I accompanied my JW wife to one day (Sunday) of the District Convention this weekend. For any who are interested, I offer these observations from the Sunday afternoon session:
The concluding talk was given by a gentleman by the name of Steven Lett, a member of the JW governing body. The purpose of this talk was to offer proof that the JW organization is guided by holy spirit. I was expecting something new, but this turned out to be a predictable JW exercise in circular reasoning.
The principle proof offered by Mr. Lett was that only the JW's are preaching the good news of God's established kingdom. Although the audience seemed okay with this, there's no way an objective observer could not but wonder how the fact that only the JW's preach doctrines that are unique to JW's is in any way relavant to the question.
For example, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints could just as easily claim to be guided by holy spirit and offer the fact that only they preach the second testament of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Book of Mormon as proof of this claim. This would be fine for anyone who already accepts the Mormon faith, but would a JW accept this? Of course not. It's clearly a case where the one framing the question has been allowed to set the criteria for answering it. The reasoning therefore becomes circular inasmuch as it requires a prior acceptance of additional doctrine(s) unique to that religious group.
Mr. Lett's proof was the exact same exercise in fallacious reasoning. It requires a prior acceptance of doctrines unique to JW's, principly, the doctrine of Christ's invisible enthronement in 1914.
During the course of his talk, Mr. Lett made two assertions that are demonstrably false.
1.
He claimed that all dedicated, baptized Jehovah's Witnesses (And he included himself in this claim) have answered the following question in the affirmative:Do you understand that your dedication and baptism identify you as one of Jehovah's Witnesses in association with God's spirit-directed organization?
However the second baptismal question has only existed in this form since 1984-85. As most everyone here knows, for many years prior to this, the question went:
On the basis of this faith in God and in his provision for salvation, have you dedicated yourself unreservedly to God to do his will henceforth as he reveals it to you through Jesus Christ and through the Bible under the enlightening power of the holy spirit?
2
. He claimed that the good news of the kingdom's establishment in 1914 had been preached for over 100 years now.As Mr. Lett should know and JW publications (e.g. Proclaimers) routinely point out, it was not until the publication of the article Birth Of A Nation in the 1925 Watchtower that it was understood that the kingdom was actually established (invisibly in heaven) in 1914.
Earlier on Sunday afternoon was one of the JW dramas. I've been an observer of JW's for many years, now, but this drama was one of the most abject pieces of propaganda I've every seen.
JW historical dramas typically take a great deal of poetic license, but they invariably are based on actual Bible stories. This drama was a departure from that pattern because it was entirely extra-biblical.
The setting was sometime after the Apostle John, has ostensibly being released from Patmos. He is visiting one of the seven congregations of Asia Minor in a role very similar to that of JW circuit overseer. (Some extra-biblical traditions actually do hold that St. John visited the seven congregations after being released from Patmos, settled in Ephesus and wrote the three epistles attributed to him.)
It seems that there is a wealthy silver merchant in this particular congregation who has recently been removed as an elder. (The man's name was Scolios -- a choice that seemed to go over the heads of the audience entirely) Althouh Scolios certainly is a slippery bastard, (He gets a 19 year old Christain female hooked up with a lecherous old pervert in Laodicia) his worst shortcomings lie in the fact that he claims that acts of mercy and charity are just as important as the door to door ministry and questions the validity of John's Apocalypsis (Gasp!)
He's dealt with accordingly and truth prevails over apostacy (Clap clap clap....)
Again, the JW audience seemed perfectly happy with this, but I was struggling to keep my lower jaw out of my lap. From what we know of the early history of Christianity and late first century culture in the Roman empire, I offer these counter-observations of my own:
Early Christian communities actually did focus very stongly on charity. (c.f. James 1:27; 2:15-16 1 Cor. 16:1 Romans 15:25; Gal. 2:10) The evidence suggests that this tradition continued well into the 2nd and 3rd centuries. (c.f. Didache 1; Apology, 39)
There is little to no evidence that evangelism was practiced by all Christians. (c.f. Ephesians 4:12)
Early Christian gatherings were largely for fellowship (e.g. Meals) JW style study sessions require a high percentage of literacy.
It is unlikely that Christians had the freedom of movement depicted (One family wants to move to where the need is great) under the rules of Nero and especially Domitian.
Anyone in the first century who actually could read the Apocalypse, would have understood it's rich political polemic. As Leolaia has pointed out though, how many people today actually know who Dea Roma was?