It is surprising how intellectually dishonest an otherwise wonderful person can be; (a loved one) when it comes to holding on to
a horrible lie.
You see it everyday. A woman will defend her husband against child-molesting and disbelieve her own daughter. A father will believe his son against an injured third party when all the evidence is against him.
Crazy loyalty is what it is--but, mostly it is fear.
We WANT to believe. It is like falling in love; we WANT to fall in love. And once we do; we don't want to fall back out again no matter what. Why? The empty hole it makes in our feelings is almost unbearable. Also-admitting we are dead wrong scares us too. How can we trust our own mind and heart again? And on and on it goes like a dog chasing its own tail.
I say all that to tell you this:
No Jehovah's Witness (no matter how full of doubt or how depressed) WANTS to see the real truth about "The Truth". The can't bear it because they are absolutely committed to it. Besides, IT IS EMBARASSING to admit they were fooled by such obvious nonsense!!
Don't underestimate that fact.
Next, you have to present evidence by framing the situation clearly: this is about honesty and letting the facts speak for themselves. It isn't about finding possible (extraordinary) explanations for obvious errors. Something is true or it isn't true.
Unless a person is WILLING TO ADMIT THEY ARE WRONG (when presented with evidence) they are openly biased and unfair to truth.
Here it is in a nutshell:
1.What is now called Jehovah's Witnesses is the result of people who are fascinated by the subject of THE END OF THE WORLD. The founder of what is now the Watchtower Society (C.T.Russell) was convinced by Adventists that the END WAS NEAR. Okay--stop right there!
Question: Pastor Russell was strongly convinced Armageddon was very near and would occur shortly in his lifetime. DID IT HAPPEN?
Answer: No!
Question: Did he recognize he was wrong and admit he made a mistake?
Answer: No! He just kept changing his "interpretation" of events and expectations by moving them forward a little at a time.
Question: IS THIS INTELLECTUAL HONESTY? OR, IS IT A STUBBORN INSISTANCE ON BEING RIGHT AT ALL COSTS?
Answer: You decide. But, the worst part of Pastor Russell's writing was his constant references to "god's dates; not ours" shifting the burden to Jehovah and away from human thought.
2.What convinced Pastor Russell that Armageddon was near was a special way of looking at Bible prophecy that divided history into time periods (then called : DISPENSATIONS). The theory of dispensations looked convincing on a large wall chart. (Incidentally, the group that split off when Judge Rutherford took over the Watchtower STILL USES THE SAME WALL CHART!!)
Question: Did the wall chart of dispensation prove to be true or a crackpot idea?
Answer: It was a load of bull and the Watchtower had to move away from it.
Question: If it was wrong and a load of bull, then, in what way was Pastor Russell dealing with god's spirit by being convinced and mislead by this chart?
Answer: Because he WANTED to be convinced and to convince others Russell would never admit he was being duped. News flash: The food in due season printed in the Watchtower was a scam, is a scam and will always be based on a scam: CHRIST HAS ALREADY RETURNED. That is the scam.
3.Pastor Russell was fascinated by a popular crackpot idea concerning the Great Pyramid in Egypt. He used special (i.e.phoney) measurements called "pyramid inches" (note: there are no such measurements!) to PROVE his chronology about when Christ returned and when Armageddon would happen.
Question: Was the Great Pyramid idea factual or ridiculous? Do "pyramid inches" foretell the future events because God put a "witness in stone" in Egypt?
Answer: It was ridiculous!
Question: Was Pastor Russell able to see his error and admit he was duped?
Answer: Never! In fact, Judge Rutherford continued to use it until he completed his takeover of the Watchtower Corporation, then, he declared it the work of the Devil!
Question: If the Pyramid chart and the dispensation chart were a pack of lies, what does this say about the "anointing" of Pastor Russel and of the entire theology he put together which is today Jehovah's Witnesses?
Answer: Any conclusions based on a false premise will themselves be false. (Basic logic) Russell was smart, but, he was conned by false proof. The worst thing he did was pass on the false proof to others and INSIST it came from Jehovah. He became caught up in the adulation and celebrity of being a "channel of communication" from god.
4.1914 became the most important date in history to Jehovah's Witnesses because their entire doctrine of the "faithful and discreet slave" anointing stems from its foundational basis.
Question: Is there any historical, archeological or scholarly source or basis for the Watchtower's starting date of 607 B.C.E. for their end times calculations?
Answer: No. Not anywhere at all! They cannot dump this starting date or the whole basis for their anointing and governance vanishes. This phoney calculation and false starting date is the ACHILLES HEEL of Watchtower power. They can squirm all they want but cannot justify it as fact. Everybody else, for once, is right and they are wrong!
5.The doctrine of the "faithful and discreet slave" anointed class was invented by Pastor Russell's wife, Maria. She applied it to Russell himself. Rutherford was embarassed by it, but, grew accustomed to it and accepted the interpretation. Judge Rutherford applied it to Russell--at first--then, switched it to the corporation...and finally to HIS running of the corporation.
Question: If the FDS gives "food at the proper time" how was it proper for the Watchtower to print so many false interpretations of history, prophecy, date-setting for the END and other behavior that is now viewed as ludicrous and wrong?
Answer: JW's are now discouraged from reading anything but current magazines because the Watchtower Society cannot explain all the crazy things printed in its pages. An all out campaign to identify old-publications with Apostate Teachings is their only defense against their own deliberate duplicity. The famous door-to-door ministry looks good, but, the truth is the content of what is dispensed to the public has always been rotting meat. People choke on it and get spiritually sick. It is not the door-to-door preaching that makes JW's the true religion. It would have to be pure content in its teaching.
If you get through those five points and can't see the truth about THE TRUTH---there is no hope that anything can be said or done. Those are very easy steps, indeed.
They are easy to corroborate. But, even if you had a giant wall chart with all the facts on it---it probably won't convince anybody of anything WHEN THEY ARE DETERMINED NOT TO BE CONVINCED.
Only an honest person can admit they are wrong and change their mind. The Watchtower chokes on humility. The Watchtower is all about self-justification. It is about hubris. It is about power and control and never about pure content. The core of Watchtower philosophy is false dates, false prophecy and self-justification.
This religion is a disease. The virus that started it is still out there: crackpot chronology. It is easy to expose as false.
MAKE THE JW'S SHOW YOU WHERE 607 b.c.e. is a true starting date for their theology.
THEY CANNOT DO IT!
End of story.
