by NeverKnew 74 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
"The apostles and other early Christian disciples had certain wrong expectations..."
So, it would be reasonable to conclude that all predictions recorded in the Bible are now suspect. The book of Revelation isn't prophecy, it's just speculation now. Thanks for undermining any confidence in anything recorded in the Bible!
The WTS. proclaimed it had been chosen specifically by god in 1919 and yet the organization at that time was preaching
false teachings ( Pagan ) such as Pyramidology.
The end times preaching by the WTS. wasn't to warn the public about the consequences of what was to happen soon, they were put
forth intensionally to attract the attention from the public toward the organization's published goods.
that is the truth about the truth
~Jer. 23:32-36 “Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the LORD, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all,” says the LORD. “So when these people or the prophet or the priest ask you, saying, ‘What is the oracle of the LORD?’ you shall then say to them, ‘What oracle?’ I will even forsake you,” says the LORD. “And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, ‘The oracle of the LORD!’ I will even punish that man and his house. “Thus every one of you shall say to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, ‘What has the LORD answered?’ and, ‘What has the LORD spoken?’”And the oracle of the LORD you shall mention no more.For every man’s word will be his oracle, for you have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.”
~Jer. 8:8-11 “How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us’? Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD; so what wisdom do they have? Therefore I will give their wives to others, and their fields to those who will inherit them; because from the least even to the greatest everyone is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace.”
~I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who foils the signs of false prophets ... who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers” (Isaiah 44:24-26)
~ Deut. 13:3-5 “you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
~Who say to the seers, “Do not see,” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things; speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits” (Isa. 30:9-10)
He's pointing this out to me....
The apostles and other early Christian disciples had certain wrong expectations, but the Bible does not classify them with the "false prophets."-SeeLuke 19:ll; John 21: 22, 23; Acts 1:6, 7.
Yes, but in the intervening couple thousand years the Christians learned from the error and began taking seriously those parts of Jesus' discussions about the End where he says not to get all worked up about the timeline. The JWs, in blissful ignorance of this basic insight, manage to make a rookie mistake.
"Those who do not read can hear, for God has on earth today a prophetlike organization, just as he did in the days of the early Christian congregation." Watchtower 1964 Oct 1 p.601
"So, does Jehovah have a prophet to help them, to warn them of dangers and to declare things to come?
IDENTIFYING THE "PROPHET"
These questions can be answered in the affirmative. Who is this prophet? ... This "prophet" was not one man, but was a body of men and women. It was the small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ, known at that time as International Bible Students. Today they are known as Jehovah's Christian witnesses. ... Of course, it is easy to say that this group acts as a "prophet" of God. It is another thing to prove it. The only way that this can be done is to review the record. Thus this group of anointed followers of Jesus Christ, doing a work in Christendom paralleling Ezekiel's work among the Jews, were manifestly the modern-day Ezekiel, the "prophet" commissioned by Jehovah to declare the good news of God's Messianic kingdom and to give warning to Christendom." Watchtower 1972 Apr 1 pp.197-199 'They Shall Know that a Prophet Was Among Them'
"commissioned to serve as the mouthpiece and active agent of Jehovah … commission to speak as a prophet in the name of Jehovah…" The Nations Shall Know that I am Jehovah" - How? pp.58,62
Bored today therefore my many posts..............
NeverKnew - Oh, wait... dumb question.... an expectation is way different than a promise from the Creator Himself.
Exactly. People had wrong expectations, but that is different to the Watchtower that expects people to follow what they say as closely as the Bible, when they claim the Bible is infallible.
A little more for you...
http://www.jwfiles.com/wt_said_it/wt_says_not_false_prophet.htm
The whole site is an excellent resource for pointing out the flip-flops using their literature.
"Prophecies", "predictions", "expectations"...
As far as I'm concerned, once you start resorting to semantic musical chairs to defend your viewpont, you've lost the argument.
NeverKnew said,
UPDATE: He asked me if the WT ever claimed to be inspired.
Quite often Witnesses will try to crawl out from under a label, such as being a 'false prophet,' by adding in an extra word, such as 'inspired,' then ask, Did we ever claim to be that?
However, does the Bible say that a prophet must claim to be inspired to be false? Below is the classic Scripture from Deuteronomy that warns against false prophets; I don't see where claiming to be inspired has anything to do with it.
(Deut 18:20-22, American Standard Version)
20 But the prophet, that shall speak a word presumptuously in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.
21 And if thou say in thy heart, How shall we know the word which Jehovah hath not spoken?
22 when a prophet speaketh in the name of Jehovah, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which Jehovah hath not spoken: the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be afraid of him.
I would ask your friend to use his Bible to show where claiming to be inspired makes a difference to being a false prophet. Perhaps it's in another scripture? If not he has no arguement there, and he is playing a game of words.
" When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told."
George Carlin
