Lack of connection to apostolic church

by greendawn 3 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  greendawn

  The JWs claim they are the true christian religion even though they only appeared suddenly and very recently. But what is it that connects them with the early apostolic church so as to make it possible for them to claim they are its successors?

  Indeed if we check out their history we see that their immediate predecessors and teachers the Adventists were rejected by them as a false religion, they believed in hellfire and the immortality of the soul. So we can't even find the link that just preceded them which surely invalidates their claim that they ultimately originate from the apostolic church. There is simply nothing connecting them to the apostolic church and validating them as the "truth" they claim to be.

  Something useful to point out to the JWs when they argue that they are the true christian religion.
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  leavingwt

  In 1919, Jesus took a look around, and decided that Religion was a Snare and a Racket.

  He hand-picked an English-speaking American to start up the only true religion.

  Oh, sure, he knew that they celebrated Christmas and all sorts of groovy disfellowshipping offenses, but he figured that after a hundred years or so of false prophecies and flip-flopped doctrines, he could really separate the wheat from the weeds. Those sticking with this crazy church must truly be loyal.
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  moggy lover

  The connection is nonexistent. It is made up material that is part conjecture and part interpretive humbug.

  They first start with the absolutely unprovable proposition that the 1C AD Church taught, among other things:

  1 That the Christian god was expressly referred to as "Jehovah"

  2 That the message of the 1C AD Church was that of the Kingdom of God through "Jehovah's sovereignty", and not that of salvation in the name of Christ.

  3 That the method of evangelism carried out by the 1C AD Church was that of a universal obligation on all believers, and by a door-to-door ministry.

  4 That only 144,000 were to be with Christ in heaven.

  5 That the 1C AD Christian Church was constituted along hierarchical/dictatorial lines with an anonymous GB in charge and with a coterie of compliant satraps carrying out the orders of these morons at the top.

  6 That total subservience to this GB was of "first importance" and that Paul was mistaken when he said that of "first importance" was belief in the substitutional nature of Christ's death for sins, and His subsequent resurrection. [1 Cor 15:3]

  Having established such improbable items that supposedly "identify" the 1C AD Christian Church, they then blissfully, and with their tongues in their cheeks, turn to their declining membership and quote: Who then resembles this 1C AD Church today?

  The RCs? Nah. The Baptists? Nah. The Lutherans? Nah? Evangelicals in general? Nah.

  Ipso facto, then, by default, it must, in all modesty and humility [sic] be us!!!! [Simple ain't it]

  We can't help being right all the time. Even when we're wrong, we reserve the right to be right!
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  quietlyleaving

  btt