Encouraged to read old light?

by Mysterious 18 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Mysterious

  I remember my mother espousing the value in all the old publications and wanting me to read them when I was young. As well as directives to place remaining copies of "older" books (about 10 years out of date) in the door to door work. Are they naive to the fact that the material is so outdated or do they just see the past in rose colored still new light glasses?

  We seem to be the only ones that make a big deal about the generation change in the revelation book. My mother still faithfully hauls it out all the time for her "personal" study.
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  Triple A

  Why not get your hands on the other books that deal with Revelation and ask mom to explain the contradictions?
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  Mysterious

  I would think that the society would want to discourage people from reading the old books and realizing what a crock it all is. But then I suppose they would reason the light got brighter...
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  zeroday

  The "Bible Students" put out a CD called Berean Bible Studies. In it are all of Russells writings including all Watchtowers from the first one to 1916. Talk about old light. It's a great read.
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  M.J.

  funny you should bring that up. I just went over the interpretation of the 2,300 "evenings and mornings" in the Daniel book with my wife. Man is that a wild one. It said those days spanned between the publication of a WT article in 1938, through persecutions during WWII, and ending with the alignment of the org to more of a theocracy toward the end of the war.

  Yet in the 10/1/59 WT it says that the 2,300 evenings and mornings started when a resolution was put out by Rutherford a 1926 convention that blasted the League of Nations...and ended with the publication of a resolution in the WT magazine, on the exact ending date, Oct 15, 1932, which terminated the election of elders in the congregations (a most heinous practice, according to the article).

  Both are stated with the usual know-it-all authorititative language we know so well...but if you read both versions side-by-side, it would be hard NOT to suspect the WTS is just pulling stuff out of thin air.
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  Finally-Free

  I remember one of the few times elders did a shepherding call™ on me and my ex. They asked each of us what our personal study™ program included. I told them I was starting to read some of the older books, like the "babylon" book and some others. They told me I'd be better off using newer books in which the "light was brighter". Or reading the bible.

  Maybe that's why they've encouraged more bible reading the last few years. I suppose it's better for the watchtower to have people reading it's mistranslation of the bible than its older publications.

  W
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  Poztate

  I remember my mother espousing the value in all the old publications and wanting me to read them when I was young. As well as directives to place remaining copies of "older" books (about 10 years out of date) in the door to door work. Are they naive to the fact that the material is so outdated or do they just see the past in rose colored still new light glasses?

  I don't think it is a case of rose colored glasses. It is more a case of dark sun glasses and a white cane

  A good example of a thought that has long since passed it's expiry date is found in the "classic" your will be done on earth book (1958)

  The author....little freddy franz had to get all excited about how jehovah was going to clean up after the big "A" He postulated that the birds were not enough to clean up all those dead bodies after "the god of love" had snuffed everyone. He thought it might include the use of "antimatter" (pg 322)....GASP..to make the earth perfect again. I am sure Dubs all over the world stood in awe with the revelation of this new truth.

  The book is still in my wife's home library but I am sure she would not find the humour in this comment that I do.
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  garybuss

  The Watch Tower Corporation is a book printing business, the Jehovah's Witnesses are literature distributors, and the books are the product. It all revolves around the literature. The content is irrelevant. The important thing is that there is a product. No books, no Watch Tower printing business. No books, no Jehovah's Witnesses. The books are like cars to Ford Motor Company . . . a new model every year.
  Name one Jehovah's Witness activity that does not involve literature produced by the Watch Tower Society. :-)
  
  
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  IP_SEC

  Their zeal for knowledge may even prompt them to dig back into things that were published long before they came into the truth, expanding and deepening their understanding, and ever growing in Christian maturity.

  8 Do you dig out older publications to expand and deepen your knowledge on subjects about which questions arise? Have you really studied these earlier publications?*** Watchtower 1957 May 15 pp.313-5 Appreciating Basic Christian Publications ***

  Thanks quotes.
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  Jourles

  Name one Jehovah's Witness activity that does not involve literature produced by the Watch Tower Society. :-)

  • Charitable works, i.e. Hurricane relief
  • Quickbuilds
  • Caring for the widows and orphans
  • You're gonna have to help me out here, I'm already scraping the bottom of the barrel