppression better than I ever could.” 

    I commented on that paragraph too, ramming it past the new vigilant conductor. “Sure. Just once I would like to see a war in which one side or the other says, ‘We are the bad guys.’ But it never happens. Always, both sides fob themselves off as the good guys. Social reform is like that too. You can wonder if you’re on the correct side.” One person’s reform is another person’s pouring fuel to the fire.

    a man in red and black sweater
    Photo by Anton Bohlin on Pexels.com

    2 Peter 3:13 was quoted in the final paragraph: “But there are new heavens and a new earth that we are awaiting according to his promise,and in these righteousness is to dwell.”

    The “heavens” make an apt analogy for human government. In those Bible times, they would scorch you one minute, drench you the next, freeze you the moment thereafter—and there wasn’t a thing you could do about it. In most respects that is still true of human governments today, even participatory ones, in which your input is not exactly zero, but close to it. The “new heavens” is God’s just government to come and the “new earth” is those constituents who will benefit from it.

    They even slipped in that verse about how Jesus so wowed the crowds that they wanted to appoint him king. (John 6:15) He couldn’t get away from that bunch quick enough—for the same reason that he later told Pilate: “My Kingdom is no part of this world. If my Kingdom were part of thisworld, my attendants would have fought that  should not be handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my Kingdom is not from this source.” (John 18:36) 

    Exactly. They would have fought. Get yourself too cranked up fighting over the current “heavens” and it will be at the expense of looking to the “new heavens.” That was the overall thrust of the article.

    ******  The bookstore

  • The Secret of Contentment-Philippians 4:11-12

    Congregations going through the Book of Ecclesiastes in their mid-week meetings, two chapters at a time. It’s good for its descriptions of the curves life can throw at you regardless of your spirituality. Solomon writes how “I have seen everything—from the righteous one who perishes in his righteousness to the wicked one who lives long despite his badness, (7:15) and “that the swift do not always win the race, nor do the mighty win the battle, nor do the wise always have the food, nor do the intelligent always have the riches, nor do those with knowledge always have success, because time and unexpected events overtake them all. (9:11) This reality lends the present life a certain “futility,” a continual theme of the book.

    There is no scriptural correlation between spirituality and material wealth. Sometimes the latter works out. Sometimes it doesn’t. It is sort of like winning or losing in a game that is part skill and part dumb luck. In neither case is it the “real life” of 1 Timothy 6:19 that Witnesses make their primary hope, life in God’s new system under Christ’s reign.

    A previous Sunday’s Watchtower study (Have You Learned the ‘Secret of Contentment’? – October 2025) focused on how to be content. Philippians 4:11-12 was the theme, in which Paul said: “I have learned to be self-sufficient regardlessof my circumstances. I know how to be low on provisions and how to have an abundance. In everything and in all circumstances I have learned the secret of both how to be full and how to hunger, both how to have an abundance and how to do without.”

    He had had periods of both in his life. He had “learned the secret” of how to adapt to both, to be content. It’s something people very much need today—all people, not just Witnesses. There was a lot in the study article on cultivating a spirit of gratitute. It is healthy to do that. Viewing the glass as half-full rather than half-empty helps. Both descriptions are equally accurate. But they evoke different attitudes. You can be grateful for a glass half-full but we never hear of people being grateful for one half-empty.

    Being content is the key. Witnesses by and large are. Even when they are not, their discontent seldom rises to the greater world’s level of discontent. It is a very tragic thing to lose faith in God’s promises because then one joins them in discontent. For whatever reason, those who have lost faith tend to gather on social media. There, I read descriptions of my own faith that I do not recognize. It is as what Paul writes to Timothy of those who have come to think materially, those who suppose that “godly devotion is a means of gain.” They immerse themselves in “things [that] give rise to envy, strife, slander, wicked suspicions, constant disputes about minor matters.” (1 Timothy 6:4-5) To hear some former Witnesses carry on at the venues they have chosen, you might not even realize that there is a Bible. Faith has been shipwrecked so all people have are the minor matters to stew about, matters of human interaction reframed as “control” and “manipulation.”

    When it is said that Witnesses are getting by “just fine” it’s referring more to their overall state of happiness than their material state. Materially, some do well. Others do not. The same as is true with the greater world. On the ordinary matters of life, Witnesses are as likely to say what is commonly said everywhere else: “If I knew then what I know now…” or “if I had it all to do over again….” People say such things all the time. Witnesses are people. They say it too.

    They seldom say it regarding their spiritual outlook, however. They call their set of beliefs “the truth” on account of how it all dovetails together. It sees them through both good times and bad. If they have made some moves in life that, in hindsight, didn’t work out so well, it doesn’t change the tenets of faith that anchors them. I doubt there are fewer children among Witnesses than anywhere else, in a Western world that has decided not to have many, nor would home ownership be lower, in a world where some rent and some own. College, I concede, is lower. Witnesses are very much top-heavy with “workmen,” which is probably why Paul used that word in at 2 Timothy 2:15. He could have said elite or scholar, or even student. He said workman.

    ******  The bookstore

  • Jacob’s 12 Sons, Blessings to Each Over the Course of Two Watchtower Studies:

    At first glance, the Watchtower Study for Sunday seemed it be something of a yawner. Jacob’s deathbed prophesy to the last eight of his twelve sons (the first four were last week), and for most he didn’t have much to say. At least it was blessings, the Watchtower conductor observed, and not ‘You kids are driving me crazy! You’ll be the death of me. In fact, you were!’

    But, again, once you mix in the published text with fifty or sixty comments from the congregation, it turns around. What threatens to be dull becomes engrossing. The thing about the meetings, one newcomer told me long ago, is that you can prepare for them. It was a no-brainer to me, but he was contrasting it with his previous church experience, in which you cannot.

    With Gad, someone observed in paragraph 8 that it didn’t go according to plan. The Israelites were all supposed to cross the Jordan and settle west, but Gad wanted to stay on the east, which he did. He didn’t beg off, though. The tribe did cross to aid in conquering the promised land, but when the conquest was complete, they crossed back. This means there’s hope for guys like me, I figure, who does not do everything the conventional way—such as spending inordinate time online—but also fully ‘fights’ in the conventional way of door-to-door and regular meeting attendance. I mean, let your unconventionality extend to forsaking meetings and you become like the ember removed from the center that goes out; it goes out, not as a punishment from men, but as a law of physics. Hebrews says (10:24-25) that you’re not supposed to do that.

    Then there was Benjamin (paragraph 17), the tribe of the 700 men who “could sling a stone to within a hairbreadth and would not miss.” These are the guys you want when you are choosing up sides for dodgeball. It is also the case that when people have special abilities, they can begin to think themselves special and not subject to the norms that guide everyone else. (Sometimes I imagine I see people like this online.) Yet, the Benjaminites were loyal throughout to the cause. Even when their guy got ousted as the first king, they supported the arrangement that saw the prize going to another tribe.

    All twelve sons covered within a two-week period. And no, it was not me who observed that, whereas Reuben lost some privileges that ordinarily would have come his way, he at least got a sandwich named for him. And “gadfly” has nothing to do with Gad. It derives much later as a stinging insect that torments bigger animals. Socrates described himself as a gadfly stinging the ‘animal’ that was Athens, challenging the norms then prevailing.

     

    ******  The bookstore

  • “How We Benefit from Jehovah’s Love”—thoughts from last week’s Watchtower Study

    If your house gets blown away in the hurricane and disaster relief offers to build you a skyscraper, you will decline. You didn’t have a skyscraper before. If they offer to replace your house, you will accept that, for that is what you lost.

    Isn’t that the way to look at the ransom? Doesn’t that negate any ‘I’m not worthy’ thinking? The point was made in Sunday’s Watchtower Study. “If Adam had not sinned, no one would think of endless life as being too good to be true,” said paragraph 9. The ransom is just means of restoring what was already there, not conferring something new.

    On the other hand, countering any tendency to think people “earn” anything from God through their works, there was the statement from paragraph 5: “If we were to claim that we have earned mercy or that we are entitled to special consideration, we would, in effect, be saying that Christ died for nothing.”

    Maybe that’s why, at the Kingdom Hall, everything is a “privilege.” If you’re going to direct parking, it’s a privilege. If you’re going to carry a mic, it’s a privilege. If you;re running a vacuum cleaner at meeting’s end, it’s a privilege. When I am cleaning at the Kingdom Hall, I will say to the group: “Privilege opening up soon in connection with cleaning a toilet.” Sheesh. It’s takes a little getting used to. But it does plant the idea that nothing we do in connection with worship represents us earning anything, and that is probably how the peculiar speech developed. The ransom is entirely his “undeserved kindness.”

    Someone said how the phrase “God’s undeserved kindness” is rendered “God’s grace” in many Bibles. What in the world is that supposed to mean?! To me, hearing of God’s grace suggests he is not clumsy, that he doesn’t bump into things. ‘Grace’ is one of those dorky expressions so common in church lore that you almost think the purpose of which is to impede understand of God. It is like ‘God’s plan.’ Witnesses never speak of God’s “plan,” but of his “purpose.”

    It seems but a subtle difference at first but it is a major refinement in coming to better know God. ‘Plan’ indicates every step is down in writing beforehand. It creates major conflicts with “free will.” ‘Purpose’ creates none at all. With ‘purpose,’ only the destination is known. Tactics are devised on the fly. Doesn’t ‘purpose’ also create more confidence in God’s power? You know he can arrive at his purpose. With human purposes, it is a crapshoot, but you know God can arrive at His.

    God’s “omniscience” [all-knowing] is another dorky term that you may hear in church but never at the Kingdom Hall. If he knows every tiniest minute thing about the future, how can people be said to have ‘free will?’ Some things he doesn’t know. Like those reports coming out of Sodom: “Then Jehovah said: “The outcry against Sodʹom and Go·morʹrah is indeed great, and their sin is very heavy. I will go down to see whether they are acting according to the outcry that has reached me. And if not, I can get to know it.” (Genesis 18:20-21) He didn’t know! He had to go down to check it out!

    I think it is sort of like how, in this age of GPS, audio bugs, and tiny cameras, it would be possible to follow a loved one’s every move. But, that doesn’t mean that you would do it. Respect for their free will and dignity would likely dictate that you do not.

     

    ******  The bookstore

  • Eat Flesh and Drinking Blood: What’s With That? (John 6)

    Then there was that bombshell statement of John 6 that drove the crowds away! The crowds had shown up for a free meal and were steadily disappointed because Jesus just wanted to talk about spiritual stuff—but then he finally reached this next corker, and it drove them all away:

    “Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I will resurrect him on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.” (John 6:54)

    Whoa! They didn’t see that coming! “When they heard this, many of his disciples said: ‘This speech is shocking; who can listen to it?’” (6:60)

    Now, Jesus had been setting the stage for some time but they hadn’t been listening. It’s like when my wife suddenly drops a grenade on me that will set me back a half year’s salary and when I spit out my coffee in horror she says, ‘Well, I’ve been speaking for weeks about it! You might try paying attention on occasion!”

    Jesus had been doing that too. It was another thing explored during that Watchtower Study of February 16, 2025: “You Can Have Everlasting Life—But How?” He had fed the crowds. The next day they showed up for more. He told them: “Most truly I say to you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate from the loaves and were satisfied. (6:26)

    What did he advise them to do instead?

    “Work, not for the food that perishes, but for the food that remains for everlasting life, which the Son of man will give you.” (6:27)

    Then, he referred back to how God fed the ancestors with ‘bread from heaven.’ It was called manna. (6:31) The stuff was versatile and nourishing, but in time the grumblers grew sick of it. Then he said that he was the counterpart of that heavenly bread: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not get hungry at all, and whoever exercises faith in me will never get thirsty at all. (6:35)

    Okay? So, he gave plenty of notice where he was heading. Same thing with the “drink.” He had told the woman at the well that those “who drink from the water I give will never thirst again” and that woman ran off to tell the whole town. (4:14) It is enough for the crowds to have said, “Okay, he talks that way.” It’s on them if they’re going to choke afterward, which most of them did: “Because of this, many of his disciples went off to the things behind and would no longer walk with him.” (6:66)

    ***

    Now, having said all this, it is a fact that among the slanderous things said about early Christians was that they practiced cannibalism. And don’t you think their enemies would have pointed to these words of Jesus to make their case? How could they not? The words can be so easily misconstrued. I know it’s the Lord and all, but it seems like a very impolitic thing to say.

    Moreover, if Witness organization ever said something so seemingly provocative, their opponents would be blasting them for years over it! Such as with a Watchtower that called certain apostates “mentally diseased,” citing a scripture that says exactly that. That was 14 years ago and they are still howling about It!

    Sometimes the Witness channel will say something true enough on the surface but easily misconstrued (like calls for “obedience”) and I will say, “Sheesh! You guys don’t know how easily that can be weaponized?!” But I don’t write in to tell them about it. I am afraid they might say, “Yeah. Well . . . Jesus did it. Why don’t you trying telling him off, Tom?”

    Frankly, I’ll bet they use Jesus’ remarks as a template, same as they do Acts 15 for their own role. They probably go there and conclude, “Okay, you say what needs to be said. Never mind if the soreheads twist it around.” They probably don’t want to find themselves in the shoes of Lot, whose sons-in-law thought he was joking. If they think something needs saying, they say it. But it sure does make life . . . interesting.

    *****The bookstore

  • You Don’t Use John 6 to make the point that Everyone Partakes at the Memorial

    You don’t use John chapter 6 to make the point that everyone partakes at the Memorial. Was that the overall point of the February 16, 2025 Watchtower Study? It was a continuation from last week, a thorough look at that Bible chapter. The study article was entitled: “Everlasting Life for You—But How?” The theme scripture was John 6:40.. “Everyone who recognizes the Son and exercises faith in him [will] have everlasting life.”​

    Who was Jesus speaking to when he made the “new covenant”—the wine and bread ceremony? It was to those who had “stuck with him through all his trials.” They numbered twelve at the time. Read the whole chapter of Luke 22. He was speaking to the twelve:

    “However, you are the ones who have stuck with me in my trials; and I make a covenant with you, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and sit on thrones to judge the 12 tribes of Israel.” Luke 22:28

    Who was he speaking to a year earlier at John 6? They were just people who showed up for free food! Kind of like the visitors who drop in at suppertime. You know what they are hoping for. To them, Jesus said: “you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate from the loaves and were satisfied.” (6:26)

    He’s not going the make a covenant for a kingdom with those dullards! If he did, the heavenly kingdom would be just like the earthly governments today! It would be populated by those in it for themselves, populated by those obsessed with ‘power’ and if there was any beneficial spillover from them to the general populace, it would be just coincidence!

    He didn’t even indulge those people! He told them to “work, not for the food that perishes, but for the food that remains for everlasting life.” (vs 27) There’s no reason he could not have added, “but as long as you’re here . . . Watch this!” and done a repeat of multiplying the bread and loaves. He didn’t do it! He was working to cultivate spirituality in them but they don’t have a clue about anything, and don’t care to obtain one. And he’s going to hand over the kingdom to these ones? I don’t think so.

    They exercised no faith in him at all. The second group, his disciples, with whom he one year later instituted the new covenant, was nothing but faith.

    Confusion reins today in the overall world of religion. Apparently, there are some among the Witnesses themselves who come to feel that everyone should partake at the Memorial, and whether they are to rule with Christ in the heavens or not is immaterial. Do they pick it up from the “air” of evangelicals for whom partaking of the body of Christ means something entirely different? Will they, in time, go the way of Catholics, who want to partake every day? Will they, in time, eclipse them and want to do it with every meal?

    ***

    Upon some kickback from the gallery, I added:

    As for me, I sort of like a snippet that long ago appeared in the Yearbook relating how in some tiny African country a Memorial celebration that many villagers attended, but the talk was extremely convoluted and the speaker not very polished. The villagers all knew each other and as one of them got all befuddled and hesitant when the emblems came his way, a voice from the back hollered, “You don’t drink the wine, dummy!”

    People will do what their conscience dictates. I suppose it is not the worst thing in the world to partake based upon a different understanding than the group norm. It is not as though there is any practical significance to partaking or not partaking. But I don’t know why anyone would do it. To me, it smacks of spiritual one-upsmanship, as though saying to one’s neighbor, ‘My relationship with Jesus is so much tighter than yours.’ Many times in Witness literature it has been stated that those of the great crowd can be just as spiritual, just as zealous, just as studious, love Jehovah and Jesus just as much, as those of the anointed. I can roll with that and always have.

    If it turns out that I, with the earthly hope, should have been partaking because the Lord expects all to do that, I am not worried about being forgiven. The group norm of the people of God who brought Bible understanding to me is that I do not. If I came to have the heavenly hope, with all that such hope entails in the JW context, I would partake, but only then. Meanwhile, I take refuge in the group norm. Were it not for those who brought Bible understanding to me, I would probably be hogtied by the trinity, which paints God as incomprehensible, someone you cannot know, or hellfire, which paints him as cruel, someone you would not want to know. Or, more likely in my case, I would have tossed the Bible in the trash, frustrated by trying to read doctrines into it that are not there.

    The Study article was convincing to me. But it is only 16 paragraphs, enhanced by congregation discussion. It clearly is not going to be able to explore the ins and outs of everything.

    *****The bookstore

  • “ I Am the Bread of Life. Whoever Comes to Me Will Not Get Hungry at All.” WT study from 2/9/25

    “A Miraculous Provision of Bread”—title of that Watchtower article studied via congregation Q&A. Theme scripture: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not get hungry at all.” John 6:35

    The Watchtower Study was a commentary on much of John 6. Maybe the rest of the chapter will be covered next week.

    When the crowds finally tracked Jesus down, they said: “Rabbi, when did you get here?” (John 6:25)

    Jesus answered them: “Most truly I say to you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate from the loaves and were satisfied. (6:26)

    Translation: “Don’t hand me this ‘Rabbi’ line! You guys are just here because you want free food!”

    I sort of liked this statement from paragraph 11: “They even failed to press Jesus for clarification when he next spoke of “the true bread from heaven,” which was like life-giving manna from heaven. (John 6:32) They were so focused on their physical needs that they ignored the spiritual truths that Jesus . . .”

    I can picture that happening, as in: “Yes, yes, ‘bread from heaven,’ yada yada.” And then following up like the child from the Buick commercial: “Where’s the pizza?”

    He wants them to develop some spirituality. The crowds only care about physical bread. They’d gotten plenty of it the day before:

    “Jesus said: “Have the people sit down.” As there was a lot of grass in that place, the men sat down there, about 5,000 in number. Jesus took the bread, and after giving thanks, he distributed it to those who were sitting there; he did likewise with the small fish, and they had as much as they wanted. But when they had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples: “Gather together the fragments left over, so that nothing is wasted.” So they gathered them together and filled 12 baskets with fragments left over by those who had eaten from the five barley loaves.” (v 10-13)

    He was just being practical. There they were in the middle of nowhere, having gathered to hear him, and he didn’t want them to give out on the road home. It was not like his intention was: “Now, I’m going to dazzle-dazzle them with a MIRACLE!!”

    When he went off into the hills to escape the ones wanting to make him king—if you see someone feed the masses like he did, then you take whoever is already ruling, throw him out on his keister, and install this one instead—his disciples sailed off the other way. Later, he wanted to join them:

    “When evening fell, his disciples went down to the sea, and boarding a boat, they set out across the sea for Ca·perʹna·um. By now it had grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. Also, the sea was getting rough because a strong wind was blowing. However, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and getting near the boat, and they became fearful. But he said to them: “It is I; do not be afraid!” (16-20)

    Again, it doesn’t look like his motive was to perform a MIRACLE!!” He’s just being practical. Walking straight across the sea is the easiest way to get where he wants to go. He’s not even paying attention, apparently! Mark 6:48 says “he was inclined to pass them by.” Maybe he figured they would have already arrived on the other shore.

    As to Jesus’ theme: “Work, not for the food that perishes, but for the food that remains for everlasting life,” the article refers back to another time that food was provided from heaven after endless bellyaching from those who cared about only that. Israelites complained so much about the crummy manna that God got fed up and said, ‘I’ll drown you in quail!’ When he did, they saw no spiritual significance whatsoever, did not take it as a rebuke, but simply gorged themselves:

    “Then a wind from Jehovah sprang up and began driving quail from the sea and causing them to fall around the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and they were about two cubits deep on the ground. So all that day and all night and all the next day, the people stayed up and gathered the quail. No one gathered less than ten hoʹmers, and they kept spreading them all around the camp for themselves. But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it could be chewed, Jehovah’s anger blazed against the people, and Jehovah began striking the people with a very great slaughter.” (Numbers 11:30-33)

    Whoa! I can see from where people get the idea that the God of the New Testament is nice but the God of the Old Testament is a hothead! But, I like to keep in mind that they’re really the same. “I and the father are one,” said Jesus. Jehovah’s attributes are fully reflected in the Son. Maybe Jesus is just more of a soft touch now because people are so much more pieces of work than they were back then. Or maybe he thought of the Israelites, “Look, they don’t have perpetual whiners on Reddit! They’re all one people! If they’re going to be so shallow, then maybe I’ll take their gift of life away!”

    And, I do admit to a certain frustration with those who read over the account of John 6 and say, “Well—the important thing is that I’m saved.”

    ******  The bookstore

     

  • “ I Am the Bread of Life. Whoever Comes to Me Will Not Get Hungry at All.” WT study from 2/9/25

    “A Miraculous Provision of Bread”—title of that Watchtower article studied via congregation Q&A. Theme scripture: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not get hungry at all.” John 6:35

    The Watchtower Study was a commentary on much of John 6. Maybe the rest of the chapter will be covered next week.

    When the crowds finally tracked Jesus down, they said: “Rabbi, when did you get here?” (John 6:25)

    Jesus answered them: “Most truly I say to you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate from the loaves and were satisfied. (6:26)

    Translation: “Don’t hand me this ‘Rabbi’ line! You guys are just here because you want free food!”

    I sort of liked this statement from paragraph 11: “They even failed to press Jesus for clarification when he next spoke of “the true bread from heaven,” which was like life-giving manna from heaven. (John 6:32) They were so focused on their physical needs that they ignored the spiritual truths that Jesus . . .”

    I can picture that happening, as in: “Yes, yes, ‘bread from heaven,’ yada yada.” And then following up like the child from the Buick commercial: “Where’s the pizza?”

    He wants them to develop some spirituality. The crowds only care about physical bread. They’d gotten plenty of it the day before:

    “Jesus said: “Have the people sit down.” As there was a lot of grass in that place, the men sat down there, about 5,000 in number. Jesus took the bread, and after giving thanks, he distributed it to those who were sitting there; he did likewise with the small fish, and they had as much as they wanted. But when they had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples: “Gather together the fragments left over, so that nothing is wasted.” So they gathered them together and filled 12 baskets with fragments left over by those who had eaten from the five barley loaves.” (v 10-13)

    He was just being practical. There they were in the middle of nowhere, having gathered to hear him, and he didn’t want them to give out on the road home. It was not like his intention was: “Now, I’m going to dazzle-dazzle them with a MIRACLE!!”

    When he went off into the hills to escape the ones wanting to make him king—if you see someone feed the masses like he did, then you take whoever is already ruling, throw him out on his keister, and install this one instead—his disciples sailed off the other way. Later, he wanted to join them:

    “When evening fell, his disciples went down to the sea, and boarding a boat, they set out across the sea for Ca·perʹna·um. By now it had grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. Also, the sea was getting rough because a strong wind was blowing. However, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and getting near the boat, and they became fearful. But he said to them: “It is I; do not be afraid!” (16-20)

    Again, it doesn’t look like his motive was to perform a MIRACLE!!” He’s just being practical. Walking straight across the sea is the easiest way to get where he wants to go. He’s not even paying attention, apparently! Mark 6:48 says “he was inclined to pass them by.” Maybe he figured they would have already arrived on the other shore.

    As to Jesus’ theme: “Work, not for the food that perishes, but for the food that remains for everlasting life,” the article refers back to another time that food was provided from heaven after endless bellyaching from those who cared about only that. Israelites complained so much about the crummy manna that God got fed up and said, ‘I’ll drown you in quail!’ When he did, they saw no spiritual significance whatsoever, did not take it as a rebuke, but simply gorged themselves:

    “Then a wind from Jehovah sprang up and began driving quail from the sea and causing them to fall around the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and they were about two cubits deep on the ground. So all that day and all night and all the next day, the people stayed up and gathered the quail. No one gathered less than ten hoʹmers, and they kept spreading them all around the camp for themselves. But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it could be chewed, Jehovah’s anger blazed against the people, and Jehovah began striking the people with a very great slaughter.” (Numbers 11:30-33)

    Whoa! I can see from where people get the idea that the God of the New Testament is nice but the God of the Old Testament is a hothead! But, I like to keep in mind that they’re really the same. “I and the father are one,” said Jesus. Jehovah’s attributes are fully reflected in the Son. Maybe Jesus is just more of a soft touch now because people are so much more pieces of work than they were back then. Or maybe he thought of the Israelites, “Look, they don’t have perpetual whiners on Reddit! They’re all one people! If they’re going to be so shallow, then maybe I’ll take their gift of life away!”

    And, I do admit to a certain frustration with those who read over the account of John 6 and say, “Well—the important thing is that I’m saved.”