Does the Watchtower use Gnostic principles to control its slaves?

by Gill 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Gill

  The Watchtower is noted for its extreme stand on many issues, including life and death issues.

  I'm thinking of things such as blood, of course, christmas, birthdays, holidays, private marriage issues etc.

  The recent Watchtower on the 'Antichrist' had me thinking of their criticism of Gnostic beliefs and how they worded it is as follows~

  'Ideas of a purely symbolic resurrection were later developed by a group called Gnostics. Believeing that knowledge could be derived in a mystical way, Gnostics combined apostate Christianity with greek philosophy and Oriental mysticism. For instance, they held that all physical matter is evil, and for that reason Jesus did not come in the flesh but only seemed to have a human body.'

  Reading up a little more on Gnostics I found that thye believed that the material world, the sex act etc were evil. So marriage, procreation, meat, work and possessions were renounced.

  However, I hope I'm not losing anyone here, I was considering the scripture regularly used by the WTBTS to beat its slaves:

  'I pummel my body and lead it as a slave.'

  Also, the much quoted:

  'Let those with wives be as those without wives.....' etc

  Isn't the WTBTS promoting Gnostic views, to suit itself and control its slaves furthur, by implying that basic human lives, and needs are secondary to service to Jehovah, (really the WTBTS)?

  I can recall many talks, articles etc, on how full time work --- is it really necessary for you?

  A pioneer telling me they had been told not to drink in the day so that they did not have to leave service to go to the toilet.

  The controlling information on training children to no longer have physical needs, ie eat, drink, go to the toilet, during two hours of meetings etc.

  Sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, from its slaves is very much the demand of the humble JWs God, the WTBTS.

  Materialism or buying something new, is a big stick that JWs use to judge eachother and beat eachother with, as they do with any physical or material need or want.

  In the end, it just leaves more money to go into the WT bank account.

  The study article of the December 1st Watchtower, 'Love the God who Loves you', has a picture of the widow putting her last small coin into the contribution box.

  To the Watchtower, love of God is equated with putting your last coppers into their oppulent pockets.

  Sometimes I think, it's time to walk away from tearing at the WTBTS. Then, once a month, my parents deliver the latest 'Craptower' and I know, the battle goes on!

  I get sick of reading their critical comments to 'others' and their self praising BS!

  In the end, the WTBTS is as evil, and if not more so, than many that they claim deserve destruction.....soon!

  So onwards and upwards everyone! Now is not the time to give up. I think the foundations of the WTBTS may be beginning to creak, in readiness of some serious crumbling.
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  serendipity

  HI Gill,

  I've just recently started reading a bit about Gnostics, and also noticed some similarities between them and the WTS. In addition to a few things you mentioned, they emphasized how selectively knowledge would be disclosed i.e. only a few would have it.

  However, they seem to be much more mystical than the WTS is today. It would be interesting to compare Russell's beliefs.
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  Gill

  Hi Serendipity!

  I've only just started reading on the Gnostics and like you, had noticed some similarites in behaviour.

  I was surprised to see them 'calling' Gnostics Antichrists. (Though nothing should surprise me any more)

  They are so 'the pot calling the kettle black'!!!!!
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  Gill

  In the same article on the Antichrist they say:

  'She (Babylon the Great, False Religion) also practices spiritual harlotry by lending her support to earths 'Kings' or political rulers, receiving favours in return.'

  Errhem! Who was it who joined the UN, started writing 'nice articles' about the UN, and took advantage of UN flights to get to countries where the JW was banned?

  Was it one of these 'False Religons' about to be destroyed.....any day soon?

  How do they have the cheek to even write this crap?
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  willyloman

  I just attended a lecture on the Gnostic Gospels at a local college by a professor of religion. Based on what I learned there, I think the opposite is true: The dubs are NOT gnostics, but in fact fall under the orthodox school. Which is ironic as hell, since they argue they stand far, far apart from mainstream Chistianity (or Christendom, as they put it).
  
  The primary difference in the way the two competing schools of religious thought developed is this: In the orthodox view, enlightenment is handed down to the Church and to its representatives, i.e. the Bishops, Priests, Deacons, etc. To gain this enoightenment, an individual has to come to the Church, accept its sacraments and its doctrines and adopt a code of belief. Only in that way can the average person gain enlightment. The Church is the conduit.
  
  Gnostics, on the other hand, taught that enlightenment was experiential, that one could have a personal relationship with God without any interference from, or need for, an institution or a hierarchy.
  
  Clearly, no matter what they teach about their history and doctrines, the dubs fall into the orthodox category. They definitely teach that holy spirit operates on the organization, and that to come into the organization and experience enlightenment ("the truth") individual dubs have to agree to specific beliefs and doctrines and obey the rules. They also must show double honor to the glorious ones, i.e. the representatives of the "Church" or the elders (and COs, DOs, members of the Governing Body). So dubs dis the Athanasian Creed and the events at the Council of Nicea, yet they insist on a hierarchical structure and teach that individuals must strictly adhere to the organization and its teachings to achieve enlightment. In this, they are orthodox, indeed, and no different from the Roman Catholic Church.
  
  If dubs were Gnostics, there'd be no WTS, no elders, no rules and no disfellowshipping for failure to follow those rules.
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  Satanus

  Are not gnostics of the opinion that the creator god, the manifested god is evil, whereas the righteous principle, sophia, is hidden?

  S
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  Gill

  Willyloman - That's very interestsing! I didn't think that the WTBTS is Gnostic BUT they use some of the Gnostic views on material things.

  However, they, at the time of Russell starting the Bible Students, he seemed to think that he had plucked his inspiration from thin air and that he had personally received his wisdom from God. For a long time, organizational features, such as the clergy was denied.....Religion was procalimed as a 'Fraud and a Racket' by Rutherfraud and yet they ended up 'wearing the mantel' if not by name but by fact, of the very religious organization that they hated.

  Satanus - That's very interesting. I'm still only just learning about gnosticism. But surprised that the WTBTS uses its views on material things......(applying it only to its members and not its higher bodies).
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  Beardo

  'Ideas of a purely symbolic resurrection were later developed by a group called Gnostics. Believeing that knowledge could be derived in a mystical way, Gnostics combined apostate Christianity with greek philosophy and Oriental mysticism. For instance, they held that all physical matter is evil, and for that reason Jesus did not come in the flesh but only seemed to have a human body.'

  It is interesting to see the Watchtower launch an attack against Gnosticism in this way, but they carefully avoid the fact that the Bible itself tells us that the physical creation is in a ' fallen ' state. Afterall, there would be no need for a 'new heavens & a new earth' if all was ok with the current creation. So surely, if the Bible is true, matter is infected with imperfection and has a propensity towards evil?

  It is also a very simplistic view that they present in the article - "all matter is evil" ... the guys who wrote the article are not presenting the full idea I would suggest, as certain Gnostics would have viewed matter as the grinding wheel to sharpen their spiritual sword upon, so therefore it was necessary evil. Duality is part of this existence and one could argue that God himself uses evil in order to produce good works within the heart of man.

  So, like the Gnostic Christian sects, the orthodox believers also view matter as being impure based around Bible ideas.

  Also, Paul it would seem, had Gnostic leanings himself, when he describes a division between flesh & spirit. The famous passage attributed to Paul describes a battle taking place within himself. Very, very, Gnostic - wouldn't you say?

  From what I have read concerning Gnosticism, it seemed to have been a part of the early church and was then cut out by the church fathers who began organizing the religion. As has already been stated, to maintain control, they would have had to diminish the concept of individual spirituality; forcing allegiance to a hierarchical church.

  As for Christ not coming in the flesh - who can say for sure that he did? Surely, that is a matter of faith, not of objective evidence?
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  Narkissos

  One must not confuse Gnosticism with asceticism. Some Gnostics were clearly ascetic (trying to distance themselves from "matter" and "flesh"), while others were definitely not (assuming that whatever good or bad was done "in the flesh" was simply irrelevant to the "spiritual" salvation). As a whole, it seems to me that the WT (and most Christian denominations) are less ascetic than the majority of early Christianity.

  I would also not label the JWs "orthodox" either: on most doctrinal issues, if you put Gnosticism on the left and orthodoxy on the right you would have to locate JWs on the far right, perhaps closer to some Jewish Christians which the orthodox also rejected as heretics. (This is an oversimplification of course, but it may help.)
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  moggy lover

  The relationship between the WTS and Gnostic thought is at once both complex and prolix. Insofar as the Gnostics were a summation of several belief systems that proposed salvation through the incremental acceptance of a specialized "gnosis" - knowledge, then yes, we can see a relavance in this relationship. To paraphrase the WT dictum based on John 17:3, the Gnostic idea would be something like: "This means everlasting life, taking in knowledge of us, the only true mystics, and the mysticism we gradually unfold"

  However it simply is not possible to explore every ramification of expression that summed up Gnosticism, since it was not a homogeneous system of either religion or philosophy, but embraced many diversified sects holding opinions from a great variety of original sources.There were indeed several theosophies that claimed a Gnostic heritage, many of these predating Christianity. It was, in the formative years of Christianity, as it is today, an amalgam into which a number of different elements have been infused.

  For instance, out of the basic Gnostic idea that matter, including the human body, was evil, it soon settled on the notion that the only realm worth exploring was that of the spirit, uncontaminated by base matter and which was good. As a consequence of this, many Gnostics came to believe that since the body was evil, the only course of life to live was that of asceticsm, while others came to exactly the opposite conclusion, that since the body was evil, it made no difference what one did, hence they tended to live what we today would define as loose, immoral lives.

  At once a speculative, suble, and elaborate series of theosophic ideas, it endeavoured to introduce into the historic Church, in its infancy, when its theological muscle was still undeveloped, a so-called "higher knowledge" which attempted to displace the centrality of Christ with mystical idealism. Indeed various aspects of Gnostic thought appealed to many of the early church apologists, while at the same time others repelled them.

  Probably another aspect of Gnosticism that resembles WT theology was the early Gnostic penchant for allegorizing or extensively spiritualizing the OT and its historicity. A reading of several Wt magazines in which wildly speculative fantasies are spun out - Noah's ark = the Org, for example, captures at least to a provident level, this Gnostic principle. This kind of inferential theology was stretched to levels of total absurdity under the reign of JFR, his book "Enemies" being a prime example.

  Recent new finds and the fuller examination of older pieces of literature will, I am certain, along with the possibilty of further finds, expand our understanding of Gnosticism and its influence, not always benign in early Christianity

  Cheers