@Wrangler, it is apparent to me that you are missing the point in all these things you raise.
Love (genuine agape, whether good deeds or giving gifts) can be expressed every day, not just on the days a calendar says you must buy someone a present. The commercial system is laughing at you and taking advantage of the gullible by pulling emotional heartstrings. No sooner has one event filled their coffers, than the next one is filling the shelves. $$$$ Cher-ching. People fill in the blanks with their birthdays.
Who said wedding Anniversaries were pagan? We have no problem with wedding anniversaries because all of Jehovah’s important occasions were anniversaries....yearly commemorations of special events, but NONE of them were borrowed from paganism. They were events specific to Himself and Israel.
Weddings are God’s arrangement and a yearly remembrance breaks no law of Jehovah. All the others do....every one of them was borrowed from a satanic source, dressed up to look respectable, and never given back.
Last year, @Aunty Jane and I talked about my SIL's experience. You said he could formally leave. I had the opportunity to talk to him about that this weekend at a party.
He said the process is called reproving, which has the same consequences as being disfellowshipped. The victim is still shunned by their family. These 2 articles support that reality.
Now I wanted to address these points particularly.....as I probably already did back then....
“Reproving” is not the same as “disfellowshipping” at all.
Someone who is “reproved” has been counseled over a violation of Jehovah’s laws or standards and has expressed repentance. They are therefore NOT disfellowshipped and no shunning takes place. They may lose some privileges of service for a time. Apparently your SIL has not been truthful with you on that.
“Disfellowshipping” occurs only when someone has flagrantly violated Jehovah’s laws or standards and has expressed no regret or repentance over the action(s). Justifying and blaming someone else goes back to Eden.
Scripturally then, the elders are obligated to remove unrepentant wrongdoers from our ranks, but they are still free to attend meetings if they wish, and that is in full knowledge of the consequences of their own actions.
On what do we base our actions in shunning an unrepentant individual?
Do you understand the meaning of the word “excommunication”? It is defined as....
“the action of officially excluding someone from participation in the sacraments and services of the Christian Church.” This includes any church.
A further explanation is found in this
Online Dictionary
a cutting off or casting out from communication, deprivation of communion or the privileges of intercourse," specifically the formal exclusion of a person from religious communion and privileges, mid-15c., from Late Latin excommunicationem(nominative excommunicatio), noun of action from past-participle stem of excommunicare "put out of the community," in Church Latin "to expel from communion," from ex "out" (see
ex-) + communicare "to share, communicate," related to communis "common".
It is self explanatory....these people are cut off from communication with the faithful....and it is entirely biblical. You don’t have to like it.....
1 Cor 5:9-1.....
“In my letter I wrote you to stop keeping company with sexually immoral people, 10 not meaning entirely with the sexually immoral people of this world or the greedy people or extortioners or idolaters. Otherwise, you would actually have to get out of the world. 11 But now I am writing you to stop keeping company with anyone called a brother who is sexually immoral or a greedy person or an idolater or a reviler or a drunkard or an extortioner, not even eating with such a man. 12 For what do I have to do with judging those outside? Do you not judge those inside, 13 while God judges those outside? “Remove the wicked person from among yourselves.”
It is an obligation to “remove” such ones from the congregation....if they have not already removed themselves. Either way we are to treat them as violators of Jehovah’s laws or standards. The elders have authority to remove those ones and also those who cause division or who want to be contentious as if they are somehow exempt from punishment.
2 John 9-10....
“Everyone who pushes ahead and does not remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God. The one who does remain in this teaching is the one who has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him.”
Jesus did not say that becoming a Christian would bring joy to everyone because sometimes these hard decisions divide families as is evident in your own family’s case....bad feelings hang around like bad smells....and they like to blame everyone but themselves, remaining all bitter and twisted....telling their sad story to whoever will listen.
Matt 10:34-38....Jesus said....
“Do not think I came to bring peace to the earth; I came to bring, not peace, but a sword. 35 For I came to cause division, with a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 Indeed, a man’s enemies will be those of his own household. 37 Whoever has greater affection for father or mother than for me is not worthy of me; and whoever has greater affection for son or daughter than for me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not accept his torture stake and follow after me is not worthy of me.”
This is nothing new or unusual because it’s human nature at work......justification can lead us down a very dark path and the light of truth reveals the flaws we want to hide...but we can never hide from the one who will judge every single one of us. Standing before the same judge we will soon see who it is that has upheld Bible truth and who has sacrificed it for personal convenience or advantage....the doing of our own will rather than Jehovah’s. (Matt 7:21-23)
I know this makes you angry, but this is truth from the horse’s mouth, not from our opposers.
