by Christ Alone 91 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
This question is for atheists and believers. What teachings do you think the Watchtower got right and why? Do you still think they are right about the Trinity? Soul? What about their teachings of Jesus? Was He an angel? Is Christmas condemned in the Bible? Easter? Is the NWT right in John 1:1?
I know the atheist argument that the Bible is wrong, and that's cool. But I'm wondering what you think they got right, at least according to what the Bible says.
Making the leap of imagination that there is a god and the bible is her inspired word....
The trinity is a post-biblical development
The OT has no basis to believe in an after-life but it does begin to develop in the NT
Interesting Cofty. I don't know that I've ever heard someone say that the OT didn't have any belief in an after life. From what I've seen, it was a common belief. Some of the prophets raised people from the dead. (1Kings 17:17-24) 1Sam 28:3-25 talks about Samuel being spoken to after he died.
Job 19:25-27 talks about Job saying that after he died, he would see God. Isaiah 26:19 talks about death being swallowed up forever.
Sorry, I didn't mean to make this an apologetic type thread. But I've never heard that concept before. I think that the Hebrews had a limited understanding of death and what would come after, but it seems like they still believed in an afterlife. I guess 2Sam 12:23 for me is the biggest proof. David's son had died and David made the statement that his son could not return to him, but David would see his son again. I take that to mean in heaven.
Anyway, keep going. I'm interested to see what some people find is right in the Watchtower.
Ok to keep it brief there is no basis in the pre-exile OT to believe in an immortal soul. At best there are vague hints of some sort of future existence.
I cannot think of anything the Watchtower has got right. I used to think it promoted some good principles, but even things like the no smoking policy are simply there to control people.
It is simply a despotic dictatorship serving its own interest!
50/50 biblical and beyond the Bible. Ray explaines it very balanced in search for Christian freedom. I think Ray is the best christian writer in our time. You can sence his love and honesty!
Wt would be nice if their exclusive, cult mindset was gone and the conclusion was love. Shame to use an org like that.
Love Healthworker
I came to the conclusion, when really putting the WT doctrines under the microscope after leaving, that every unique doctrine that they have is wrong when looking at the Bible teaching with an open mind.
Frankly, that conclusion shocked me, I was born-in and felt they "probably" had most things right, but no, I could not find one unique doctrine that was right.
Can anybody ?
Yes, the trinity is post-biblical.
The Watchtower got the no-hell-in-the-afterlife doctrine right (but then so did a raft of other groups before them, including the Adventists, Unitarians and the Christadelphians). An afterlife of Hell is a stubbornly superstitious left over from earlier peoples, fed by Bible writers themselves.
And yet - without intending to - the Watchtower also provided damning evidence that, while there is no afterlife of Hell, Hell instead is right here on earth during one's life sentence serving the Watchtower Society.
On the basis of the Hellfire doctrine alone, the Watchtower deserves a special round of applause - the more thunderous the better - followed by swift and summary execution and then throwing into the everlasting pit of fire.
I agree Cofty, but I am not talking about what they do not belive in, and of course they are not unique in rejecting the trinity, the Christadelphians were way ahead of Russell on that one. (and Hell as well if memory serves)
The point is that if they are, or ever were, God's Organization, they would have at least one unique doctrine to mark them out from all the others, and that doctrine would stand comparison with what the Bible actually says.
They have never had one.
