by AllTimeJeff 29 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
It seems to me you are blind to many things the Watchtower had accomplished and you use any means to discredit them.
Just look into their publications what they write on the Bible and how they try to interpret it .
Go to Jehovah's Witness Online to subforum on endtime predictions and read my posts and stand amazed how the Watchtower got the right dates :
1728 BC , 1037 BC , 1034 BC ,1027 BC ,607 BC .
Does anyone have the KM that said, in essence, that there is no reason to read anything other than the society's publications because they do all the research and provide all the information we need? It wasn't talking about "apostate" literature, it was talking about ANY other literature. It was a fairly recent KM, within the last year, I think. I was still going to meetings, and when we discussed this, I wanted to scream. Instead I sat quiety in amazement listening to the comments in support of this crazy statement.
Cate
It's always struck me as odd that people would have to be admonished to "keep a positive, spiritual view of what we read in our books, magazines, and other publications and of what we hear at our meetings and from the elders." Nobody EVER had to admonish me to "keep a positive view" of anything I learned in college. Most of it was supported so well with evidence that there was no reason to feel negatively towards it. Where something felt false, it was challenged with lively discussion.
Good comments by... most. I just wanted to add how obvious it was to me that the teachings and structure were not modelled after what Christ taught, but by the Pharisees. So much of the theology revolves around the Old Testament. There simply isn't enough in what Jesus taught to build their self-serving "organization" (publishing and real estate empire) upon, so they resort to the Jewish system, but pretend it's "Christian".
The concept of a "Governing Body" is not based upon an isolated account in Acts, it is based on the Jewish Sanhedrin.
The concept of "disfellowshipping" is not based on 1 Corinthians. It is based on synagogue's power to excommunicate.
While the dubs would criticize the "clergy" of Christendom and particularly the Catholic priesthood, they have their own "clergy". Their "kings and priests" are in Brooklyn, governing badly. And they have a roving band of professional thugs who hound the "congregations" to recruit, and who audit the books to make sure the money keeps flowing up.
While the JWs would mock the Pharisees' endless sabbath restrictions, the JWs have issued their own ever-changing and ever-growing regulations. This includes "spiritual direction" on medical procedures that are forbidden, acceptable, or somewhere in between. They have regulations on entertainment, dress and grooming, chaperones, sexual activities between married people, etc. It seems Jesus never got around to mentioning all these details, so the "Governing Body" has picked up Christ's slack and reinstituted new laws to determine who will be "saved" and who will be destroyed.
Also, in imitation of the Pharisees, the JW theology is completely inbred. They would reject anyone with a "secular education" in theology, archeology, language, or history, unless they are willing to discard anything contrary to already held JW "truths". They rely completely on their own educational system and reject anything not in harmony with their inherited thoughts as "worldly" and "satanic"... unless of course it is something like "this generation" where the inherited teaching is conclusively proven utterly WRONG. In which case, in little more than one Botchtower paragraph they make an "adjustment" as "spiritual food at the proper time". From personal experience, I can attest to the fact that for the upper echelon of the "organization", they view everything in the universe as revolving around Brooklyn Bethel. It gives them a very narrow view, and puts them completely out of touch with reality. Consequently, you have men more concerned about the public relations of child molestation. More concerned about the "clean" public appearance of the Corporation, rather than caring about the protection of children and prosecution of any JW offenders.
To illustrate the consequences of the JW theological inbreeding, here is what the GB looks like on the outside:
But here is how badly inbred they are on the inside:
Any questions?
Class dismissed.
B the X
crazycate
I don't have it in my WT library for that reason (I need an updated one!) but the thrust of the Quetion box was that the GB does not endorse private groups for study of any material. In essence, they are enforcing the ban of personal bible study that you can read about in Crisis of Conscience. I know there is a link to it somewhere on JWD....
Billy
Great post! I too was struck as I was leaving about how Pharasaical (sp) the JW's actually are. Their strategy is simple, organize from the OT, then take a NT verse that fits best to give it the label of Christian, and voila! JW theology.
A. T. Jeff: I could be wrong (often am), but I think it was more than just study groups--it was study material. I'll have to see if I can find anything. Thanks for your response.
Cate
The only factual truth of the JWS is they want to turn people into slaves which they personally exploit for their own means and their
own means was always about propagating of their own published literature and goods.
Posting to bookmark...
One of the first *really big* hypocritical things that caused me to step away from the org was the study of the Greatest Man book, when Pharisees were vilified for their "ridiculous regulations." I thought, uh, wait a minute....
