It is sad to say but many people who ask that very question, “Do you have an open mind” are very closed minded people themselves. As a Jehovah’s Witness I was taught to turn down other religious literature and avoid “apostates”. However when we talked to people at the door we expected them to have an open mind to our religion.  In a Awake November 22 1984 Article it had this to say:

“THE importance of having an open mind so as to win God’s approval is shown in the words recorded at Ephesians 5:10, 17. There we read: “Keep on making sure of what is acceptable to the Lord. On this account cease becoming unreasonable, but go on perceiving what the will of Jehovah is.”

But is it not a fact that many people have closed minds when it comes to religion? Some even reject the idea of a Supreme Being and are unwilling to listen to the evidence of his existence presented by believers. For them religion is a closed subject.

Even some religious people have closed minds. They are interested only in “their” religion, showing no willingness to as much as listen to the views of others. And even though they may not have chosen their religion but simply have inherited it from their parents, still they feel that their religion must be right. But not every inheritance is necessarily good. A quick temper, a selfish attitude or a deceitful spirit can also be parental hand-me-downs, but they are definitely undesirable.

What makes a religion right is its total adherence to God’s Word. Whether our religion meets this criterion or not can only be determined by open-mindedly comparing it with the Bible. Certainly such an important matter as our worship of God should not be determined for us by the coincidence of where we were born. After all, the child born to Catholic parents has had no more control over this fact than the child born to Muslim parents controls that.”

Who does this sound like? They are interested only in “their” religion, showing no willingness to as much as listen to the views of others. Does it not sound hypocritical to apply this only to others and not ourselves? As history has shown, Jehovah’s Witnesses are very closed minded when it comes to religion. They do not practice what they preach.

Christian love,

Greybeard

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15 Comments on Do You Have an Open Mind?

  1. Amos says:

    I absolutely agree with your sentiments Brother Greybeard. The WTS has forced it’s adherents to have a “one sided bias” as you have stated.

    I would like to ask for comments on the subject of “religion”.
    Should we call the true form of christianity “religion?”

    To me, religion has the connotation of man made doctrines that are loosely bible based, combined with a controlling body that oversees the dispensing of their beliefs.
    Whereas “true christianity” is only based directly on the scriptures, with the brethren co-operating together in a spirit of love, without the need for organisation by a central govorning body telling them what to believe, or how to run their congragations.

    When we look at the 1st century church, ALL congregations were govorned by their own members locally, with some direction from individual Apostles as was needed, & what has been misconstrued as a central govorning body at Jerusalem, is just a figment of imagination with the desire to control the brotherhood similar to the papacy.
    The GB belief can very easily be debunked by a thorough investigation of the relevant scriptures.

    I believe that we today have all we need, recorded in the bible, & that the Holy Spirit directs the christian in understanding the scriptures, on an “as needed basis”. We are all at different levels of learning at any given point in time, so the HS will give us what we each need, at this time in our learning journey.

    Christian love,

    Amos

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    • Jayme says:

      I would like to ask for comments on the subject of “religion”.
      Should we call the true form of christianity “religion?”

      I agree with what you said bro. Amos. “religion” is from man. What we are called to is a relationship. A living, active, meaningful relationship with our heavenly Father and his Son and with our fellow man, especially our brothers.

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  2. Jayme says:

    Mark 12:30-31
    30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

    Jeremiah 31:31-34

    31 “The days are coming,” declares the LORD,
    “when I will make a new covenant
    with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah.
    32 It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
    when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt,
    because they broke my covenant,
    though I was a husband to[a] them,[b]”
    declares the LORD.
    33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,” declares the LORD.
    “I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
    I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.
    34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
    or say to one another, ‘Know the LORD,’
    because they will all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest,”
    declares the LORD.
    “For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.”

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    • Amos says:

      Thank you for your reply bro. Jayme, & choice of scriptures. Yes, if we only practiced the sentiments of Mark 12:31,32, this would in effect right all the wrongs in the world….it really does sum up the entire Law Covenant in just two points.
      As Jeremiah 31 shows very clearly, that the relationship, as you show, is a personal one with our Father in Heaven. We only need ONE Mediator, & this is our Lord & Master, Jesus Christ, or in Hebrew, Yeshua Messiah.
      This really does show (when we think about it) that any man made org. is not needed at all, (except for mutual association) as the Holy Spirit will teach us all we need to know, while we are doing our bible study & meditation on what we have read in the bible.

      WCL

      Amos

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  3. Charles says:

    I’ve read many articles here and elsewhere, but I just can’t seem to ‘get the gist of it’ (as I used to study, but they gave up, because I asked too many questions.) Not to hijack this discussion, but I just don’t understand how to ‘love God with your whole heart, mind and strength’. I feel nothing most of the time, just biding my time from day to day.

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    • Amos says:

      Brother Charles, I would like to give you some brotherly advice.
      Before you do any bible reading or study, ask our Father to guide you into the truth from His word, this will allow the Holy Spirit, to guide you during your studies. Always ask, as God wills you to understand.
      To love God, we first need to get to know Him & what He has done for us. Learn the different aspects of His nature, & what His qualities are. This all takes time & effort on our part, the reward however, is very great indeed.
      Somewhere along this learning journey, we will start to really appreciate all that HE has done for us….this is when our love for the Father begins, from this time of realization, it then continues to grow the more we learn about Yahweh/Jehovah.

      Amos

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  4. serein says:

    iv said this all along that god didnt make religion man did,
    its all corrupted one way or another by man, i dont think its a meaningfull coruption as we are all trying to strive for truth no matter what our religion is,
    but i think its best to keep clear of any organised religion in which men put them selfs in posistions of leadership and tell us what we should be doing and there interpretations,
    no one reaaly knows whats right anymore its been lost and as the scriptures do say the mistery of god will be acomplished,
    so its always going to be some what of a mistery to us all until god reveals the trueth to us at the time in which he has chosen that no one knows only him,so trying to predict the end or anything else like some religions do isnt right as no matter how they try to do it wether mesuring pyramids or time in scripture it wont work as god hasnt left us a secret code of times of end only signs of it,so as for religions who are predicting it or have done in past they arnt to be doing any of that, why would god say no one knows the time of the end not even jesus or the angels know only him so why would he leave so called time frames to find through scripture or pyramid or what ever else for us to discover if he dont want anyone to know not even jesus or angels.
    wel find out in his desided time but for now we do know that acording to the signs jesus told the disiples this may be the nearing of the end in our time, we need to stay alert not get fedup with teachings of religions and follow scripture read it everyday hope in god and never go to sleep leave it and forget.tell people whjen we can about the promises and keep close contact with like wise people not neseseraly in a church or organisation but with freinds who are like minded and like on here were we talk about it.only god is our farther and leader no man,no matter how they make it look right.

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  5. serein says:

    always remember jehovah isnt searching out religions hes seaching out individuals and there hearts, so it dosnt matter what religion u belong to its what u are that counts, but if u should be teaching anything that is false to what jehovah has told us in the bible then he will judge u acordingly.so i think its not so much the people in the religion following like sheep its the leaders of it that will be taking the flak for it as they know and they keep doing it.all peole are like sheep who need to follow and they need to only follow jesus not man.

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  6. serein says:

    or may be they were carpenters and made the boats that the firshermen jesus new and took along with him to bew fishers of men

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  7. serein says:

    my last coment befor the 6th one isnt shown

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  8. serein says:

    sorry iv put it on the 2 dots and a handshake so ul get my meaning if u read my coment on there first lol.

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  9. serein says:

    here is my coment id put on wrong place sorry everyone im so dizzy, iv just been looking in to why they say jesus and joseph was wood carpenters and iv descoverd that the word hasnt quite been translated right and that the word tekton would most probably mean stone mason, also else were i read that it would also just mean a craftsmen a designer an arcitect, so why was it translateed a carpenter only? also i started to think so does that mean that joseph may have made the crosses also for the romans or am i going to far,im begining to think that maybe jesus was a stone maker instead as it says things like the stone was regected and the corner stone and all if u get my meaning,i mean isnt there few trees and more stone around that area and maybe he was a mason, which then gtes me on to that mason secfret sociaty thing, im a reaqding rubish.

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  10. serein says:

    as thia space says do u have an open mind thats why i put this on here, iv got an open mind and if its been translated wrong im willing to go with the stone mason as if thats what he realy was then im not going to follow the carpenter just cos its what every one says he was. but if anyone can correct me in my thinking with solid evidence that he was a carpenter instead of stone mason then i will like that,please tell me amos u like to look into things does this word mean carpenter or stone maker. follow what the word says not what whats been interpreted to say i mean what does tekton realy translate to mean.

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    • Amos says:

      Hi Serein,
      I had not looked at this until before until now. The bible seems to be very specific on this point.
      Mark 6:3 is one of only two references to “tekton” in the NT. The Strong’s number for “tekton” is; 5054, which principally means “carpenter”, as I’ll quote below.

      Original Word: τέκτων
      Transliteration: tektón
      Phonetic Spelling: (tek’-tone)
      Short Definition: carpenter

      Word Origin
      from a prim. root tekt-
      Definition
      a craftsman, spec. a carpenter

      carpenter.

      From the base of timoria; an artificer (as producer of fabrics), i.e. (specially), a craftsman in wood — carpenter.

      I hope this helps you.

      Amos

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  11. greybeard says:

    I just came across this post and thought I would contribute a thought. In my life I have worked in many fields. In my opinion, moving stones and bricks around is one of the worst jobs a person can have. Maybe I’m wrong but I didn’t like it at all. However, working with wood, cutting, fabricating, fitting and finishing… There is nothing better or more satisfying to me. I have not had the chance to work with wood as much as I would have liked to but when I did, it was very satisfying. The feel and the smell. FAR more satisfying than working with stones to me. I often thought to myself, “no wonder Jesus was a carpenter”. I am not putting stone masons down here. Just relating how I feel when working with wood.

    Your brother,
    Greybeard

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