by jerome 51 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
>I got tired of hearing about demonic easter-eggs and Christmas trees from people who wear jewelry to represent marriage originating back to ancient fertility rights. It was just too stupid to deal with.<
Where were you when I was 16 and studying...ohhh the pain I coul dhave avoided...
Thanks fro the replies everyone!
Rest assured that your input Will be put to use in the fight against coercive tacktics.
jerome
The Bible is a two edged sword wield it for evil and it you may get hurt.
Bttt.
Bangalore
Yes. It is a corrupt bait and switch religion and lying is integral to snaring recruits into their racket.
Two lies I was told.
"We don't collect money like false religion does."
False. I saw collection boxes at each door of their assembly hall and at every exit in the stadium where they had a convention.
"We do not have a paid clergy."
This lie was really fun to expose because in the same conversation he admitted the the CO gets a car from the society, and has a house provided to him. That is $2500 compensation right there, plus people in the congregations feed him.
Jerome,
I did not read all the posts. In your conversation with the jws you asked about 1975 and DFing. Did they not ask you where you got your information from? I believe most jws would become very suspicious if someone at the door used jw terminology.
I am asking, because I am surprised she actually returned to her visit and came not with an elder, but with her daughter.
I think the biggest lie to new recruits is the love-bombing. Even as a child I knew interested ones are treated differently. Brothers who didn't speak to each other pretended to be the best of friends.
I don't remember the term "theocratic warfare" used during the congregation meetings. The first time I heard it was when my father came back from his first elder schooling and at a pioneer meeting during the CO visit. Due to the indoctrination I think I was ready to use it every time I spoke to outsiders about my religion.
fts
oh.. just saw this thread was started 8 years ago
They dont think that they lie. They just believe in being sparing with giving out the so called Truth & that the longer you are sucked then little by little you will come to know more. By then its too late & your well & truly brainwashed....
They just dont want a bible student to be given too much information too soon as it would overwhelm them (clearly true!) and they would turn there backs.... so little & often is there moto....
They see it as discretion, like when a salesman demonstrates something. He does not show off his product's weak parts. I was discrete too,but I think I would have given straight answers to the original poster's direct questions.
Mind you, as I write this I remember a spirited debate with a young man who had read that J W's predicted the end definitely in 1975.. I told him that I was there in'75 and knew exactly what they had or had not said...At that time I knew they had not actually said in one sentence "It will end in '75" so I felt justified. I think it is a loyalty thing. When one is out on the doors, you stand up for what you believe in.
The WT has printed this about the use of "strategy"
Wt 1960 p352
"God’s Word commands: “Speak truth each of you with his neighbor.” (Eph. 4:25) This command, however, does not mean that we should tell everyone who asks us all he wants to know. We must tell the truth to one who is entitled to know, but if one is not so entitled we may be evasive. But we may not tell a falsehood.....................
(Example of Rahab)
This would come under the term “war strategy,” as explained in The Watchtower, February 1, 1956, and is in keeping with Jesus’ counsel that when among wolves we must be as “cautious as serpents.” Should circumstances require a Christian to take the witness stand and swear to tell the truth, then, if he speaks at all, he must utter the truth. When faced with the alternative of speaking and betraying his brothers or not speaking and being held in contempt of court, the mature Christian will put the welfare of his brothers ahead of his own, remembering Jesus’ words: “No one has greater love than this, that someone should surrender his [life] in behalf of his friends.”—Matt. 10:16; John 15:13.
WT 1956 Feb 1 p86
"37 In view of the above-given Scriptural examples Jesus was in harmony with the spirit of Jehovah God in instructing his apostles when he sent them out as sheep among wolves: “Prove yourselves cautious as serpents and yet innocent as doves.” Since the unchristian wolves declare war upon the sheep and choose to make themselves “fighters actually against God,” it is proper for the inoffensive “sheep” to use war strategy toward the wolves in the interests of God’s work. No one against whom this strategy is used is unrighteously hurt because of it, whereas the “sheep” or those interests that deserve to be protected are safeguarded. God does not oblige us to show the stupidity of sheep and play into the hands of our fighting enemy. We should meet the seed of the Serpent, the “offspring of vipers,” with the cautiousness of serpents. Foreseeing danger, we should cover ourselves against the wolves that prey upon Jehovah’s flock. “Oppressive wolves will enter in among you and will not treat the flock with tenderness, . . . Therefore keep awake,” says Paul. (Acts 20:28-31, NW) “A prudent man seeth the evil, and hideth himself.”"
I'm so glad that Bangalore resurrected this thread, for many reasons which I won't disclose. One of them, however, is this phrase which Reborn 2002 used at the end of his posts:
It is not religious persecution for an informed person to expose publicly a certain religion as being false, thus allowing persons to see the difference between false religion and true religion.
WT 11/15/1963 page 688 paragraph 3
This helps me see why I was never able to receive a straight answer regarding certain issues.
Reborn2002 --- your post is HOPE! i'd given up on REFORM/MAINSTREAM or their demise, but nothing stays the same. please continue w/the good news!
LV101
