Greetings group
I saw today that Stafford is going to be releasing a third addition of his “Jehovah’s Witnesses Defended’ publication at a pre-sale price, on his web site at http://www.elihubooks.com/
It will be of interest to those of us who have read his publications to see what changes will be in version 3 that were not in version 2, since the release of his Three Dissertations book, which was a more candid look at the history of the WT history and doctrinal changes. However, JWD in my opinion was perhaps the only book that defends certain beliefs of the Witnesses and the NWT bible that is worth reading, since Stafford is a very gifted, well educated, and critical writer. I think that the treatment of the use of the Divine Name and the Trinity were very well written and are by far represents the most informative and scholarly writing on the subject so far. I could only wish that more witnesses would be interest in these subjects and come to appreciate the amount of research Stafford has done on these subjects, especially the use and treatment of the name ‘Jehovah’ in both the OT and the NT, as well as how the name has been used throughout history.
I know that most of us as ex-JW’s still hold to some of the doctrinal teachings of the WT with respect to the name Jehovah and the Trinity, so Stafford’s current position I believe represents where most of us are at, agreeing with certain WT teachings that are clearly articulated in the bible, while being greatly concerned with the WT’s changing history and self importance. I believe that Stafford’s goal in his Three Dissertations publication was to bring out into the spotlight and public debate the historicity of the witnesses that is too often concealed among the majority of Witnesses. Perhaps the best thing about the publication was that it was not written by an ‘active opposer, ’ but instead from there best online apologist who has since gone on to have video taped debates with two of the most outspoken critics of the Witnesses concerning the Trinity doctrine. This position of Stafford’s makes it hard for both Witnesses to say that he is just an apostate or disgruntled ex-witnesses, and for most evangelistical Christians to say that he has not been objective or honest about the entire package that a Witnesses hands new converts, or that he is simply blindly following the Watchtower.
Stafford has seemly managed to position himself in a way that he can publicly criticize doctrine taught by most mainstream conservative protestant and catholic churches concerning the trinity doctrine and the use of the name Jehovah in the bible without the negative association that carrying the dirty laundry of the history of the Watchtower organization would bring. It will be of interest to me to see what effect his new release of Jehovah’s Witnesses Defended with have among the apologist on both sides of the issues.
What are you thoughts on this?
In Christ,
AliveinChrist