I continue to hear these stories of brothers and sisters from different halls being disfellowshipped from their congregations. I’m curious as to the biblical foundation which this practice is upheld. My problem is with the overall concept. How can a group of elders pass judgment against a person for committed sin. Jesus told the Pharisees”those without sin cast the first stone” when making a case for a prostitute. So how is that a body of elders, who are not perfect but sinners, cast stones to individuals that kick them out of the congregation and separate them from fellowship with their brothers and sisters at the hall? Not to mention, is the Church not likened to that of a hospital for sinners? Then they have the mentality that they have the abilityto tell if a person is “truly repentant” for what they had done to allow a person to be reinstated. Here’s another thing. This is just my own two cents. What separates sin? Meaning, where is the line of sin and really bad sin. Some sins are overlooked and not dealt with at all. Now other sins are placed on a much higher level. I’m here to tell you if a body of elders are going to kick people out of the kingdom halls for big sins then they need to throw everyone out for all the other sins. The Bible states that if we are guilty of breaking even one law then we are guilty of breaking them all. We all have sinned and have fallen short of the Glory of God. God doesn’t see different levels of sin. He despises all sin equally. Can anyone show me where there is a hierarchy of sin in the Bible? We need to be showing the world God’s love and Grace. An exclusive club that kicks people out for being, well….people, does not show Gods Grace. It only shows it to be an exclusive cult. I don’t know could someone please bring some light to this subject for me.
I will go into the full details of JW’s and d’fing later. For now I’ll give ya a little snippet of one of their older publications concerning being excommunicated/shunned. They wrote this article about the Catholic Church but it obviously can be applied to them or anyone else (Mormons etc) that shuns its members.
1947 Awake January 8th pg. 27 says…….
“The authority for excommunication, they claim, is based on the teachings of Christ and the apostles, as found in the scriptures: Matthew 18:15-19; 1 Corinthians 5:3-5; 16:22; Galatians 1:8&9; 1 Timothy 1:20; Titus 3:10…………But the Hierarchy’s excommunication, as a punishment and “medical” remedy (Catholic Encyclopedia), finds NO SUPPORT IN THESE SCRIPTURES. In fact, it is altogether FOREIGN TO BIBLE TEACHINGS. Hebrews 10:26-31″.
The next time a JW tries to defend shunning, remind him that his own society wrote that it’s not Biblical!
Blessings………….
Thanks for your imput Middleman777. It is always good to get to the actual writings of JW’s. It always suprises me the JW’s don’t realize the flip flopness of their organization.