Thought Control (A simple test for JW's)

by TD 143 Replies latest jw friends

  • undercover
    undercover

    LOL...Good luck getting this into the Written Review...

    That's the only "test" dubs will take when it comes to Bible and WT theology...

    But it is a good exercise for anyone willing to take it. I like it.

  • Momma-Tossed-Me
    Momma-Tossed-Me

    I couldn't find a dub in my circle that would be smart enough to answer any of those questions. They would immediately file it as apostate propaganda and dismiss.

    Most dubs don't know where they come from much less where they are going.

    Also at one point the borg said to not use publications from before 1972 I think? I do know that a year was stipulated just not sure which.

    Brothers were to only use information from after that year in their talk preparation.

  • Momma-Tossed-Me
    Momma-Tossed-Me

    Having said that, I do believe you have come up with a format that might work on certain dubs, especially those that think that they are experts on the subject.

    Come up with a quizz that is more dumbed down for the rank and file.

    Great job though!

  • nancy drew
    nancy drew

    the issue here is revisionist history, if they just said we're bible students we thought something and we realized we were wrong now we think something else that would be fine but thats not what they do they lie in print not just once or twice but constantly to this day. they act like they knew things that they didn,t know its an incredible cover-up.

    If you get a book at a dc you assume what is in that book is what the org believes at that time but than decades later they print something saying they never said certain things but there they are signed & dated.

    the scope of it is overwhelming.

  • peacedog
    peacedog

    Nothing can change the fact that the following statement made by the Watchtower Society is a blatant outright lie:

    "Since long before World War I Jehovah's witnesses pointed to 1914 as the time for [Christ's return and his second presence] to occur."

    The GB/WTS are LIARS, plain and simple. As such, they can immediately be removed from consideration as being "God's channel" or "his organization" or in any way associated with the God of the Bible.

  • dgp
    dgp

    Marked.

  • peacedog
    peacedog

    "Since long before World War I Jehovah's witnesses pointed to 1914 as the time for [Christ's return and his second presence] to occur."

    Every JW who reads this statement has to make peace with the fact that they are following liars. Personally, I was unable to do so.

  • Juan Viejo2
    Juan Viejo2

    The problem with the WT Society is that they equate "new light" with telling lies about the "old light." By saying that Russell and his followers "were looking forward to 1914," when in fact they were really looking to 1881, 1884, and back at 1799, is not "new light" - it's lying!

    This applies to Beth Sarim, the Generations teaching, the 1925 and 1975 failed prophecies. Read the publications of those times and you can see in black and white exactly what the Watchtower said and taught. To tell the stories any differently than what actually happened can not be defined as "new light!" Making up new stories and the telling everyone now that those are the facts - is, by any logic at all, LYING!

    They should republish the Proclaimers book and relabel it as, "A fictional retelling of the history of the Jehovah's Witnesses, based in part on actual events."

  • TD
    TD

    The life story of a Japanese woman named Matsue Ishii appeared in the The Watchtower of May 1, 1988. She recalls how in 1928, she first came into contact with the Bible Students:

    "Do you believe in the second advent of the Lord?" I asked the young man who came to the door. "Christ's second advent was realized in 1914," he answered. In astonishment, I told him that was impossible. "You should read this book," he said handing me The Harp of God." (p.22)

    No edition of The Harp of God teaches that Christ's second advent was realized in 1914 and this was years before the 1874 date would be discarded.

    The life story of Jack Nathan appears in The Watchtower of September 1 1990. His first contact with the Bible students in 1920 is related like this:

    "It was there that I met Fredrick James, a former British soldier who was now a zealous Bible Student. He explained to me that Jesus had been present since 1914, invisible to man." (p.11)

    This is also impossible because it was many years before 1914 replaced 1874 as the year for this event

    The life story of Seth Keith appeared in The Watchtower of April 15, 1967. Keith recalls how he recieved two pieces of literature in 1911:

    "One told about the condition of the dead and the other intimated that the Second Coming of Christ was due." (p. 252)

    Neither the Bible Students nor Jehovah's Witnesses have ever looked upon the Second Coming as a future event.

    The life story of Maxwell Friend appeared in The Watchtower of August 15, 1967. Friend recalls that in 1912 he obtained a copy of The Divine Plan Of The Ages and then:

    "...shared in spreading the good news of God's kingdom as well as in giving emphatic warning that the year 1914 would see the beginning of the world-shaking "time of the end" of the present evil disorder of things." (p. 507)

    At the time, it was taught that the "time of the end" had commenced in 1799 and that 1914 (or 15) would see the dawn of the "Golden Age" (i.e. the start of the millennium.)

    Were every one of these people lying? I surely don't know. I think humans have a huge capacity to smooth out the rough edges of their memories without realizing it and fool themselves into thinking that what they "know" now is what they have always known.

    The point here is whether or not Jehovah's Witnesses are compelled in some way to agree with historical details that are demonstrably false. That type of control is exactly how Orwell envisioned a fictional oppresive State controlling peoples minds:

    "He who controls the past controls the future, and he who controls the present controls the past"

    ---Still waiting to see if a JW is able to silence those who level this charge at them.

  • SweetBabyCheezits
    SweetBabyCheezits

    Wow, this actually demonstrates both parts of an anology presented by Newsweek's Jon Meacham: "History is to a religion what memory is to an individual."

    Edit: JM actually said, "History is to a country what memory is to an individual." Someone else tweaked it appropriately for religion.

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