by Dogpatch 43 Replies latest jw friends
Randy,
If you were going to use this video with a JW, how would you introduce it?
How would you handle it if they ask, "What does this have to do with me?"
Wouldn't a JW get hung up on specific issues like, "The Trinity? This is just a bunch of people exchanging one false religion for another."
How do you get them to see the mind control parallels?
The video would have us believe that all these people in the leadership of the church simultaneously came to the view that the Bible teaches the Trinity as well as other orthodox doctrines, repented of their ways, and led their flock back to God. That looks to be a rather odd turn of events to me. They call it a miracle. I do not believe in miracles, but if I did it would appear an odd choice of miracle for a God to perform, given all the problems and real tragedies played out the world over, to use his power to change the doctrines of a small religious movement, just so that evangelical Christians could use it as an advert for their own ideology.
The claim that it was a miracle rests on the contention that the leadership had absolutely nothing to gain by changing their ways and that they repented of their error entirely of their own volition. The facts would seem to suggest otherwise. They decided to pursue a course of fundamental change reluctantly and from a position of weakness not of strength. The founder of the movement had died in 1986, all his prophecies had failed and there was no charismatic leader to take his place. The church entered a period of crisis and was declining in membership and funds when the leaders attempted to tweak the doctrines to keep the movement going. (This period of smaller changes was totally airbrushed out of the story in the video, as it would have detracted from the presentation of an abrupt and miraculous change within the church) Those tentative efforts did not halt the decline or crisis within the church, and eventually nine years later in 1995 the new leader announced radical changes in the teachings of the church, not as a bold gesture prompted by God's grace, but as the last throw of the dice by a leadership desperate to salvage something out of the troubled organization they had inherited. From an organizational viewpoint it seems to have been a shrewd move since instead of total disintegration they managed to preserve a small core of the church while also gaining respectability among other mainstream churches.
Herbert W. Armstrong was a staple of my grandmother's radio listening schedule.
I listened intently as a small boy.
Armstrong was simply a wonderful speaker. He was plain in speech and powerful in building a common sense argument to a pointed conclusion.
His son, Garner Ted Armstrong, has the same style and approach. You can catch him now and then on cable tv selling old tapes and pamphlets.
What the Watchtower Society did not do in the 1970's when they had the "opportunity" is not surprising, really.
I married into a Jewish family and really got to know both ordthodox and Reformed Jewish people who were quite intelligent and articulate.
It is simply unthinkable for them--EVEN THOUGH THEY KNOW full well how non-literal their beliefs are because of intellectual honesty--turning their back on thousands of years of faithful observance would be like spitting on their ancestors devout struggle to remain in solidarity with the past.
A lot of JW's feel the same way.
There is a hard-headed obstinancy in them.
They are contrarian to the bone.
Becoming what they hate is beyond them in every way.
My dad got " The plain truth" in the mail. I used to read it as a kid. We were inactive most of my childhood , but it was sort of ok then, they still considered you a jws anyhow. It sounded so much like jws , I thought it was. I remember some jws thought he was an apostate, but he wasn't. I could understand him easily b/c he sounded so much like the jws.
I recall the break up of the church and them publically admitting they felt they were wrong and saying that in print. They were wrong. I was impressed , to say the least. If the wts could do that I'd probably still be with them.
Yes Terry, it is a solidarity they feel to "mother". No matter who they have to hurt, they will protect her.
dear Randy...
thank you for this video!
xoxo
+
dear Terry...
you said: "Herbert W. Armstrong was a staple of my grandmother's radio listening schedule.I listened intently as a small boy."...
!?!exactly!?!..why so many objections now?
love michelle
myelaine, Terry's loss of faith is a tragedy. Especially since he has such a wonderful mind. While he thinks he is "free" now, he is captive of his own thinking. It really is sad.
Poor Terry. If only he had the enlightenment of both MyElaine and Brotherdan.
But, alas! Perhaps God will find it in His infinite mercy to overlook the dear lad's obtuse and adamant recalcitrance.
dear Terry...
I hope you don't go down to hell.
love michelle
marked for later.
I'm sorry, but lol at myelaine for believing in a literal hell. lol
If I read that wrong, myelaine, sorry.
