Posted by Rick [Rick] on November 05, 1999 at 12:44:19 {6xiCHW3gJ27mY4XD8K2cFMFBt36Xyc}:
In Reply to: *Fleecing Spiritual Israel posted by Antique on November 05, 1999 at 05:27:27:
Your elaboration on my thoughts is thought provoking. Good point that those wrongfully disfellowshiped are like sheep lost somewhere, and the "shepherds" in Brooklyn are making no efforts to find them and bring them back. This just reinforces the prophecy in Ezekiel 34.
JIOR is the acronym for Jehovah Is Our Refuge, is it not? I would be very cautious applying the prophecy to the JIOR Group per se, if that was intended. We all have a part in prophecy, whereas Jehovah's Witnesses is a world religion that has been around over over a century and with a worldwide presence (including the most expansive and high-production printing facilities on the planet). I'm trying to contrast considering a world religion as helping to fulfill a prophecy, versus taking a more laid back "wait and see" attitude toward those smaller groups that influence the larger religion. Only history will tell if any one group has any part in a prophecy.
Interesting thoughts! Certainly those who have been disfellowshiped for accepting an organ transplant or believing in the pre-1995 version of the 1914 teachings are Christ's sheep whom an abusive and self-centered shepherd has driven into the wilderness away from the flock.
Notice that a judgment also awaits the "fatter sheep" who use their horns to drive away the weaker thinner sheep in Ezekiel chapter 34? Many in the congregation blindly follow the shepherds to the point where they use their social "horns" in shunning to force these weaker sheep, who keep trying to come back by attending meetings, to drive them away. The prophecy says the judgment for these sheep also awaits.
Rick