Let the dead bury their own dead

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
Yes Christianity since its adoption of a clergy laity distinction have for the most part left the preaching and teaching up to a paid minister or priest and the laity have remained largely passive the result being that instead of being fishers of men they are aquarium keepers.

I personally would allow Christ the privilege of judging these people's preaching. There is a lot of preaching of the Kingdom of God going on all over the world by all the Christian sects. The fact that you choose door to door or house to house as your method is of no real consequence.

Originally posted by Rajk999
I personally would allow Christ the privilege of judging these people's preaching. There is a lot of preaching of the Kingdom of God going on all over the world by all the Christian sects. The fact that you choose door to door or house to house as your method is of no real consequence.

We do not only chose door to door, we witness on the street, informally, at work, to friends and relatives, anywhere. I have not in fact mentioned how it is done having simply been content to use the term proclaiming Gods Kingdom, how this is done is of no real consequence.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
We do not only chose door to door, we witness on the street, informally, at work, to friends and relatives, anywhere. I have not in fact mentioned how it is done having simply been content to use the term proclaiming Gods Kingdom, how this is done is of no real consequence.

Lots of people do that from all religions. The fact that you think JWs alone do it is strange. Maybe in your small circle of associates only JWs preach Gods Kingdom, but that certainly is not a universal truth.

Originally posted by Rajk999
Lots of people do that from all religions.

I used to proclaim Gods Kingdom when I was a Christian, first and foremost by trying to provide an example of Christian compassion and integrity to others - to demonstrate demeanour and behaviour that they might perhaps wish to emulate - and by talking openly about my faith to those I met who were interested.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
We do not only chose door to door, we witness on the street, informally, at work, to friends and relatives, anywhere. I have not in fact mentioned how it is done having simply been content to use the term proclaiming Gods Kingdom, how this is done is of no real consequence.

Do you think that your posting on this Spirituality Forum - in this community - forms a part of the "proclaiming Gods Kingdom" that you do?

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
We do not only chose door to door, we witness on the street, informally, at work, to friends and relatives, anywhere. I have not in fact mentioned how it is done having simply been content to use the term proclaiming Gods Kingdom, how this is done is of no real consequence.

Is it possible for other groups of Christians or Christian individuals to be equally as efficacious at proclaiming the kingdom as the Jehovah's Witnesess are?

Originally posted by Rajk999
Lots of people do that from all religions. The fact that you think JWs alone do it is strange. Maybe in your small circle of associates only JWs preach Gods Kingdom, but that certainly is not a universal truth.

Fine but the premise still stands. Unless you are proclaiming Gods Kingdom you are spiritually dead.

Originally posted by divegeester
Is it possible for other groups of Christians or Christian individuals to be equally as efficacious at proclaiming the kingdom as the Jehovah's Witnesess are?

No, we are the best, other noob Christians cant touch us, we are 2awesome.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
Fine but the premise still stands. Unless you are proclaiming Gods Kingdom you are spiritually dead.

Are members of your organisation who are inactive, and/or don't go door to door for some reason, "spiritually dead"?

Originally posted by FMF
Are members of your organisation who are inactive, and/or don't go door to door for some reason, "spiritually dead"?

Anyone that does not proclaim Gods Kingdom needs to be spiritually resurrected unless there is extenuating circumstances which prevents them. This could of course be discouragement, or apathy and they may not be dead merely spiritually sick. Either way they meed to be revived. As any shepherd of the congregation knows the first thing that goes when someone is spiritually sick is their proclaiming Gods Kingdom.

As has been pointed out I have not mentioned going from house to house and I don't know why you feel the necessity to limit proclaiming Gods Kingdom to that, perhaps it suits your knit picking and hair splitting approach? who can say?

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
The argument is pure straw, unadulterated straw. No one has claimed anyone is 'rendered' spiritually dead because they do not proclaim Gods Kingdom, they may already be in spiritually dead state regardless of whether they take up the call or not. That you find it bizarre or anything else is neither here nor there, we are not arguing on the paramete ...[text shortened]... ons asked on the basis of that passage. Its what we Christians do, we reason on the scriptures.

In the 6th post in this thread you wrote:

I think it means that some people are spiritually dead. Jesus admonishment is quite clear, if you are not proclaiming the Kingdom of God you are spiritually dead. I don't see how it can be read any other way.

Your argument is that spiritual life is contingent on proclaiming the Kingdom, this means anyone not doing so is rendered spiritually dead. So it's your claim.

I looked at the context and I think you are reading too much into it. You're trying to build too much out of a single line of text. The follow now and not later message is the important part.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
As has been pointed out I have not mentioned going from house to house and I don't know why you feel the necessity to limit proclaiming Gods Kingdom to that, perhaps it suits your knit picking and hair splitting approach? who can say?

As far as I can recall, you have laid a lot of very heavy emphasis on your own door to door work and that of the members of your organisation and done this in maybe hundreds and hundreds of your posts on this forum for several years.

And you have cited it as what you see as one of the unique selling points of your religious group.

You have on countless occasions used the fact [that you go door to door] to taunt or trash talk other Christians who don't go door to door, seemingly not always in jest.

And you have repeatedly ~ maybe dozens and dozens of times ~ cited the door to door work as a fulfillment of a specific bible verse where Jesus was talking to his disciples and one which you have used many, many times to set your group apart from other Christians.

I have no memory of you ever ~ not even once, in all these years ~ seeking to downplay or de-emphazize the significance and purpose of the JW door to door mission in the way that you are doing now.

I would say that this observation by veteran of this forum like myself, and one who has engaged you in debates and discussions that number in the many thousands of posts, is not "hair splitting" or "knit picking" by any measure.

Your sudden diffidence is interesting and certainly much bigger than a hair or knit.

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
Anyone that does not proclaim Gods Kingdom needs to be spiritually resurrected unless there is extenuating circumstances which prevents them.

Seeing as this is a pretty crucial matter - i.e. spiritually dead v spiritually alive, and concerns therefore, presumably, "salvation" itself - what is your specific bible reference for these "extenuating circumstances" you mention?

Originally posted by FMF
I used to proclaim Gods Kingdom when I was a Christian, first and foremost by trying to provide an example of Christian compassion and integrity to others - to demonstrate demeanour and behaviour that they might perhaps wish to emulate - and by talking openly about my faith to those I met who were interested.

Excactly .. its all over the place .. certainly not JWs alone.

Originally posted by FMF
As far as I can recall, you have laid a lot of very heavy emphasis on your own door to door work and that of the members of your organisation and done this in maybe hundreds and hundreds of your posts on this forum for several years.

And you have cited it as what you see as one of the unique selling points of your religious group.

You have on countless o ...[text shortened]... easure.

Your sudden diffidence is interesting and certainly much bigger than a hair or knit.

Apparantly he changed his 'door to door' stance after years of arguing about it At least thats an improvement.

In a couple years he might mellow out and change some more. 🙂