What Does the Bible REALLY Teach: The Meaning of Your Baptism

by 00DAD 12 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  00DAD

  DOC, thanks for straightening me out. I feel much better now!

  thecrushed, your comments are right on the money! As mentioned in my OP, the idea of having separate Insider vs. Outsider Information is one of the hallmarks of a destructive, mind-control cult! I think it's significant that the WTBTS moved to actual separate Public/Study editions of the WT in recent years.

  kurtbethel, I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment that publications like this prove that the leaders of the WTBTS " are cunning and crafty in their duplicity." So many when first facing their doubts and coming to grips with the blatant problems of the organization want to give them a pass and say they are " honest but misguided individuals." Evidence like this belies that claim proving that they clearly know what they are doing. It is deliberate in its deceptiveness.

  Bobcat, great comments. Thanks for sharing your exchange with the DO over the issue of questions vs. vows!

  Pterist: We are not saved by GOOD WORKS and SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS we are save FOR GOOD WORKS in HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS !

  Great point! I'm gonna' use it!!!

  Keep those cards and letters coming boys and girls,

  00DAD
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  Emery

  I too noticed the absolute avoidance of the Faithful and discreet slave doctrine. Cults are like an onion, the outside layers being the most appealing and impressive, but when you get to the core, its all sorts of crazy.
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  Ding

  Remember, too, that you have made a dedication to Jehovah God himself, not to a work, a cause, other humans, or an organization. Your dedication and baptism are the beginning of a very close friendship with God—an intimate relationship with him.

  This is an example of what Steve Hassan would call "loaded language." By use of this lingo, the GB conveys one thing to outsiders and the exact opposite to insiders:

  1. To an outsider, this appears to exalt God over the organization. All well and good. Doesn't sound like a cult, does it?

  However, those who understand how the organization really functions realize that the GB uses "dedication to Jehovah God himself" as a way of locking JWs into the organization forever. If you merely joined "a work, a cause, other humans, or an organization," you could simply walk away if you changed your mind. However, by framing it as "making a dedication to Jehovah God himself," the GB is really saying that there is no honorable way to leave the religion, that if you leave you are a traitor to Jehovah himself. We know this is the way the system treats people who want out.

  2. An outsider will focus on the phrase "an intimate relationship" with God, which seems very attractive.

  Insiders realize that the key word in that sentence is "friendship." In the WT religion, God is not what Jesus said to call him -- "our Father." No, he is our "friend." How many JWs do you know who actually feel they personally have an "intimate relationship" with Jehovah? Wouldn't they be considered proud and arrogant if they voiced such a belief? Wouldn't the elders suspect them of having apostate leanings?

  Intimate relationship? According to the GB, Christ is not even the mediator for the "other sheep."

  And all that the "anointed" have that the other sheep don't is the right to partake at the Memorial and the expectation of going to heaven when they die, something the "other sheep" are taught to be glad they DON'T have. How many JWs will tell you that they would rather live on a paradise earth than go to heaven? Why do they all feel this way if not that the GB has conditioned them to do so?