so let me get this straight (page 3)

Bumble Bee

You'll find a wide range of people here that are awesome!!

BB

nvrgnbk

What minimus and BumbleBee said.

DeusMauzzim

Welcome to the forum 4dc!

I just walked away from it all a year ago after finding out that dubdom and science really can't go together.

This board is great, esp. the news about what's going on in jw-land getting here first

remember: If "Jehovah" changes something (quite often), we are the first to hear about it, then the media, and then the dubs :)

The light does get brighter

Cheers,

Deus Mauzzim

emptywords

It goes something like this. "If a person stops reading the WTS literature and just reads the Bible he will fall back into the old beliefs of Christendom."

Hello BOB1999 I have never heard this above statement, do you recall what publication it has been stated in, would be appreciated.

AlphaOmega

It was mentioned here...

It is easier to read if you right-click and save it to your computer... then open or print it... I squished it up so that the forum wouldn't end up weirdly formatted...

Or you can download this page from here http://i15.tinypic.com/6hdfa4o.jpg

AO

alt

truthsearcher

Hey another newbie! Woo hoo, they are arriving by the truckload these days-- I hope you will enjoy your visits to JWD and meeting the wide variety of folks who hang out here.

Roller Dave: You truly have a gift for words:

I think you'll find the 'unity' propaganda you've been fed about Jehovah's people all goose stepping in lockstep past the grand heavenly reviewing stand (sieg heil!) for the Glory of God, and the 'evil slave' apostates who are painted with a broad brush dipped in forbidden blood as being uniformly immoral and fallen to the call of the flesh, or Satan... Is just that. Propaganda. Black and white thinking. This is one of the hallmarks of cult-think mind control.

There's varying degrees of belief within the organization, from the most glazed-eyed company man who craps tower-shaped logs to the barely concealed apostate going through the motions until they find out how to get their loved ones to choose the red pill.

I would love to know how you think of this stuff! Does it just come to you or do you spend time developing the imagery? lol

truthsearcher

I forgot to add: the statement about returning to Christendom's false teachings if you just read the Bible alone was from Russell. I have copied from Towertotruth.net

Was Charles Russell in the Light?

The Watchtower Society has continuously boasted that one cannot understand the Bible nor gain eternal life apart from the Organization. For example, The Watchtower (12-1-81, p.27) says, “Unless we are in touch with this channel of communication that God is using, we will not progress along the road to life, no matter how much Bible reading we do.”

In the early beginnings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Watchtower’s first president, Charles Taze Russell, published a series of books called Studies in the Scriptures. In The Watchtower (9-15-1910, Reprints, p.4685) Russell wrote the following about his books, “Not only do we find that people cannot see the divine plan in studying the Bible by itself, but we see, also, that if anyone lays the Scripture Studies aside, even after he has used them, after he has become familiar with them, after he has read them for ten years - if he then lays them aside and ignores them and goes to the Bible alone, though he has understood his Bible for ten years, our experience shows that within two years he goes into darkness. On the other hand, if he had merely read the Scripture Studies with their references, and had not read a page of the Bible, as such, he would be in the light at the end of the two years, because he would have the light of the Scriptures.”

Since Charles Russell boldly identified himself as the sole authority of Biblical interpretation and said that one would end up in spiritual darkness without examining his writings, let’s look back and see some of the spiritual “light” that was revealed in them.

The 2nd Presence of Jesus

One of the most prevalent teachings throughout Charles Russell’s Studies in the Scripture series was that Christ returned in 1874.

“Our Lord, the appointed King, is now present, since October 1874, A.D.” Studies, Vol. 4, p.621
“The Millennium began in 1874, with the return of Christ.” Studies, Vol. 7, p.386

The Watchtower has since abandoned this doctrine and started teaching in 1943 that Christ’s invisible second presence began in 1914. So, if Witnesses followed Russell’s declaration and read his Studies in the Scriptures series, and not the bible, would they have been in the light regarding this "truth"?

Resurrection

Russell also taught, in his books, that the resurrection of dead Christians occurred in 1878.

“....in the spring of 1878 all the holy apostles and other ‘overcomers’ of the Gospel age who slept in Jesus were raised spirit beings....”

Studies, Vol. 3, p.234

Currently, the Watchtower teaches that the resurrection of the holy apostles did not occur in 1878, but in 1918. Again, if a loyal Witness only read Russell’s books and not the bible, would he have been in the light of "truth" regarding this teaching?

The Great Pyramid

In Volume 3 of the Studies in the Scriptures, Chapter 10 is called, “The Testimony of God’s Stone Witnesses And Prophet, The Great Pyramid in Egypt”. Many Witnesses do not know that Russell used the measurements of the inner chambers and passageways of the Great Pyramid in Egypt to come up with important dates such as the beginning of Christ’s invisible presence in 1874 and the beginning of the period of trouble in 1914. In fact, the Society once wrote:

"The great Pyramid of Egypt, standing as a silent and inanimate witness of the Lord, is a messenger; and it's testimony speaks with great eloquence concerning the divine plan."

The Watchtower, 5-15-1925, p.148

However, later, in 1928, the Watchtower went from identifying the Pyramid as God’s Stone Witness to calling it Satan’s Bible.

"Then Satan put his knowledge into dead stone, which may be called Satan's Bible, and not God's stone witness...."

The Watchtower, 11-15-1928, p.344

The above article also said that those who devoted themselves to the pyramid were people whose minds were turned away from Jehovah and His Word. (Wait a minute, wasn’t Charles Russell, the founder of Jehovah's Witnesses, devoted to the pyramid?) Again, were Witnesses who were more faithful to Russell’s books than to their bibles in the light of God’s "truth" concerning the great Pyramid in Egypt?

The Alpha & Omega

In the 7th volume of the Studies in the Scriptures, called, The Finished Mystery, Jesus Christ is identified as the Alpha & the Omega of Revelation 1:8, 21:6 and 22:13. (“Our Lord’s great honor is shown in that He was not only the first of God’s creation, but the last.”) The Watchtower now teaches that the person identified as the Alpha & the Omega in the above verses is not Jesus Christ but Jehovah God. So, we ask, were early Witnesses in the light of God’s truth regarding this teaching in the Studies in the Scriptures series?

The answer is clear. Anyone who read and believed Russell’s books was in the dark concerning spiritual truth. This is true of anyone who exalts a person or an organization and lets it’s books and magazines interpret the Bible for them. Jesus prayed to the Father in John 17:17, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth”. This is in sharp contrast to the Watchtower’s statement that says we cannot progress along the road to life or be in the truth apart from them, no matter how much Bible reading we do. Many Jehovah’s Witnesses have come to understand that God’s Word alone is sufficient to bring us into a saving knowledge of His revealed truth. These people have been set free from the false teachings of a controlling organization and have begun new lives in new freedom with Jesus Christ. Remember, those whom the Son sets free, are free indeed!

greendawn

Welcome, if you stay with us you will learn a lot of new interesting things and we will look forward to hearing something about your experiences with the JWs.

jgnat

Welcome. As you have already figured, this board embraces many kinds. Take me, for instance. I'm a business woman and a Sunday School teacher who would never join the Witnesses; but I'm "joined at the hip" nonetheless. I married one. This place is important to me to be able to express myself freely, and to keep up on the most recent changes in the society.

To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

codeblue

Welcome

I was just as afraid as you to read anything here at first.

The common experience of the "lack of love" and then seeing Dateline May 2002 that exposed the pedophile coverup in the WTBS made me "feel" the hypocrisy. The same hypocrisy they preached about the Catholic Church for the 35 years I attended.

Codeblue

so let me get this straight

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