I thought you would enjoy this Gem from the Archives
James - enjoy
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Jehovah?s Witnesses, in their eagerness for Jesus? second coming, have suggested dates that turned out to be incorrect.
March 22, 1993 page 4 IN THE DAMN FOOTNOTES
DWELLING ON THE PAST:
JW defenders frequently employ the rhetoric that former JWs wallow in the past, crying and complaining about ancient historical WTS problems in policy, practice and teachings. The same defenders cite how the Society continues to grow and progress in-spite of the crying and moaning of former JWs, who are bitter and jealous of their happy progressive organization.
Make no mistake, the WTS itself has places a lot of ink to paper in crying and moaning about the past misdeeds of the churches, most often and notably the Roman Catholic Church.
The WTS spares no issue, no matter how truly ancient, such as the 1933 Papal Concordat signed by Pope Pius XII with Nazi Germany; the Papal Concordat with Napoleon in 1801;
the Papal Inquisition to address Protestantism in 1542;
the Spanish Inquisition initiated in 1488;
the Papal Inquisition to address Heresy (apostasy) in 1233;
and even the six Crusades which were first endorsed in 1051 and finally ended in 1291.
Clearly, these are ancient events that are not today being repeated by the Catholic Church, but were committed by generations long gone from the world scene.
Yet somehow, JW defenders seem slighted and emotionally bruised when former JWs recount the WTS historical deeds, errors, lies, hypocrisy, heresies, flip-flop doctrines, and the psychological, emotional, spiritual, and even financial harm caused by the WTS spanning from 1874 through the present.
JW defenders, and even the WTS itself whines in its literature about how evil apostates are maligning, lying, and misrepresenting the good hearted WTS.
I have to ask: Have you ever seen any WTS publication cite, reference, quote anything written by former JWs? ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!
The WTS only makes vague generalizations to some supposed comments by some nebulous label called apostates
. On the other hand, former JWs cite and quote precisely from WTS literature, show the hypocritical contrasts, and expose the folly and shear unchristian teachings of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.
BUT: Why do former JWs look at the WTS history?
Do we fail to remember its mere imperfections? Do we desire to wallow in the past and ignore its present shinning status of Golden Truth? To the contrary, former JWs are showing people the truth, and providing enough information so that people can make good decisions about whether to join or stay in the WTS; or maybe in some cases take matters to medical professionals for help or even to redress grievances in civil court.
Here are a just few reasons why the historical and current expose? continues:
- The WTS continues the same flip-flop and circular pattern of teachings. Just one example can be found in the WTS Indexes: Over the years they have flip-flopped about 8 times with respect to whether a women should scream when being raped and whether failure to scream means she is a willing participant.
- The WTS tried to cover its past up by changing history. Example: Current WTS publications, such as the Revelation book, page 105, claims that the Bible Students (aka JWs) looked forward to 1914 as the Beginning of the time of the end, when in fact even a minimal effort to check its history shows this to be a lie.
The Bible Students were looking forward to 1914 as the end of this system, as the upper most limit when Armageddon will happen. The Bible Students often felt that this old system could not even last until 1914. Thus a totally opposite picture is presented in their own history from what the WTS claims in its more recent literature.
- The WTS claims that former JWs focus on dates, and whine about 1914. The people who started the focus on dates, and made clear and unquestionable prophetic statements and Biblical ?proofs? were the Watch Tower leaders themselves
- For example, the book Prophecy by Judge Rutherford, published in 1929 at the bottom of page 65 clearly states that 1874 was the date of Jesus Second Presence. Thus putting to rest the idea that the Bible Students could have possibly looked forward to 1914 as the beginning of the end with the return of Jesus.
6. False prophecy is another area requiring historical examination. The Society in the March 22, 1993 Awake, pg. 4 states that they have never issued a prophecy in Jehovah's name and that they only make ?suggestions' as to Dates, and that they are no inspired! Then why do they Disfellowship JWs who do not accept the suggestion that Jesus returned in 1914?
If it is only a suggestion, then how can they enforce acceptance on the pain of disfellowshipping? They cannot have it both ways.
So it becomes necessary to show what their historical literature does say about themselves: For example: