Should you visit Rochester, NY, you may decide to visit the George Eastman house, as I did when I was there. Mr. Eastman, who brought photography to the masses and who founded Kodak, turned philanthropist once he’d made his fortune and built half the city. His preserved mansion showcases his life, his inventions, his contributions to society, and serves as the nucleus for all things photographic right up to the present. But snoop thoroughly and you will discover that he shot himself in the head at age 78. In the throes of old age, his health failing, one by one he saw his chums going senile, bedridden or wheelchair bound. He left behind a note: “To my friends - My work is done. Why wait?”

Q: Why did George Eastman take his life?

a) His work was done. Why wait?

b) He longed for the blessed release of death to finally end a futile life that had dragged on and on for much too long.

c) His health was failing and he (a lifelong bachelor) dreaded the indignities of old age -with its dependence upon others.

Does anyone honestly think that, with health and youth, he would not have found more work in which to engross himself?

In this, Mr. Eastman is much like Leonardo DaVinci, artist of the Mona Lisa - likely the most famous portrait of all time. Leonardo made his mark not only as an artist. He also contributed hugely in areas as diverse as geometry, anatomy, astronomy, architecture, and flight. Some of his sketches have been used as blueprints for devices in use today. He was a renaissance man; it may be that he originates the term. Yet toward the end of life, he reportedly sought God's forgiveness for "not using all the resources of his spirit and art."

Eastman and DaVinci - two fellows that typify Dr. Jastrow’s statement from yesterday’s post. And they would be joined by most everyone else, were we not sucked into a morass of drudgery, duty, debt, injustice and hardship. Sure...you might well long for death if you can only envision more of that. Ditto for the frailness that comes with old age.

I recently attended a funeral of someone who had been happy, content, and productive throughout life. Nonetheless, death was not unwelcome, relatives assured me, since he’d grown “so tired of being sick.”

That’s why the Bible’ promise of everlasting life on a paradise earth is so appealing. It’s Robert Jastrow’s dream come true - unlimited time to grow minus the very real liabilities that eventually cause most of us to tire of life. Perfect health is promised, and an economic system will be in place so that people do not feel they are “toiling for nothing.” . . .

“And they will certainly build houses and have occupancy; and they will certainly plant vineyards and eat [their] fruitage. They will not build and someone else have occupancy; they will not plant and someone else do the eating. For like the days of a tree will the days of my people be; and the work of their own hands my chosen ones will use to the full. They will not toil for nothing, nor will they bring to birth for disturbance; because they are the offspring made up of the blessed ones of Jehovah, and their descendants with them.”    Isa 65:21-23

There’s a lot of things I’d like to do. I’ve done a few of them. But for the most part, I’ve just scratched the surface. And I’ve spent a fair amount of time shoveling aside the muck this system throws at you. No, everlasting life, should I find myself there, will not be a bad thing. Not at all.

Thing is, with “everlasting life” you only know it is without end when you get to where the end should be and see it is not there. The Greek word itself ("aiónios") does not demand permanence to life—it is always contingent on God’s approval. It thus differs from Greek words that DO demand it—such as "aidios" of Romans 1:20 (eternal) and athanasia" of 1 Timothy 6:16 (immortality). For that reason, John 3:36–

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal ("aiónios") life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”

is rendered “everlasting life” in the King James Version. The New World Translation also says “everlasting life,” not “eternal life,” since there are other words ("aidios" and athanasia") that mean eternal or deathless. Why sow confusion?

It’s all very well to live fully in the present—everyone should do that—but to ignore the future so as to just immerse oneself in the present surely is unnecessarily shallow. I very much like the idea of living forever.

*****The bookstore

When they asked Robert Jastrow the physicist about living forever - would it be a blessing or a curse? - he said… it all depends:

“It would be a blessing to those who have curious minds and an endless appetite for learning. The thought that they have forever to absorb knowledge would be very comforting for them. But for others who feel they have learned all there is to learn and whose minds are closed, it would be a dreadful curse. They’d have no way to fill their time.”

In other words, our appetite for learning is endless, unless we have closed down shop ourselves. Jastrow is an egghead - a thinker - and so he focused on learning. But other things are probably boundless, too, like our capacity to create, and to love. However, pop culture has taken to selling death as if it were a benefit. It’s probably those atheists. There’s more and more of them, and buying into their thinking means settling for a final death sentence perhaps not too many years away. So they put lipstick on a pig.

Pay attention, and you’ll see the ‘death is beautiful’ notion a lot. For example, it surfaced in a recent [I wrote this is 2009] Dr Who episode - The Lazarus Experiment. The episode name itself is a giveaway, since Jesus resurrected a man by that name.

This TV Lazarus has invented a machine that makes him young again….he steps in a geezer, and steps out a young man, to the amazement of all the high-brow folk invited to his gala bash. But Dr. Who (was he invited?) smells something amiss. He follows the newly minted youngster, and sure enough, the machine has malfunctioned and dooms Lazurus to transforming back and forth from human to monster! (They like monsters on that show.)

See, in setting back his DNA, the machine has selected ancient mutations long-ago rejected by evolution. (Hmmm…yes…indeed, plausible, nod all the atheists watching the show….whereas if you mentioned anything about God to them, they’d throw up.)

The time lord doctor also lectures Lazarus on what a curse everlasting life really is, and what a dumb, greedy thing it was for him to want it. For when life drags on forever and ever and ever, you will get so tired of it. You will have been everywhere, done everything. Living will have become an endless, pointless trek to nowhere. You will long for it to end, but….fool that you were for choosing everlasting life….it will not end, but go on and on and on. Oh, the monotony! See, without death, it is impossible to savor life…. and so forth.

Please…. spare me (and Dr. Jastrow). This is atheist tripe. It all depends upon whether you see life as futile or not. If you do, then sure...you would want it to end. But as Jastrow stated, life’s only futile if you’ve made it so. Of course, baked into this system of things are ingredients to encourage that dismal view - for example, old age, frailty, and the continual aggravations of human misrule. But, if they could be removed . . . which is exactly what the Bible promises to do. From that promise comes the title: ‘Enjoy Life Forever.’

*****The bookstore

“True wisdom cries aloud in the street. It keeps raising its voice in the public squares.” (Proverbs 1:20)

For the most part, the greater world disagrees. Its counter-version is that True wisdom is found in the quadrangles. Only ignoramuses are found the streets and public squares. Witnesses have been known to use this verse to encourage each other, since they are in the streets and public squares a lot, the quadrangles not so much. One GB even cited the song as to what they look for there: “It’s the person, not the place. It’s the heart and not the face,” to which he added, “Isn’t that encouraging?” even though his appearance is not all that hard on the eyes.

Trouble is, in the quadrangles, one usually doesn’t find this:

“The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge.” (1:7)

That lack doesn’t harm the quadrangle’s math and engineering offerings. You may even need those to get where you’re going. But veer outside those fields and some of the others offerings will sabotage you. “The first effect of not believing in God is that you lose your common sense,” G. K. Chesterton said.

It’s like the passage from the highly recommended (by me) book, ‘Tom Irregardless and Me:’

“I’d be more impressed with that education if it bore fruit. Those who run the planet, in politics, business, or society, are well-educated almost to the person. The world is not run by commoners. It is rare to find someone in leadership position who has not had four years of higher education at a bare minimum, usually more. One would think the world they’ve collectively built would benefit from that education. Not a bit of it! It is an unjust, violent, chaotic mess, a poor return for their brilliance.

“Jehovah’s Witnesses do not ignore education, but they do redefine it. Whereas the world’s education emphasizes intellect and soft-pedals moral values, Bible education does just the opposite. Its educational focus is on overcoming greed, pride, and selfishness. It is mental brilliance, the focus of the world’s education, that is assumed able to take care of itself as needed. . . . Witnesses have learned to yield to one another. Their Bible-based education is the reason.

“Nobody sends their sons or daughters to the university in hopes that they will learn love, fairness, justice, or selflessness. Nobody imagines that to be the purpose of this world’s higher education. In the world of Jehovah’s Witnesses, those qualities are the purpose of their education. Brilliance is outsourced. When it is needed, it is not hard to find someone who has it or someone who can develop it.”

I wrote this book in 2016. Some of it I would write differently today, but most of it still holds. I might even expand upon the role of Bernard Strawman, sharply critical of the fact that Jehovah’s Witnesses allow a man like Tom Irregardless to go door to door, seeing as how he keeps using that word and each time it makes Bernard wince. I hadn’t told him about Tom’s public talks.

***

I don’t diss college as many in my faith do. Neither do I think it is the bee’s knees. On average, it does result in a higher income. Though, a certain employment counselor observed, “the funny thing about averages is that they don’t necessarily apply to anyone.” I know of several instances in which Witnesses without any college at all, regularly supervise college grads, even PhDs, in their secular work. They rose to their station on pure people skills and credit their religious activities for training them in interaction with others. I would never say it is the rule, but it does happen. I know of a pioneer who began part-time employment at a nearby 150-person company. They leaned on her to go full-time. She declined for the sake of her ministry. She figured that meant she would always be low-level, and she was okay with that. Nonetheless, in a short time they promoted her as trainer for all of their employees who interact with the public, and she remained the only part-timer in an outfit of full-timers.

Plus, in our area this very cold winter, there is a Witness from Africa who says, “I don’t know how the sun can be out yet it is so cold outside!” University isn’t helping him much, is it? for that is why he is here. :)

***

The purpose of the Book of Proverbs is stated at the outset: “To learn wisdom and discipline,” (Proverbs 1:2) which “only fools despise.” (vs 4) It is: “To acquire the discipline that gives insight, Righteousness, good judgment, and uprightness; To impart shrewdness to the inexperienced; [I like how these qualities are all linked.] To give a young man knowledge and thinking ability.” (3-4)

It is good not to ignore these things:

“A wise person listens and takes in more instruction; A man of understanding acquires skillful direction.” (5)

This is true even though you will find some among humans who have a black belt in dispensing knowledge.

Counsel is difficult to give when people bristle over their independences and rights. One speaker likened it to cautioning someone over his tire, which has gone very low on air. “Oh yeah?!” comes the retort. “Well, your car has a dent in the fender!”

The downside of internet life is that it caters to a “showy display of knowledge,” yet you have no idea whatsoever whether the person “practices what he preaches,” though Jesus said the latter was the only thing that really counted. In person this is much less likely to happen.

Too, anyone who undertakes counsel that affects the life of another can get blowback should anything go wrong. One thinks of Paul in the first century pleading: “We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one.” (2 Corinthians 7:2) Why would he have said this unless to fend off frequent charges that they had?

The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom,” but the task is quickly delegated: “Listen, my son, to the discipline of your father, And do not forsake the instruction of your mother.” (8)

Mom and Dad are not always the sharpest knives in the drawer but they are the most available. And they are the only ones that you know are not likely to be pointed at you, at least not deliberately. If you have good ones, they align you right for life. Even if you don’t, you take from them what you can and fill in the gaps when you move on.

Usually, they protect you from “attacks” sure to come out of nowhere:

“My son, if sinners try to entice you, do not consent. If they say: “Come with us. Let us set an ambush to shed blood. We will lie hidden, waiting for innocent victims without cause. We will swallow them alive as the Grave does, Whole, like those going down to the pit. Let us seize all their precious treasures; We will fill our houses with spoil.” (10-13)

And then, their invitation: “You should join us.” (14)

Why don’t they mind their own business? What’s in it for them?

“My son, do not follow them. Keep your feet off their path, For their feet run to do evil; They hurry to shed blood.” (15-16)

You can be sure that there’s something they’re not telling you. Like in verse 17: “It is surely in vain to spread a net in full sight of a bird.” This is why I never let the mice watch as I am baiting the traps.

Switching “traps”—not at all implying they are the same—some kids sail through college (the quadrangles) just fine.* Others regret being manipulated by an education industry that shoves you, unless your grades are in the toilet, directly into college upon completion of high school. Though I did reap some benefit from college, I also reaped chaos and would have been far better off holding off until having more maturity—or even not going unless and until I had the need for it, if possible doing so on an a la carte basis.

“How come you never taught me to do things, Pop?” I complained to my 92 year old Dad. He’d always been reasonably handy, whereas I was not. Lack of a trade has been a thorn in my side throughout life. “I did,” the amiable duffer replied. “But you weren’t paying attention that day.” I think he just fell for the modern mantra of ‘Send your kids to college and they can hire people to do the grubby stuff for them.” Raised on a farm himself, he trusted the experts to do better for his kids.

***

Working up to a grand finale here: “How long will you inexperienced ones love inexperience? How long will you ridiculers take pleasure in ridicule? And how long will you foolish ones hate knowledge?” (1:22)

He keeps reaching out, almost pleading: “Respond to my reproof. Then I will pour out my spirit for you; I will make my words known to you.” (1:23)

But, whoa! Tell him to take a hike and you discover that he really has an edge to him:

“Because I called out, but you kept refusing, I stretched out my hand, but no one was paying attention, You kept neglecting all my advice And rejecting my reproof, I also will laugh when disaster strikes you; I will mock when what you dread comes, When what you dread comes like a storm, And your disaster arrives like a storm wind, When distress and trouble come upon you. At that time they will keep calling me, but I will not answer; They will eagerly look for me, but they will not find me, Because they hated knowledge, And they did not choose to fear Jehovah. They refused my advice; They disrespected all my reproof. So they will bear the consequences of their way, And they will be glutted with their own counsel.”

“Laugh when disaster strikes you?” It’s not exactly “Slow to anger, Quick to forgive,” is it? It is not hard to see from where comes the street-wisdom that the God of the New Testament is nice but the God of the Old Testament is mean.

Or is he? Just don’t push him over the edge, is the message. Until that happens, he is nothing but patience. Both the patience and the silence when the patience is abused are on display at the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem:

“Jehovah the God of their forefathers kept warning them by means of his messengers, warning them again and again, because he felt compassion for his people and for his dwelling place. But they kept ridiculing the messengers of the true God, and they despised his words and mocked his prophets, until the rage of Jehovah came up against his people, until they were beyond healing.” (2 Chronicles 36:15-16)

Jesus focused more on God’s loving side. Maybe this is because, by the time he arrived, humans had slid farther from the perfection the enjoyed at Eden. Maybe this is because they had more bad influences around them. Both of these factors are even more so today, so it is not surprising that ‘the God of the New Testament’ draws people so much more than ‘the God of the Old.’ But, those who suppose the God of the New is too much of a softie have not looked at Matthew 7:21-23. There, Jesus says:

“Not everyone saying to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of the heavens, but only the one doing the will of my Father who is in the heavens will. Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them: ‘I never knew you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!’”

When I do my ‘Read a Scripture and Leave’ approach in door-to-door and use this verse, I say the reason I chose it is that some are surprised Jesus would be like that. They hear so much about his love that they begin to imagine it’s almost impossible to get him riled. If these verses are valid, however, even many of those who claim to follow him he wants nothing to do with.

One must find a balance. Jesus even said that a course of following God might even divide families, the worst of all possible sins to hear opponents of Christianity carry on:

“Do not think I came to bring peace to the earth; I came to bring, not peace, but a sword. 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. Indeed, a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.” (Mathew 10:34-36)

Humans who accept God’s provision for redemption through the death of his Son: are we not all on a journey of sorts? That’s why Jesus’ analogies of the broad and spacious versus the cramped and narrow road work so well. It is also why I begin to think one of the greatest type/anti-types of all time played out right before me routinely as a boy—back when my siblings and I would ride in the back of the family stationwagon on long trips. Within a hour, we were peppering Dad with our discontent. Most of it centered around how bored we were, how much longer would the trip take? aren’t we there yet? lets stop at that rest stop, I want a snack, and so forth.

Dad would put up with it for a while, but at length would holler: ‘If you kids don’t stop crying back there, I’m going to stop this car and give you something to cry about!’

I thought he was just being mean. I was slow to realize that he was showing the wisdom of the ages, for sometimes that is exactly what must be done.

Someone played the ‘more loving than thou’ card on me recently. Yes, dads were like that back in the day, but he is more enlightened.* He will pull the car over and patiently answer all his children’s questions, no doubt as many times as it takes—taking for granted that the precious young things can’t possibly understand that it takes time to get from point A to point B, and that this is so because the world is big. And if—get this—despite all his loving explanations, they are still not reassured, he will turn the car around and head home, respecting their feelings. That annual visit to the relatives? Gone. That once-a-year vacation trip to a rented spot already paid for? Forget about it! Nothing is more important that he show love to his tiny children.

Look, the situation doesn’t come up anyone. People hand their kids a smart phone and they barely come up for air even when the destination is reached.

*****The bookstore

Then there was that bombshell statement of John 6 that drove the crowds away! The crowds had shown up for a free meal and were steadily disappointed because Jesus just wanted to talk about spiritual stuff—but then he finally reached this next corker, and it drove them all away:

“Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I will resurrect him on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink.” (John 6:54)

Whoa! They didn’t see that coming! “When they heard this, many of his disciples said: ‘This speech is shocking; who can listen to it?’” (6:60)

Now, Jesus had been setting the stage for some time but they hadn’t been listening. It’s like when my wife suddenly drops a grenade on me that will set me back a half year’s salary and when I spit out my coffee in horror she says, ‘Well, I’ve been speaking for weeks about it! You might try paying attention on occasion!”

Jesus had been doing that too. It was another thing explored during that Watchtower Study of February 16, 2025: “You Can Have Everlasting Life—But How?” He had fed the crowds. The next day they showed up for more. He told them: “Most truly I say to you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate from the loaves and were satisfied. (6:26)

What did he advise them to do instead?

“Work, not for the food that perishes, but for the food that remains for everlasting life, which the Son of man will give you.” (6:27)

Then, he referred back to how God fed the ancestors with ‘bread from heaven.’ It was called manna. (6:31) The stuff was versatile and nourishing, but in time the grumblers grew sick of it. Then he said that he was the counterpart of that heavenly bread: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not get hungry at all, and whoever exercises faith in me will never get thirsty at all. (6:35)

Okay? So, he gave plenty of notice where he was heading. Same thing with the “drink.” He had told the woman at the well that those “who drink from the water I give will never thirst again” and that woman ran off to tell the whole town. (4:14) It is enough for the crowds to have said, “Okay, he talks that way.” It’s on them if they’re going to choke afterward, which most of them did: “Because of this, many of his disciples went off to the things behind and would no longer walk with him.” (6:66)

***

Now, having said all this, it is a fact that among the slanderous things said about early Christians was that they practiced cannibalism. And don’t you think their enemies would have pointed to these words of Jesus to make their case? How could they not? The words can be so easily misconstrued. I know it’s the Lord and all, but it seems like a very impolitic thing to say.

Moreover, if Witness organization ever said something so seemingly provocative, their opponents would be blasting them for years over it! Such as with a Watchtower that called certain apostates “mentally diseased,” citing a scripture that says exactly that. That was 14 years ago and they are still howling about It!

Sometimes the Witness channel will say something true enough on the surface but easily misconstrued (like calls for “obedience”) and I will say, “Sheesh! You guys don’t know how easily that can be weaponized?!” But I don’t write in to tell them about it. I am afraid they might say, “Yeah. Well . . . Jesus did it. Why don’t you trying telling him off, Tom?”

Frankly, I’ll bet they use Jesus’ remarks as a template, same as they do Acts 15 for their own role. They probably go there and conclude, “Okay, you say what needs to be said. Never mind if the soreheads twist it around.” They probably don’t want to find themselves in the shoes of Lot, whose sons-in-law thought he was joking. If they think something needs saying, they say it. But it sure does make life . . . interesting.

*****The bookstore

You don’t use John chapter 6 to make the point that everyone partakes at the Memorial. Was that the overall point of the February 16, 2025 Watchtower Study? It was a continuation from last week, a thorough look at that Bible chapter. The study article was entitled: “Everlasting Life for You—But How?” The theme scripture was John 6:40.. “Everyone who recognizes the Son and exercises faith in him [will] have everlasting life.”​

Who was Jesus speaking to when he made the “new covenant”—the wine and bread ceremony? It was to those who had “stuck with him through all his trials.” They numbered twelve at the time. Read the whole chapter of Luke 22. He was speaking to the twelve:

“However, you are the ones who have stuck with me in my trials; and I make a covenant with you, just as my Father has made a covenant with me, for a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and sit on thrones to judge the 12 tribes of Israel.” Luke 22:28

Who was he speaking to a year earlier at John 6? They were just people who showed up for free food! Kind of like the visitors who drop in at suppertime. You know what they are hoping for. To them, Jesus said: “you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate from the loaves and were satisfied.” (6:26)

He’s not going the make a covenant for a kingdom with those dullards! If he did, the heavenly kingdom would be just like the earthly governments today! It would be populated by those in it for themselves, populated by those obsessed with ‘power’ and if there was any beneficial spillover from them to the general populace, it would be just coincidence!

He didn’t even indulge those people! He told them to “work, not for the food that perishes, but for the food that remains for everlasting life.” (vs 27) There’s no reason he could not have added, “but as long as you’re here . . . Watch this!” and done a repeat of multiplying the bread and loaves. He didn’t do it! He was working to cultivate spirituality in them but they don’t have a clue about anything, and don’t care to obtain one. And he’s going to hand over the kingdom to these ones? I don’t think so.

They exercised no faith in him at all. The second group, his disciples, with whom he one year later instituted the new covenant, was nothing but faith.

Confusion reins today in the overall world of religion. Apparently, there are some among the Witnesses themselves who come to feel that everyone should partake at the Memorial, and whether they are to rule with Christ in the heavens or not is immaterial. Do they pick it up from the “air” of evangelicals for whom partaking of the body of Christ means something entirely different? Will they, in time, go the way of Catholics, who want to partake every day? Will they, in time, eclipse them and want to do it with every meal?

***

Upon some kickback from the gallery, I added:

As for me, I sort of like a snippet that long ago appeared in the Yearbook relating how in some tiny African country a Memorial celebration that many villagers attended, but the talk was extremely convoluted and the speaker not very polished. The villagers all knew each other and as one of them got all befuddled and hesitant when the emblems came his way, a voice from the back hollered, “You don’t drink the wine, dummy!”

People will do what their conscience dictates. I suppose it is not the worst thing in the world to partake based upon a different understanding than the group norm. It is not as though there is any practical significance to partaking or not partaking. But I don’t know why anyone would do it. To me, it smacks of spiritual one-upsmanship, as though saying to one’s neighbor, ‘My relationship with Jesus is so much tighter than yours.’ Many times in Witness literature it has been stated that those of the great crowd can be just as spiritual, just as zealous, just as studious, love Jehovah and Jesus just as much, as those of the anointed. I can roll with that and always have.

If it turns out that I, with the earthly hope, should have been partaking because the Lord expects all to do that, I am not worried about being forgiven. The group norm of the people of God who brought Bible understanding to me is that I do not. If I came to have the heavenly hope, with all that such hope entails in the JW context, I would partake, but only then. Meanwhile, I take refuge in the group norm. Were it not for those who brought Bible understanding to me, I would probably be hogtied by the trinity, which paints God as incomprehensible, someone you cannot know, or hellfire, which paints him as cruel, someone you would not want to know. Or, more likely in my case, I would have tossed the Bible in the trash, frustrated by trying to read doctrines into it that are not there.

The Study article was convincing to me. But it is only 16 paragraphs, enhanced by congregation discussion. It clearly is not going to be able to explore the ins and outs of everything.

*****The bookstore

“A Miraculous Provision of Bread”—title of that Watchtower article studied via congregation Q&A. Theme scripture: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not get hungry at all.” John 6:35

The Watchtower Study was a commentary on much of John 6. Maybe the rest of the chapter will be covered next week.

When the crowds finally tracked Jesus down, they said: “Rabbi, when did you get here?” (John 6:25)

Jesus answered them: “Most truly I say to you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate from the loaves and were satisfied. (6:26)

Translation: “Don’t hand me this ‘Rabbi’ line! You guys are just here because you want free food!”

I sort of liked this statement from paragraph 11: “They even failed to press Jesus for clarification when he next spoke of “the true bread from heaven,” which was like life-giving manna from heaven. (John 6:32) They were so focused on their physical needs that they ignored the spiritual truths that Jesus . . .”

I can picture that happening, as in: “Yes, yes, ‘bread from heaven,’ yada yada.” And then following up like the child from the Buick commercial: “Where’s the pizza?”

He wants them to develop some spirituality. The crowds only care about physical bread. They’d gotten plenty of it the day before:

“Jesus said: “Have the people sit down.” As there was a lot of grass in that place, the men sat down there, about 5,000 in number. Jesus took the bread, and after giving thanks, he distributed it to those who were sitting there; he did likewise with the small fish, and they had as much as they wanted. But when they had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples: “Gather together the fragments left over, so that nothing is wasted.” So they gathered them together and filled 12 baskets with fragments left over by those who had eaten from the five barley loaves.” (v 10-13)

He was just being practical. There they were in the middle of nowhere, having gathered to hear him, and he didn’t want them to give out on the road home. It was not like his intention was: “Now, I’m going to dazzle-dazzle them with a MIRACLE!!”

When he went off into the hills to escape the ones wanting to make him king—if you see someone feed the masses like he did, then you take whoever is already ruling, throw him out on his keister, and install this one instead—his disciples sailed off the other way. Later, he wanted to join them:

“When evening fell, his disciples went down to the sea, and boarding a boat, they set out across the sea for Ca·perʹna·um. By now it had grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. Also, the sea was getting rough because a strong wind was blowing. However, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and getting near the boat, and they became fearful. But he said to them: “It is I; do not be afraid!” (16-20)

Again, it doesn’t look like his motive was to perform a MIRACLE!!” He’s just being practical. Walking straight across the sea is the easiest way to get where he wants to go. He’s not even paying attention, apparently! Mark 6:48 says “he was inclined to pass them by.” Maybe he figured they would have already arrived on the other shore.

As to Jesus’ theme: “Work, not for the food that perishes, but for the food that remains for everlasting life,” the article refers back to another time that food was provided from heaven after endless bellyaching from those who cared about only that. Israelites complained so much about the crummy manna that God got fed up and said, ‘I’ll drown you in quail!’ When he did, they saw no spiritual significance whatsoever, did not take it as a rebuke, but simply gorged themselves:

“Then a wind from Jehovah sprang up and began driving quail from the sea and causing them to fall around the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and they were about two cubits deep on the ground. So all that day and all night and all the next day, the people stayed up and gathered the quail. No one gathered less than ten hoʹmers, and they kept spreading them all around the camp for themselves. But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it could be chewed, Jehovah’s anger blazed against the people, and Jehovah began striking the people with a very great slaughter.” (Numbers 11:30-33)

Whoa! I can see from where people get the idea that the God of the New Testament is nice but the God of the Old Testament is a hothead! But, I like to keep in mind that they’re really the same. “I and the father are one,” said Jesus. Jehovah’s attributes are fully reflected in the Son. Maybe Jesus is just more of a soft touch now because people are so much more pieces of work than they were back then. Or maybe he thought of the Israelites, “Look, they don’t have perpetual whiners on Reddit! They’re all one people! If they’re going to be so shallow, then maybe I’ll take their gift of life away!”

And, I do admit to a certain frustration with those who read over the account of John 6 and say, “Well—the important thing is that I’m saved.”

******  The bookstore

“A Miraculous Provision of Bread”—title of that Watchtower article studied via congregation Q&A. Theme scripture: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will not get hungry at all.” John 6:35

The Watchtower Study was a commentary on much of John 6. Maybe the rest of the chapter will be covered next week.

When the crowds finally tracked Jesus down, they said: “Rabbi, when did you get here?” (John 6:25)

Jesus answered them: “Most truly I say to you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate from the loaves and were satisfied. (6:26)

Translation: “Don’t hand me this ‘Rabbi’ line! You guys are just here because you want free food!”

I sort of liked this statement from paragraph 11: “They even failed to press Jesus for clarification when he next spoke of “the true bread from heaven,” which was like life-giving manna from heaven. (John 6:32) They were so focused on their physical needs that they ignored the spiritual truths that Jesus . . .”

I can picture that happening, as in: “Yes, yes, ‘bread from heaven,’ yada yada.” And then following up like the child from the Buick commercial: “Where’s the pizza?”

He wants them to develop some spirituality. The crowds only care about physical bread. They’d gotten plenty of it the day before:

“Jesus said: “Have the people sit down.” As there was a lot of grass in that place, the men sat down there, about 5,000 in number. Jesus took the bread, and after giving thanks, he distributed it to those who were sitting there; he did likewise with the small fish, and they had as much as they wanted. But when they had eaten their fill, he said to his disciples: “Gather together the fragments left over, so that nothing is wasted.” So they gathered them together and filled 12 baskets with fragments left over by those who had eaten from the five barley loaves.” (v 10-13)

He was just being practical. There they were in the middle of nowhere, having gathered to hear him, and he didn’t want them to give out on the road home. It was not like his intention was: “Now, I’m going to dazzle-dazzle them with a MIRACLE!!”

When he went off into the hills to escape the ones wanting to make him king—if you see someone feed the masses like he did, then you take whoever is already ruling, throw him out on his keister, and install this one instead—his disciples sailed off the other way. Later, he wanted to join them:

“When evening fell, his disciples went down to the sea, and boarding a boat, they set out across the sea for Ca·perʹna·um. By now it had grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them. Also, the sea was getting rough because a strong wind was blowing. However, when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and getting near the boat, and they became fearful. But he said to them: “It is I; do not be afraid!” (16-20)

Again, it doesn’t look like his motive was to perform a MIRACLE!!” He’s just being practical. Walking straight across the sea is the easiest way to get where he wants to go. He’s not even paying attention, apparently! Mark 6:48 says “he was inclined to pass them by.” Maybe he figured they would have already arrived on the other shore.

As to Jesus’ theme: “Work, not for the food that perishes, but for the food that remains for everlasting life,” the article refers back to another time that food was provided from heaven after endless bellyaching from those who cared about only that. Israelites complained so much about the crummy manna that God got fed up and said, ‘I’ll drown you in quail!’ When he did, they saw no spiritual significance whatsoever, did not take it as a rebuke, but simply gorged themselves:

“Then a wind from Jehovah sprang up and began driving quail from the sea and causing them to fall around the camp, about a day’s journey on this side and a day’s journey on the other side, all around the camp, and they were about two cubits deep on the ground. So all that day and all night and all the next day, the people stayed up and gathered the quail. No one gathered less than ten hoʹmers, and they kept spreading them all around the camp for themselves. But while the meat was still between their teeth, before it could be chewed, Jehovah’s anger blazed against the people, and Jehovah began striking the people with a very great slaughter.” (Numbers 11:30-33)

Whoa! I can see from where people get the idea that the God of the New Testament is nice but the God of the Old Testament is a hothead! But, I like to keep in mind that they’re really the same. “I and the father are one,” said Jesus. Jehovah’s attributes are fully reflected in the Son. Maybe Jesus is just more of a soft touch now because people are so much more pieces of work than they were back then. Or maybe he thought of the Israelites, “Look, they don’t have perpetual whiners on Reddit! They’re all one people! If they’re going to be so shallow, then maybe I’ll take their gift of life away!”

And, I do admit to a certain frustration with those who read over the account of John 6 and say, “Well—the important thing is that I’m saved.”

You never criticize the young for failing to thrive in the soil where you planted them. When they go to college and you hear they are crying about “safe spaces” you do not ridicule them or call them “snowflakes.” You made them that way.

When kids enter college they might be in “discover mode” or “defense mode.” If they are in “discovery mode,” there are in 7th heaven, eager to explore the new possibilities. They say to adults, “Stay out of my way.” If they are in “defense mode” they are anxious and look for cliques to conform to. They say to adults, “Protect us.”

The generation of college students clamoring for “safe spaces” began in 2014. It was due to the rapid expansion of youths in “defense mode,” and the corresponding decrease of those in “discovery mode.” What took place 7 years earlier at their time of puberty? The widespread adoption of smart phones, with 24/7 internet access and front-facing cameras. If you had slept from 2010 to 2015, you would have awoken to find the noisy kids playing had been replaced with silent ones hunched over looking at small hand-held devices.

A book called “The Anxious Generation” says kids need play to develop—lots of play. All mammals do. It’s how they learn to solve problems. It’s how they learn coordination. It’s how they develop confidence. If they don’t get it, they lack confidence and become anxious. Their social skills suffer.

It gets worse if the necessary play is replaced with what is in many ways the opposite of play: social media. There, one-on-one “embodied” play (in the body) is replaced with girls posting selfies, obsessed with likes (or their lack) that conveys the instant judgment of peers. Boys get sucked into online gaming, which offer mild benefits in hand/eye coordination, but at the expense of entire body coordination. It’s as though they get drawn into video content about walking that is so engrossing that they never actually get around to practice walking. Children develop mostly through experience, not accessing information.

The author, Jonathan Haidt, calls it the rewiring of the American adolescent brain. It has resulted in highly anxious kids. He cites studies to the effect that 50% of college students report being anxious at least 50% of the time. Within that number is a significant percentage that reports being anxious all the time. They demand safe spaces in college, whereas college has traditionally been the place to push boundaries—safety be damned.

The internet pours kids into full-blown uncontrolled rancorous adult exposure that they aren’t equipped to handle because they haven’t developed properly. In a JW context (not that this is in the book) kids are drawn to social media forums where adults nurture seeds of discontent that will surely cause turmoil in their family. They are predators, really, manipulating children to their own agendas. They lure them from a place where they will be cared for, albeit with possible “tough love,” to a place where they will not.

Haidt begins his book with a “what-if” scenario. What if, 20 years from now, your 13-year old daughter asks if she can go to Mars. Some company at school is recruiting the kids for that end. She has asked your permission—she is a good kid—but she doesn’t have to, and many of her classmates are not. All she needs to do is check a box saying she wants to go.

You know that Mars is dangerous to adults. That means it is probably more so for children. Harmful radiation is abundant. On earth, the atmosphere filters most of it out, but not so on Mars. Temperatures are extreme; accidental exposure means quick death. Gravity is much less than that of earth. The muscles of adults must be retrained after prolonged experience in space. How will Mars affect the growing muscles, bones, and organs of children? You look through the literature your daughter has handed to you, looking for their research on that type of thing. There isn’t any. No way would you allow your daughter to go.

He compares Mars to the onslaught of social media that has caused a massive rewiring of the adolescent brain. He calls it the largest uncontrolled experiment on children in world history. To be fair to the exJW grumblers, it’s not their fault that the children are on social media. All you have to do is check a box and you gain entrance.

After speaking of the internet aspects universally found to be harmful to children—not the anti-JW stuff that I’ve mentioned—Haidt tells of times in history where adults have voluntarily restricted themselves for the sake of children. Don’t hold your breath for that one to happen. If there is one thing people won’t tolerate today, it is a restriction on their freedom. Haidt recommends the limited internet access for teens that used to prevail before smart phones. He recommends the return to widespread play, absent the “helicopter parenting” (that he likes to pit crews servicing their kids for the top colleges). He likes play equipment as “safe as necessary,” not “as safe as possible.” You have to be able to get hurt to learn how to avoid getting hurt. He likes the old merry-go-rounds, where you could get hurt but rarely seriously. Ironically, he says outdoor play is now far safer than most adults perceive it, since the predators have mostly moved online.

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At John 3:16, the New World Translation uses the phrase “exercising faith.” Almost every other translation says “believe.” What’s with that?

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone exercising faith in him might not be destroyed but have everlasting life.” NWT

Variant readings aren’t necessarily worse. Sometimes they’re better. What’s with “exercise faith?” Is it an improvement or is it a turkey? I went to some online lexicons to find out.

The Greek word is pisteuō. “Believe” will do as a translation choice. It is not wrong. However, pisteuō “often implies ongoing action rather than a single moment of belief. Some argue that this suggests an active, continuous faith rather than a mere one-time decision.”

There it is in a nutshell. With God, is it just “one and done?” Or is it a lifetime active course? Sometimes I think people who attack the NWT over this phrase regard spiritual exercise with the same horror that a couch potato regards physical exercise.

The commentary points to a problem with the English language: “In English, ‘believe’ can sometimes imply a mere acknowledgment of facts without corresponding action. ‘Exercising faith’ attempts to capture the idea that genuine faith involves more than just mental agreement; it requires sustained effort and trust in God.”

So, while “believe” is not wrong as a translation choice, it does have this drawback in English of not fully conveying Jesus’ meaning.

We see then that, at worst, “exercise faith” is a harmless variant of the Greek word. At best it is a great improvement in describing what a Christian’s relationship with God and Christ should be. It is not a “one and done.” It is not surprising that Jehovah’s Witnesses would choose the first rendering. They are all about “sustained effort and trust in God.”

On another thread, someone was fretting about the “power” and “dogma” of the Witness Governing Body, their supposed lack of “consultation” and “listening.” I dunno. Seems to me that they used their “power” to make sure an important nuance of the Greek verb stood out, whereas nearly everyone else buries it, usually inadvertently but perhaps in some cases by design—you know, by people who don’t want to do the work Jesus commanded but want to feel morally superior to those who do. As to their “consultation” and “listening”—didn’t they do that with lexicon sources rather than just automatically defer to the most common? Not that I think the Governing Body has direct involvement with the New World Translation. But they clearly had oversight.

“Exercise faith” accords more with the rest of the scriptures than does any rendering possibly suggesting a “one-and-done.” “Faith without works is dead,” for example, from James 2:26. Or (yesterday’s Watchtower Study was a review and commentary on John chapter 6) Jesus direction to: “Work, not for the food that perishes, but for the food that remains for everlasting life.” Not one disciple complained that Jesus was abusing his authority by advising work.

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“The internal discipline now practiced by Jehovah’s Witnesses was practiced in most Protestant denominations until less than 100 years ago, based upon numerous scriptures throughout the New Testament. When it became unpopular, they gave it up. As a result, points out Christian author Ronald Sider, the morals and lifestyle of today’s evangelical church members are often indistinguishable from that of the general populace. That’s not the way it ought to be. The Bible is clear that the Christian congregation is not supposed be a mirror image of today’s morally wandering society. It is supposed to be an oasis.

“I vividly recall circuit overseers pointing out that a few decades ago the difference between Jehovah’s Witnesses and churchgoers in general was doctrinal, not moral. Time was when there was little difference between the two groups with regard to conduct. Today the chasm is huge. Can internal discipline not be a factor?

“Church discipline used to be a significant, accepted part of most evangelical traditions, whether Reformed, Methodist, Baptist, or Anabaptist,” Sider writes. “In the second half of the twentieth century, however, it has largely disappeared.” He then quotes Haddon Robinson on the current church climate, a climate he calls ‘consumerism:’

“Too often now when people join a church, they do so as consumers. If they like the product, they stay. If they do not, they leave. They can no more imagine a church disciplining them than they could a store that sells goods disciplining them. It is not the place of the seller to discipline the consumer. In our churches, we have a consumer mentality.”

(the above four paragraphs taken from ‘Tom Irregardless and Me,’ written in 2016)

***Favorable government treatment of religion was originally based upon the premise that religion does the government’s legitimate work for them. It improves the calibre of the people, making them easier to govern and more of a national asset. Jehovah’s Witnesses are among the relative few still fulfilling this premise. As a people, they pay more than their share into the public till, since they are honest, hard-working, and not given to cheating on taxes. Yet they draw on that till less, by not abusing government programs and almost never requiring policing. They are a bargain for any country.

Witnesses think it well when this original “contract” is remembered and not superseded by the modern demand of inclusion. While they include races, ethnicities, classes, etc to a greater degree than most (in the US, according to Pew Research, they are comprised of almost exactly 1/3 white, 1/3 black, 1/3 Hispanic, with about 5% Asian added) they do not include within themselves persons refusing to live by Bible principles. They respect the right of people to live as they choose—reject Bible standards if one chooses—just so long as it is not within the congregation.

They have made some legitimate tweaks as of late (August 2024 Watchtower, covered at congregation meeting) to address what to do with minors veering from the Christian course—which treatment had become a matter of concern for the Norwegian government. And, as for those who, after help, manifestly refuse to abide by Bible principles, they have replaced a word that is not found in the Bible (disfellowshipping) with a phrase that is (remove from the congregation). A distracting term that is not found in the Bible has been dropped. Thus, it becomes a matter of whether a government recognizes a people’s right to live by the Bible.

Additionally, real changes have been made to address any perception that elders are quick to remove those straying from Bible values, but the basic thought expressed at 1 Corinthians 5 still holds:

“In my letter I wrote you to stop keeping company with sexually immoral people, 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. 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. For what do I have to do with judging those outside? Do you not judge those inside, while God judges those outside? “Remove the wicked person from among yourselves.” (1 Cor 5:9–13)

“Do you not know that a little leaven ferments the whole batch of dough?” the apostle Paul says just prior, at 1 Corinthians 5:6.

When I was a boy, people watched cowboy shows on TV. The good guys wore white hats, the bad guys word black hats. You were not going to fall into a course of wrongdoing, unless it was deliberate. They were wearing black hats!  You could not miss them! Today, in a world where the batch has fermented, things are less straightforward. People stray, get tripped up, even hardened. It doesn’t mean they’re lost causes. Present adjustments are just updates for the times, while preserving the basic need to keep the congregation adhering to Bible standards. Norway may have been the last straw, a trigger for all that the time to relook at things was due. Look, if disfellowshipped ones accumulate to the point where even Norway starts to complain, maybe it is time for a reexamination. The leaven must still be removed, and is, but the new norm—is is overdue?—is to go back from time to time and reexamine specific policies of discipline. Some have been refashioned.

******  The bookstore