by The Quiet One 179 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
The leaders of the WTBTS love to play word games. Trouble is, they make up the rules to the game, redefine the meaning of the words whenever it suits them and throw you out if you get to testy.
From my point-of-view, the ONLY way to win is to not play.
This is a fascinating concept of the WTS as a "false prophet."! I hadn't quite thought of it this way. But in fact, the Bible does call the WTS the "false prophet" at Revelation 19:20. But it is a moot point because the WTS has so many false teachings, you don't need to try to split words over whether their prophecy about 1914 failed or not. Here are some examples of their many false teachings.
1. They teach Jesus died on Nisan 14 and that "between the two evenings" is between sunset and nightfall. FALSE. Jesus died on Nisan 20th and "between the two evenings" is the point of time beginning around 3 p.m. and the period of time between 3 p.m. and sunset.
2. They teach that there is going to be a resurrection during the millenium. FALSE The second resurrection, which occurs during Judgment Day occurs after the 1000-year reign and after Satan has been killed.
3. They condemn polygamy. No where in the Bible is polygamy condemned, but divorcing a wife except on the grounds of fornication is a Bible LAW. The WTS goes to countries where polygamy is legal and customary and forces the break-up of families by having all but the first wife become divorced. Since there is no lawa against polygamy, the secondary wives are seen as legal and holy before Jehovah, thus when the WTS breaks up these marriages they cause these new believers to break God's law against divorce except on the grounds of fornication. This is why the WTS is called the "man of lawlessness." This fulfills the example of how some travel to the ends of the earth in search of one proselyte, then upon converting him, make him twice as subject to Gehenna than they were at first.
4. The Bible clearly says NOTHING to take into your mouth can defile you. All the foods were deemed "clean" that the Jews avoided under the Law. No where was tobacco ever in that list. Yet the WTS has made it a disfellowshipping offence, meaning a serious sin, if one can't break their tobacco habit. Fact is, NOTHING you can eat or take into your body defiles you. That means blood or tobacco. Now this is clear from the scripture that says when you're with an unbeliever to chow down on whatever they are serving without any worry about you conscience. Or when you're in the meatmarket, since nobody is looking and nothing in the meat itself can defile you, to go ahead and buy whatever you want without worrying about your conscience. That means the bottom-line rule for a mature Christian is that there are no dietary rules to be applied to Christians. A rule was made in the case where many in the congregation were Jews and had problems with a weak conscience regarding certain foods, but outside of that setting, as I noed, in the home of an unbeliever, you were to eat everything--nothing was condemed. So again, the become the man of lawlessness by making a law not in the Bible applicable to members of the congregation. Where in the Bible does it say, "Thou shalt not chew tobacco?" Even the Jewish Law when in practice didn't condemn the eating of any type of plant that I know of. So this is brand new. So in this way the WTS is a "false prophet."
5. They misinterpret the "70 weeks" prophecy by claiming it was fulfilled in the 20th of Artaxerxes. They have it right that it must begin in 455 BCE, 483 years prior to the baptism of Christ in 29 CE. But that prophecy begins when the "word goes forth to rebuild Jerusalem" which occurred in the 7th month of the 1st of Cyrus, forcing us to date the 1st of Cyrus to 455 BCE, regardless of what revised Persian chronology assigns. So they missed that. They are a FALSE PROPHET, though, because they try to claim the walls were still destroyed in the 20th of Artaxerxes from the time of Nebuchadnezzar II when Ezra 4:11 shows the new walls were "finished" during the reign of Bardiya/Smerdis ("Artaxerxes"), some 6 years before the temple was completed, which included a 2-year interruption. So the walls, the temple and homes on top of the wall were already built by the 20th of Artaxerxes. So how is it that that prophecy was not fulfilled already? The repair work done by Nehemiah on the new walls, which by this time were now in disrepair only took some 52 days! The WTS is misleading to have followers think that Nehemiah built a double-wall around Jerusalem in just 52 days, and that the Jews built a brand new temple in the middle of a wide open city without walls! This is what makes them a FALSE PROPHET, because they have to twist the scriptures and get you to ignore scriptures in order to make their false application work. They falsely trusted secular history in regards to 539 BCE being the date for the fall of Babylon. Now we have confirmation from the VAT4956 and the SK400 astrotexts that Nebuchadnezzar II began his rule in 547 BCE, meaning Jerusalem fell in 529 BCE and the 1st of Cyrus occurs in 455 BCE to fulfill that prophecy.
6. Also they teach that the Nehemiah who returned with Zerubbabel was a different Nehemiah than the one who served as cupbearer during the entire 41-year rule of Artaxerxes I. This is a lie. The Nehemiah who returned with Zerubbabel is the same Nehemiah who was cupbearer to Artaxerxes.
7. Also they teach that the 2nd coming is not in the flesh. The Bible says this would be the expression of the "antichrist." JWs do claim that in 1914 Christ arrived for the 2nd coming in a spiritual body, not a fleshly one. The Bible teaches the 2nd coming would be physical and, therefore, the WTS is a FALSE PROPHET and "antichrist" for saying otherwise.
8. The Bible says that no one goes to heaven before anyone else at 1 Thess 4:15-18. The WTS ignores this and teaches that since 1914 anyone of the anointed who dies goes straight up to heaven. LIE! The 1st resurrection has two phases and the first is phyical. After being resurrected back into the flesh all the elect serve together for 1000 years on the earth in imperfect bodies as king-priests. Then after Satan is released for a "short while" (probably 20 years, 1/2 a generation) and Satan is killed, Judgment Day begins where they serve as judges (likely 100 years). It is then that all of them, having completed their divine mission in the earth, are changed (along with Christ who was also in the flesh) within the twinkling of an eye into their spiritual bodies--thus ALL, TOGETHER receiving their heavenly bodies at the same time. So this is a false teaching on their part that some are already in heaven, and that makes them a FALSE PROPHET.
Of course, there are many more. Even so I can see the difference between something they got "wrong" and something that is clearly "false" that they have knowledge is false but persist in sticking to the false teaching.
So if you want to let the WTS off the hook for misdirected fulfillment regarding 1914, feel free to do so. That doesn't change all the other reasons they qualify as a "false prophet."
The WTS are definitely the "evil slave", the "rich man," the "man of lawlessness" and the "false prophet" in the Bible. Another "wrong" teaching of theirs is that they are the "faithful and discreet slave." WRONG. The FDS, it turns out, is none other than Christ upon his return. The "false prophet" (lamb-dragon beast out of the earth) along with Christendom (666 beast out of the sea)are cast at the same time "while still alive" into the lake of fire just before Armageddon.
LS
Hi Lars! *waves*
Mr. Pot (Lars) meet Mrs. Kettle. (Mother bOrg)
Think About It
my issue with the point of the op is that the society spent three quarters of a century making these predictions from scripture. they enforced them saying they were the word of god delivered and comprehended through the mouthpiece of jehovah. that being supposedly the watchtower society.
to cast doubt on these theories was to label yourself a fool and in later years a reason for disfellowship. its understandable that men make mistakes. the watchtower governing body made tons. but in trials when the society testified to be recognized as a religion they repeatedly accounted something they still account today.
that jehovah is the editor of the watchtower magazine.
man makes mistakes. jehovah doesnt. jehovah wouldnt flip flop. jehovah wouldnt let a magazine go into his people with his stamp of approval if there were accountability issues with the reporters sources. he wouldnt print literature riddled with spiritual typos and factual errors. he isnt dylan rattigan.
they claimed to be prophets and told everyone that would listen that they were predictions of the future supported by god as proven by their being the only working prophet of god. they enforced gods prophecies and shunned those apostate disbelievers.
it would have been acceptable to gloss over this huge error on their part but the watchtower ruined too many lives. to throw away a person because they follow the scripture with brighter light than the society is wrong. to take away a persons sense of self. their friends. their family.
its not a game. there is no reset button. you cant just decimate the lives of millions over a selfish claim of uniformity at all costs and then act like a two year old when youre proven wrong. the watchtower has no care for its people. just their money and time.
they claimed to be prophets who could predict the timeline of bible events with progressive revelation by jehovah. they published repeatedly that they were jehovahs fortune tellers more or less and when someone threw deuteronomy at them they redefined what a prophet was instead of apologizing. like grownups do.
its unforgivable and i think they should be forsaken until the society publicly apologizes individually to all the brothers and sisters they ruined since chuck russell was running things. because as i said
its not a game. this is people and their lives we are dealing with.
I just took a peek at the March 2012 study edition of the Watchtower and I found seven instances of the "truth". (I picked a magazine at random, by the way) In every case, Jehovah's Witnesses were represented as having it, and everyone else; not.
To claim to be the sole purveyor of truth requires a certain responsibility. For one thing, the claimant has to be true...all the time. Such an organization cannot couch it's claims in scholarly clap-trap, especially after the fact. A scholar, you see, must always be prepared to modify or recant his claims when new evidence comes to light. Neutrality must be maintained. Other scholars must be admitted to have truth of their own that can enrich the broader perception of the scholar's world. One cannot grab the golden ring for his own and then say "Sorry, I did not know it was brass."
In any case, anyone claiming to follow the truth or have the truth exclusively, and can be found in any way to be flawed in their thinking, are suspect. No need to follow their self-deception.
Outlaw, LisaBO, Leaving Wt, Outsmartthesystem ,Knowsnothing - The generation that saw 1914, taking into account the new understanding of an overlapping generation being a better interpretation, hasn't passed away yet. If it does, then the WT will have been proven to be a false prophet. Here's the explanation in brief.. "Let's go back to Revelation 6 ... notice as we read 9 through 11... [reads]. So here, the Scriptures are describing two parts of the same group whose lives would overlap..like Revelation, the generation that Jesus was referring to also consists of two groups of people whose lives would overlap. Group 1 of this generation discerned the sign ofChrist's presence in 1914. But they weren't merely born in 1914 nor merely alive to witness the start of Christ's presence. They were spirit-anointed in or before 1914. Therefore, the generation Jesus referred to saw the start of the last days. The second group are those thatwill see the end of this system of things. As the first group grew older, the second group started to be born so that for a while the two groups overlapped one another - they were contemporaries of one another." For full transcript, see: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/211265/1/Overlapping-generation-explanation-TRANSCRIBED-EXTRACT-from-Fridays-talk-DC-2011-12 Generation b : a group of individuals born and living contemporaneously c : a group of individuals having contemporaneously a status (as that of students in a school) which each one holds only for a limited period http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/generation This definition from merriam-webster could clearly apply. If you can't disprove that it is a possibility that generation could have meant people living contemperaneously, as in a school, you cannot prove that the WT is a false prophet by saying that the 'this generation will not pass away', as applied to 1914, prophecy has failed.. And 'millions now living will never die' could still apply if the end comes soon.
That last sentence of my last post should be ignored, I couldn't edit it.. MNLWND was a false interpretation, not a prophecy in the name of God.
I wish you'd stop now
"Could" is the operative word. You're grasping at straws.
