New focus for the site, at least temporarily

The WTS primary recruitment book when JWs first began meeting with me was KNOWLEDGE THAT LEADS TO EVERLASTING LIFE. I met with the JWs for nearly a year, reviewing the material in that book and the doctrines introduced therein.

Shortly before our meetings came to an end, the JWs gave me a new book, WHAT DOES THE BIBLE Really TEACH? This book was presented as a newer, more simplified approach and although I was given the choice as to whether or not continue in the KNOWLEDGE book, I was highly encouraged to switch over to the BIBLE TEACH book in our meetings. The JW I met with was discouraged that we'd been meeting for nearly a year (10 months) and had yet to proceed beyond Chapter 5 of the KNOWLEDGE book. Given the relative simplicity of the BIBLE TEACH book, the JW indicated that she felt we'd have better progress by switching over.

Well, in that, she was wrong.

Frankly, I was intellectually offended by the BIBLE TEACH book. To me, it was just a dumbed-down version of the KNOWLEDGE book. Simpler? Yes. It certainly is that. Because the book fails to offer explanations or reasons for many doctrines novel to the WTS to any great depth and some, the book fails to explain at all.

I cannot make it more plain: I can't stand this stupid book. Wallbanger, through and through.

I stopped meeting with the JWs shortly after leaving the KNOWLEDGE book and beginning the BIBLE TEACH book. Partially because the BIBLE TEACH book irritated me so much, I admit, but primarily for other reasons. The JW had begun praying that I would stop turning to a verse's context to understand the verse, for instance, but the straw that broke this camel's back was when the JW persisted in equating interpretation with Scripture. If any evidence contradicted what the WTS taught as its interpretation of Scripture, the JW insisted the evidence was at fault. Not the WTS. Never the WTS. Since we'd been meeting for nearly a year and I'd thoroughly covered orthodox christology (answering all objections presented by the WTS) as well as many other doctrines of the orthodox faith, I believed my work was done. My job, as a believer in Christ, is to present a defense and give the reasons for my hope. It's the Holy Spirit's job to convict and convince each person, not mine. So I quit.

The JW and I had gone through the first 2 chapters of the BIBLE TEACH book and we were due to begin CH3 when I quit. In those chapters, per my routine, I had highlighted sections I disagreed with and jotted rough notes and Scripture references on each.

I have decided to return to those notes, clarify and expand upon them, then post these notes to the site, though I may venture as far as Ch5. To provide a critical analysis to anyone approached by JWs with this book. Some of what's covered, I'll only need to provide a link to that material in the KNOWLEDGE sections of the site, but some of it's new.

I haven't abandoned my work in the KNOWLEDGE book. The subsections particularly will be quite useful for those in the BIBLE TEACH book. But for now, I will at least get the BIBLE TEACH book started.

Pneumonia

An FYI for those who've wondered where I am...

I had intended to go into my fiction as soon as I finished working on the books for church so I would've been MIA regardless, but I didn't move on to working on my fic, after all - I'm down with pneumonia. This is not an "I'm not allowed to be sick" situation because at this point, if I don't take care of myself, I'll end up in the hospital. Which would have catastrophic repurcussions on my schedule. ROTFL

Lots of rest, lots of fluids...I'll rejoin the world when I'm more fully on the mend.

Happy New Year!

I've been enjoying several days off - as much as one can enjoy free time off when you've bronchitus and whiney with it, that is. ;-) Spending time with my family. Books both with and without footnotes. Debates.

But alas, the work I've been studiously ignoring can no longer wait.

Today, I have to work on the church's books. Wrap up December's checks, catch up the electronic register, Dec's EOM statements.. Fix & finish the budget. All of which is due bright & early tomorrow morning (if we don't get snowed under with the 5-11 inches they're calling for, anyway). Yick. I wish I could think of someone better able to do the treasurer's job. I truly do. I'm really not that good at it and deathly afraid I'll louse seriously louse something up. Oh, I can keep the lights on, but the job is a great deal more involved than just keeping the lights on. *sigh*

After the books are straightened out, I'll likely return to my fiction. Traditionally, that's what I do after the holiday rush is over. I hole up with my fiction for a couple of months (as much as I'm able given my obligations, at any rate), work obsessively on whichever mss snags my interest. It's sort of my holiday gift to myself: an activity whose sole merit is personal enjoyment. Someday, I'll have mustered enough discipline to produce an epic journey, but sadly, this is not that day. LOL.

To the books...