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Is Monastery Life Christian?The Watchtower—1953 | September 15
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the early Christians did that? Would there have been any persecution if they had followed that course? Of course not, and the fact that they were persecuted proves that they did not physically separate themselves from the world.
The trappists take a vow of silence, but where in the Scriptures are we told to refrain from using our tongues? On the contrary, we are told to comfort him that is weary with a word, to speak the truth to our neighbor. Every Christian is to make disciples of people of all nations. The early Christian congregation, when it was scattered because of persecution, did not keep silent, but went everywhere preaching the Word. Speech is a gift, God intends us to use it, but, of course, not abuse it or misuse it.
Christ Jesus did much praying, once spending a whole night in prayer, just before he chose his twelve apostles. (Luke 6:12-16) And on the night of his betrayal he did much praying and he counseled his apostles to “watch and pray.” (Matt. 26:41) But did he mean thereby that we should spend from four to seven hours daily in prayer? Hardly, when he warned against needless repetition in prayer. (Matt. 6:5-8) He was a busy man, he had much preaching to do. So did Paul and all the other early Christians. They also had to study God’s Word so as to properly equip themselves for preaching.
We are commanded to love God. The best way we can do that is to praise him, not within the walls of a monastery but where others can hear of him so that they also can join in praising God. We are told to love ourselves and our neighbors as ourselves. We do not show love of ourselves by torturing our bodies, denying them necessary food and rest, and we cannot be loving our neighbor as ourselves if we separate ourselves from him. We show the very best kind of neighbor love when we preach to our neighbors about who Jehovah God is, what his purposes are and what his kingdom will accomplish. (Mark 12:28-34) That is the essence of Christianity, but it cannot be done in a monastery. Therefore monastery life is not Christian.
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Who Knows True Worship?The Watchtower—1953 | September 15
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Who Knows True Worship?
● In 1951 an Iowa court threw out a bequest to promote the dissemination of the Christian religion when it found that so many conflicting views made it impossible to define Christianity. More recently a British lawyer’s will that specified that the recipient of his goods be “a member of the Church of England and an adherent of the doctrine of that church,” was thrown out of a British court which held that there are too many possible interpretations of what it means to be a member of the Church of England for that requirement to have any meaning at all. It ruled that it was impossible to define what the doctrine of the Anglican church is, and hence the degree to which one is “an adherent” of that doctrine. Of course, the apostles and early Christians had no such problem. They knew what true worship was, and narrowly defined it. It was only with the additions, divisions and confusions of false teachers who peddled their own ideas instead of God’s that such a condition developed. Even those claiming to follow Christ no longer know for sure which way he went! They could determine it by casting off these human ideas and returning to the One Book that reliably reports what he preached and did, but too many are too busy with trivial matters to take time to do this, so they continue to use the name “Christian” while going in all sorts of opposite ways.
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