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You are visitor number: |
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since 01/02/01 |
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The Order of Special Full-Time Servants |
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When I read my 1995 Yearbook for the first time, I spotted something I had never seen in any literature before. This is the paragraph that made me
stop and wonder: |
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Then I saw it again in the 1996 Yearbook. Here's the quote from that book: |
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*** yb96 8-9 Jehovah's Witnesses-1996 Yearbook Report *** |
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Among those in full-time service are 16,468 Bethel family members around the globe. Of this number, 5,709 serve at the world
headquarters; all of these are members of the Order of Special Full-Time Servants. |
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Additionally, 4,374 care for assignments that require them to travel from one assembly to another in an assigned district or from one
congregation to another in a circuit. One of the principal activities of all such traveling overseers is taking the lead in the field ministry. |
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The Order of Special Full-Time Servants! According to the Yearbook, this is a religious order, although I have failed to find any other reference to
the "order" in any other publication. |
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When I asked a variety of Elders about this, none seemed to know anything about this "order". Even Circuit Overseers and District Overseers
didn't seem to know anything about it. |
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Then, after extensive investigation, I found someone who was able to offer an explanation. Apparently, when brothers or sisters are accepted for
Bethel service, they are asked to take a "vow of poverty"!! So by doing, they become members of this "religious order". |
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Why should they be asked to take such a vow? Why should there be a seperate "order" if we are all God's servants? Does all this not have
undertones of "sects" and "divisions" amongstthe congregation? |
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It seems the short answer to all this is that it is another tax dodge!! By taking this "vow" and entering this "order" the
members avail themselves of various tax consessions. |
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*** Rbi8 Matthew 22:21 *** |
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" Then he said to them: "Pay back, therefore, Caesar's things to Caesar, but God's things to God."
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*** Rbi8 Galatians 5:19-21 *** |
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19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, and they are fornication, uncleanness...............................
divisions, sects, 21 envies, drunken bouts, revelries, and things like these. As to these things I am forewarning YOU, the same way as I did forewarn YOU, that those who practice such things will not inherit
God's kingdom." |
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It seems to me that the WBTS is quite prepared to compromise Bible principles in order to evade paying "Caesar's things to Caesar"! It was
just the same in the way the literature was suddenly offered "free of charge", not to give freely what we had received freely, but rather because it allowed them to avoid paying sales tax! |
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Please feel free to e-mail
me with any comments you may have. I may not have all the answers, but you can say what's really on your mind without the threat of being disfellowshipped! |
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