About 197 new ministers, including a nine year-old boy, Justice Adefokun, were over the weekend ordained at the 2008 series of six conventions of Jehovah Witnesses at Kwali, in the Federal Capital Territory.
The ministers, who had undergone years of pious training on various aspects of the Holy Scriptures and dedicated their lives to the service of God, were ordained in the presence of 15,000 delegates that attended the event.
Speaking at the ceremony, Brother Chinedu Uzozie, urged the new ministers to deepen their appreciation for God by constantly examining the Holy Scriptures and living in conformity with the principles therein.
He advised them to always seek God's guidance through His Holy Spirit, adding that sustain their new positions through pastoral works.
The convention, which bore the theme 'Guided by God's Spirit', had Brother Sebastian Johnson speaking on the sub-theme, 'Reap Blessings through Jehovah's Spirit Guided King'.
The speaker lamented on the inability of the human institutions to address the basic needs of people and buttressed points by quoting various experts that deduced that man might not be able to sustain the earth in the next 100 years.
"Though man's mechanisms have failed to alleviate the sufferings of the vast majority of mankind, God has an unfailing arrangement that would bring ultimate relief to the vast majority of mankind," he added.
He called for faith, trust and confidence in the creator's ability to correct the ills brought upon the earth by man's imperfection and short sightedness, adding that Christians should persevere in prayers and engages in good works as they await God's Kingdom.
Johnson stated further that materialism coupled with selfish inclination and loose spirituality were huge hindrances to faithful service and he urged Christians to shun such vices and have faith in God.
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"Brother Chinedu Uzozie, urged the new ministers to deepen their appreciation for God by constantly examining the Holy Scriptures and living in conformity with the principles therein."
Actually, this examination of the Holy Scripture can not be done according to the Watch Tower Society without using the hundreds of books and publications of the Society.
If the Witness says he learns his theology by reading the Bible alone, then he contradicts the Watchtower which says that is not possible: "Let us face the fact that no matter how much Bible reading we have done, we would never have learned the truth on our own. We would not have discovered the truth regarding Jehovah, his purposes and attributes, the meaning and importance of his name, the Kingdom, Jesus' ransom, the difference between God's organization and Satan's, nor why God has permitted wickedness." (Watchtower 12/1/1990, pages 19) "Thus the Bible is an organizational book and belongs to the Christian congregation as an organization, not to individuals, regardless of how sincerely they may believe that they can interpret the Bible." (The Watchtower, Oct. 1, 1967. p. 587.) Additionally, the Watchtower says only its organization understands the Bible "Only this organization functions for Jehovah's purpose and to his praise. To it alone God's Sacred Word, the Bible, is not a sealed book." (The Watchtower; July 1, 1973, pp. 402.) "All who want to understand the Bible should appreciate that the "greatly diversified wisdom of God" can become known only through Jehovah's channel of communication, the faithful and discreet slave." (The Watchtower; 10/1/1994; p. 8.)
http://www.carm.org/jw/not_bible_alone.htm
I contend that this shows that the Watch Tower does not think GOD was smart enough to know how to write the Bible so that we could understand it. I do agree that there are some ways that will help us to understand it and this link will show how we can do that:
http://www.shatterdmen.com/Hermenutics.htm
I strongly suggest that if ANY religion tells you that you have to belong to that group to have salvation...RUN from it. There is only ONE source for salvation and the Watch Tower is NOT it!
http://www.shatterdmen.com/first_step.htm
I wonder if the nine year old boy fully understand the commitment he has made. If this child were to decide later in life that he no longer wishes to be a Jehovah's Witnesses he would find it very hard to leave.
Once someone submits to being baptised as a Jehovah's Witnesses they are then subject to disfellowshipping. Once a Jehovah's Witness has been disfellowshipped, this person will be shunned by their family and friends.
Does this young boy know the Watch Tower Society's history of failed prophecies? Does this young boy know that Jesus commanded Christians to never follow false prophets?
If this young boy were to learn that he had committed his life, not to God, but a man-made publishing corporation, would he be free to leave without consquencies?
Lives are ruined, families are destroyed by the Jehovah's Witness practice of shunning former members. http://jehovahswitness.tumblr.com
Young ones who become JWs, do so conscienciously; they are like the Biblical Samuel who served dedicatedly from the time he was weaned onwards; and Timothy who was taught from infancy. These never regretted serving God from youth, and I am confident that this 9-year-old will never regret his decision too. If you had followed the teachings of JWs, you will find out that they never claimed to be prophets or inspired. They rather make effort to explain Bible prophecies. If they find out that their previous understanding and expectations were wrong, they make corrections to harmonise with the truth in God's Word; that does not make them false as you claim, rather it shows that they are humble and willing to accept corrections. Ancient servants of God including the apostles had had expectations that did not fulfil the way they thought too. Yet God did not stop using them because of their wrong expectations; rather they were corrected. To you, Jonah was a false prophet because he said that Nineveh would be destroyed and it never happened at that time. But to God, he is a true prophect even inspired to penned down the book of Jonah.....If you were once a witness and was disfellowshipped, you can leverage on God's merch; humbly clean up your life submitting to the doing of God's will, and you will be welcome back.
to: regaldon801
What an insightful comment. I appreciated the example of Jonah.