Yeppers, Don't trust your mind and beware of your heart!
You're pretty much screwed ... let us do the thinking for you.
Does the WTBS emphasize these two verses for control?
by cog_survivor 23 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Fed-up
to those i'd only add hebrews 10;24, 25 (group control)
Psalm 119:105 ("your word" being whatever the WTB&TS said "your word" is)
and the two verses you mentioned are certainly over used. Totally agree, i've been told what to do, think and wear for so long I don't even know what I like!
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clarity
coq-survivor,
Control? ARE Jehovah's Witnesses controlled?
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Well ..............
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Imagine a person who ... must not trust himself... or his heart.
Imagine a person who ... must not think... critically or independently.
Imagine a person who ... must blindly follow instructions .. right or wrong.
Imagine a person who ... must not question or debate his religious doctrines.
Imagine a person who ... believes god will kill him if he breaks any of the Rules.
Imagine a person who ... believes that this is the TRUTH ... nowhere else to go.
Imagine a person who ... has many best friends ... who will betray him instantly.
Imagine a person who ... has mother father brother sister who will now leave him.
Imagine a person who ... begins to sweat every month ... "got to get my time in"
Imagine ......
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Are Jehovah's Witnesses controlled ?????? OH YEAH!
clarity
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kurtbethel
(Jeremiah 10:23) I well know, O Jehovah, that to earthling man his way does not belong. It does not belong to man who is walking even to direct his step.
It follows logically that if as a human I am unable to direct my steps, then any other human would be unqualified to direct mine as well.
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cog_survivor
It looks like there was a fair amount of overlap in abusive twisting of the scriptures. It is so strange (but again perhaps not) when my developing critical thinking skills unearth some new way in my life was controlled. Despite the fact I've been out of the group for close to 10 years now.
Blondie: Those quotes could have come straight from sermons I heard when I was a child. I love how you are able to go back and cite source material. I threw out all of my old literature to try and purge it from my life. Problem is that it is harder to purge from the head It isn't so much that I believe that way anymore but some of my knee jerk reactions tend to surface now and again. Much to my chagrin. Anyway there are plenty of Herbert Armstrong worshippers who have archived his materials on the internet so if I need to verify that 'yes' something did happen, there's evidence.
Pterist: What you say about the reaction by the wcg elders in Florida was pretty typical. I was raised in a fairly conservative area (Indiana, not England. I just watch too much bbc and pbs. I also joined the Episcopal church a couple of years ago so some of the anglican phrases have probably rubbed off on me) The area I was in while in WCG had a pastor who couldn't go along with all the changes from on high and so there was a huge amount of confusion happening. Things got really messy.
NeverKnew: There is a group out of Korea that has some really uncanny resemblances to the Worldwide Church of God based out of California. I didn't hear about them until about a year ago. When I looked them up I found too many things in common to be coincidental. I suspect that their leader had some association with Herbert Armstrong (the leader of WCG). But what I have no idea. I'm so sorry your niece got sucked into their cult.
Lost Generation, Ignat, Fed-up, and KurtBethel; Those verses are familar as well. Conform or die was the message we got continually.
Thinkaboutit,00Dad, and Clarity: I totally get that. Been there and even had a lousy youth camp teeshirt for doing it.
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Apognophos
Fascinating, thanks for the post, cog_survivor. I shouldn't be surprised that other groups relied on these verses too, and yet I am. As a born-in, I'm used to thinking that Witnesses are totally unique from other groups. In the interest of a fair comparison, I wonder how many times these verses are used in mainstream Xian religions (is there a way to search through, say, Catholic literature for citations?).
Incidentally, I used to wonder about that "heart" scripture... if our hearts are so untrustworthy, how are we supposed to trust any decisions we make at all? After all, our service to God is not supposed to be based on just intellect, but rather heartfelt. So how do we know which feelings from our heart to trust? (Of course the answer is "The GB will tell you.")
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cog_survivor
That's a good question Apognophos.
I don't know how it is with the Catholics, but I don't find it to be the case with what I've experienced in visiting my Southern Baptist family's churches or with the Episcopalians.
That's not to say they don't have some beliefs that some may find off putting. But with my Baptist family members, I find they tend towards the belief that Jesus lives in the heart of believer. Therefore to not listen to your heart or be tender in your conscience is like not paying attention to Jesus. The believing individual is fully capable of being led by Christ. There's a bit more to it than that of course because the believer is expected to be discerning but there is a lot less interference in this matter than there is in a cult.
The Episcopalians are seen as somewhat soft on sin by the more fundamentalist groups, but they respect the fact that everyone has a unique journey with God and are careful not to overly tamper with that.
That's as far as my personal experience goes with religion outside the cult. But even so, I think it is safe to say that a wide variance can be found. Even to some extent within the groups I mention.
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Fernando
What Ding said!
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blondie
cog_survivor, back in the 60's and 70's many jws accused Herbert Armstrong of plagiarizing the WT even saying that the WT had sued him (an urgan legend). I thought it was the opposite, that the WTS stole from him. Did you ever hear either story?
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cog_survivor
No I hadn't Blondie. Although it is interesting to note that Herbert Armstrong issued a statement saying he had never been a Jehovah's Witness nor a Seventh Day Adventist.
Here's a link to a pdf of his 1956 Plain Truth Magazine where he gets huffy over this:
http://www.herbert-armstrong.org/Plain%20Truth%201950s/Plain%20Truth%201956%20(Vol%20XXI%20No%2012)%20Dec.pdf
Although he claims to have never been a Seventh Day Adventist, he was listed as one of their 70 elders at one point and pastored a SDA congregation. He was such a liar about things that its hard to say whether he appropriated some of his theology from the JWs or not.
He often plagariazed material and claim it was unique revelation God made to him. When a former friend from the SDA camp called him out on it, he claimed that when he read the article God revealed it to him to be true. Of course he made no reference to the source of this "revelation" when publishing it to his own people. He made it sound as though God had all but whispered it into his ear.