Well, today is another interesting day. As some of you all know...I have been trying to make my exit out of the cult but my wife has been giving me some probs along the way. Today as usual I dont go to the meeting, I go on with my day as normal, wash clothes, cook breakfast, and so on. She says "I think you should go to the meeting today, besides I think you would really enjoy today's Watchtower lesson. It has some points about Isaac Newton and how he knew the earth would be a paradise".
I respond: "No I dont want to go, but you enjoy it though" Wife: "Why not?" Me: "......................I just dont want to................" Wife: "That's the best you can come up with, is I don't want to???" Me: "Yup, I dont want to go"
So she huff and puffs and gets ready for the meeting making lots of noise. After she leaves, I decide to pick up the Watchtower to see what she was talking about. I saw the quotes from Sir Isaac Newton and John Milton, but what really made me I guess angry for lack of a better word was paragraphs 12-17.
I'll type some of the lines from these paragraphs that stood out:
"Jesus foretold that false prophets would corrupt his teachings and that most people would be misled. (Matt. 24:11) The apostle Peter warned Chrisitans: 'There will also be false teachers among you.' (2 Pet. 2:1) The apostle Paul spoke of 'a period of time when (people would) not put up with the healthful teaching, but, in accord with their own desires, they (would) accumulate teachers for themselves to have their ears tickled.' (2 Tim. 4:3, 4) Satan is involved in misleading people and has used apostate Christianity to obscure the heart warming truth about God's purpose for man and the earth. - Read 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4.
Consider some historical developments in the decades prior to 1914, the year when the time of the end began. In the late 1800's, a number of sincere individuals were searching for an understanding of 'the pattern of healthful words'. In the late 1800's, a number of sincere individuals were searching for an understanding of the 'pattern of healthful words.' (2 Tim. 1:13) One such person was Charles Taze Russell. In 1870 he and a few other truth-seekers formed a class for Bible study. In 1872 they examined the subject of restitution. Later, Russel wrote: 'Up to that time we had failed to see clearly the great distinction between the reward of the church now on trial and the reward of the faithful of the world.' The reward of the later will be 'restoration to the perfection of human nature once enjoyed in Eden by their progenitor and head, Adam.' Russel acknowledged that he had been helped in his study of the Bible by others. Who were these?
Henry Dunn was one of them.
In 1870, George Storrs also came to the conclusion that the unrighteous will be resurrected to an opportunity of everlasting life.
Russell discerned from the Bible that the time had come to make the good news widely known. So in 1879, he started publishing Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, now called The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom. Previously, the truth about mankind's hope was understood by very few people, but now groups of Bible Students in many countries were receiving and studying The Watchtower. The belief that only a few will go to heaven, whereas millions will be given perfect human life on earth, set the Bible Students apart from Christendom.
The foretold 'time of the end' began in 1914. By 1913, Russell's sermond were printed in 2,000 newspapers with a combined readership of 15,000,000. By the end of 1914, over 9,000,000 people on three continents had seen the 'Photo-Drama of Creation'-a program including motion pictures and slides that explained Christ's Millennial Reign. From 1918 until 1925, the talk 'Millions Now Living Will Never Die', which explained the hope of everlasting life on earth, was presented by Jehovah's servants in over 30 languages worldwide. By 1934, Jehovah's Witnesses realized that those hoping to live on earth should be baptized. This understanding filled them with renewed zeal for preaching the good news of the Kingdom. Today, the prospect of living forever on earth fills the hearts of millions with gratitude toward Jehovah."
So I'm thinking to myself....once again they're throwing that 1914 stuff out there, saying that if not for Russel and his helpers we would not know the truth about the bible!! They throw out all these amazing figures to make it appear that God was blessing ONLY their work. And they purposely leave out the fact that Russel did NOT believe that Christ would come invisibly in 1914, but that Armageddon would come that year. I can just imagine the comments on the above, I'm so glad I'm not there right now to bear it. I wish I could prevent my wife from hearing this garbage, but I don't want to oppose, I can only imagine how she's gonna be acting when she comes home feeling all "spiritually uplifted".
What are yall thoughts on this??