With Cedars release of leaked Watchtower NEW LIGHT "adjusting" understanding of "who" the faithful and discreet slave is..... I am struck by something which similarly struck me back in 1967.
In 1967 I had just been imprisoned. Being a male Jehovah's Witness during the Viet Nam war meant certain "issues" arose affecting a decision to respond to the Military Draft. I have told the story before. But, I'd like go at it from another angle IN VIEW of the above mentioned NEW LIGHT about the FDS for a different reason. It was first in 1967 I began to discover that there are TWO Watchtower Societies. Let me explain why I say this and for what reasons. First of all, anybody standing in a Kingdom Hall or sitting in a seat at a vast International Assembly saw people they would identify as ALL ON THE SAME PAGE. Like-minded. No doubt would ever be expressed as to the fact WE ALL BELIEVED THE SAME WAY. Ah, but the truth about "The Truth" is We Did Not ALL believe the same way. How I Made My Discovery The first clue dropped like a brick on my head. My Presiding Overseer and his assistant pulled me aside into the KH library after Field Service one Saturday. I was a candidate for this little confidential conspiracy due to the fact everybody in the KH knew I was facing Military Service. I'd spoken previously of my interview with the F.B.I. and my hearing before the Draft Board. I was on the brink--as it were--of what came next. Now I was about to discover what Watchtower Private Policy consisted of and how the authority of the GB was wielded under the radar. (Since I have posted this conversation in detail previously I'll shorten this by summation here.) I was privately instructed in the following: 1. If asked by any authority how I had made my decisions I was NEVER TO DIVULGE I had been instructed what to say. 2. I was to answer questions by repeating it was MY CONSCIENCE telling me what the proper course of action was. 3. I needed to report for my Military Physical Exam. I was supposed to comply with all official government requests up to the point of REPORTING FOR DUTY. 4. Because Federal law allowed Conscientious Objectors ALTERNATE service no young man was legally required to become a soldier. The Overseer stressed that I COULD NOT COMPLY with alternate service. 5. It was explained that ALTERNATE service was a compromise of pure faith because it was still "serving" the Wild Beast rather than Jehovah. 6. By refusing to WORK IN A HOSPITAL, I was told, I would be supporting purity of worship and making a public spectacle of myself demonstrating JEHOVAH's WITNESSES were not like other so-called pacifist Christians. 7. The little library conference ended with a repeated warning not to tell ANYBODY what had been said, not my friends or family! The above was my first inkling. There were TWO LEVELS of Watchtower authority and control. One was Public. One was very Private. Also, I would soon discover there are two levels of Jehovah's Witnesses. Now comes the interesting stage of my awakening to the dual nature of Jehovah's Witnesses. While in Seagoville Federal Prison I studied 5 times a week with the 40 other brothers inside who were inmates sent from several states outside Texas. In addition to the regular meetings there were private study groups. I was most fortunate to be included in a study group conducted by a brother Tollie Padgett. He was a genius, well-educated, articulate and deeply and profoundly a student of the history of the Watchtower organization from its beginnings. In the course of our private study group we went through the old publications. We traced the stages of belief and progress of New Light from 1879 up through the decades. Note: Tollie was a zealot for the Society without doubt--but, he was a THINKING zealot who wanted a depth of fact supporting his beliefs. Those of us in his study group soon discovered something jolting to our sensibilities! THERE WAS A VAST LAYER of UNKNOWN history seldom if ever discussed in Kingdom Halls! It was Brother Padgett's goal to present (for himself and others) a comprehensive college-level awareness of the PROGRESS through time of Jehovah's direction for his true followers. Only by making us aware of the control Jehovah demonstrated over historical events could we thoroughly appreciate the fact WE WERE THE ONLY TRUE RELIGION! SIDEBAR: Once a month the inmates received an official visit from outside the prison by a kind of Circuit Servant. His name was Bourgeosie (Booj-swah). His visit functioned like in a regular Kingdom Hall with the visit of a circuit overseer. During these visits I would see Tollie Padgett asking Brother Bourgeosie some "deep" questions. These were questions which arose in our study group. These were knotty problems we could not puzzle out for ourselves. I would often see the expression on Bourgeosie's face! (I couldn't hear anything because they were off in a corner of the Visiting Room). Bourgeosie had undoubtedly never encountered any questions like the ones Tollie was asking!! Later, Tollie would pass on the "pearls of wisdom" such as they were. He would laugh. He knew he was being stalled. "Brother Bourgeosie is going to write the Society....again" he would chuckle and that was that. We never got any responses from these questions, alas! Back to my topic! Upon parole I re-entered the world of the outside work-a-day Kingdom Hall with my fellow "true" Christians witnesses. It did not take me long to be jolted. I had been in an INTENSE enviornment for two years! The JW's inside prison were up against the NEW LIGHT recently released. The NEW LIGHT came from the new little blue book THE TRUTH THAT LEADS TO ETERNAL LIFE. A worldwide campaign had been fomented by the FDS! For all practical purposes we were being led to believe 1975 would bring the advent of the 1000 year reign of Christ and the New Order (as it was called)! Inside prison the news was received like a bolt of lightning! We felt WE WERE PART OF THE GREAT TRIBULATION which had begun with the incarcerations. YET.... on the outside? NOBODY in the Kingdom Hall seemed IN THE LEAST concerned! NOTE: This is where a deep concern first subconsciouly filtered through my body and mind troubling my spirit, as it were. I can clearly remember thinking the following thought: "What is going on? Inside Seagoville we were spinning at 78 rpms and outside in the real world the JW's are spinning at 331/3 rpms!" When I tried to talk to various brothers or sisters about what I had learned about the early years (which I found interesting to say the least) I was brushed off politely. I had one brother say to me, "Who cares?" The above helps explain why ONLY A RELATIVELY FEW (in comparison to worldwide) brothers and sisters REACTED with vigorous enthusiasm about ARMAGEDDON in 1975 as compared to the rest who must have yawned through the lead up to that fatefully empty year! THERE ARE REALLY TWO Watchtower Societies is my statement about this. 1.People who show up at the Kingdom Hall and go through the motions. 2.People who read and study and deeply believe the details. Those are NOT the same Jehovah's Witnesses at all! Group 1 cannot really explain WHY something is being taught. They simply don't know because they DON'T CARE. They are the ones who do as they are told. Group 2 follow the New Light with great interest and make a concerted effort to reconcile changes. NOTE: Which group is most likely to ask awkward questions and get themselves "marked"? I would say Group 2 is more likely to end up back in Group 1 when they encounter the stonewall. Or Group 2 may end up disfellowshipped :) How many Jehovah's Witnesses have you known and spoken with over the years who DON'T KNOW and DON'T CARE about discrepencies, flip-flops, adjustments, back-peddling and lies SIMPLY BECAUSE they belong to a DIFFERENT Watchtower Society? Different? Yes. There are TWO Watchtower Societies. The first one is BRAIN DEAD conformists doing whatever is commanded. They comply automatically. They make no waves. The second one Cognitive Dissonant thinkers whose brain cells are still active. They "notice" little things. It troubles them but they make excuses. When a "critical mass" of doubts has a head on collision with a PERSONAL problem inside the congregation the cat is out of the bag! The time comes for a clash between the rational and the submissive. What are we to conclude from these TWO Watchtower Societies? Group 1 followers are comfortable enough to stay no matter what. Group 2 have the most options. They are the target audience for New Light explications by the GB. A conversation between a Group 1 type JW and a Group 2 JW is sure to result in the Group 1 person being either bored, impressed or irritated. For the Group 2 JW an encounter with a Group 1 Witness is sure to be discouraging no matter what. Which Group did you belong to? Before I went to prison I was definitely a Group 1 Jehovah's Witness. I did not study for the meetings. I begrudgingly went out in service simply to do my duty. I was bored by details of 607 b.c., etc. After I was paroled I was Group 2 Jehovah's Witness until I couldn't support my family from part-time jobs and full-time Pioneering. Then, my personal crisis led me to move my family to another state and start over. Once I met true friends from other religions who wanted to help me and my family WITHOUT an agenda---it was all over!There are really TWO Watchtower Societies
by Terry 67 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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AndDontCallMeShirley
Your observations are spot on, Terry. It is interesting the coaching you were given, Re: military service. The Org. is telling you what to think, and will penalize you with disfellowshipping if you don't comply, yet cowardly pins all consequences on you, as if everything you are doing is due to your conscience!
The whole ban on "aternative service" was yet another WT absurdity and everyone ECXEPT WT paid the price for that idiotic policy.
Jail instead of military service
"An examination of the historical facts shows that not only have Jehovah's Witnesses refused to put on military uniforms and take up arms but, during the past half century and more, they have also declined to do noncombatant service or to accept other work assignments as a substitute for military service. Many of Jehovah's Witnesses have been imprisoned because they would not violate their Christian neutrality." (United in Worship of the Only True God p.167)
As Ray Franz pointed out in CoC, a survey of JW men imprisoned around the world at that time for following the WT's policy in this matter revealed that the vast majority of them DID NOT understand the WT's reasoning but complied with it anyway, to their detriment. Their decision had nothing to do with their conscience!
After tens of thousands of young Witness men in the prime of their lives have spent years in jails for refusing civilian service in 1996 the Watchtower decided such a choice was not unchristian and a matter of choice.
"What, though, if the State requires a Christian for a period of time to perform civilian service that is a part of national service under a civilian administration? That is his decision before Jehovah." (Watchtower 1996 May 1 p.20)
To your point, the dividing line in the Org. is between those JWs who have a brain and are not afraid to use it, and those who have a brain but have switched it to "off" and allow the GB to do their thinking for them.
comment made by CT Russell:
"The endeavor to compel all men to think alike on all subjects, culminated in the great apostasy
and the development of the papal system, and thereby the gospel, the one faith that Paul and the other apostles set forth, was lost- buried under the mass of uninspired decrees of popes and councils. The unity of the early church, based upon the simple gospel and bound only by love, gave way to the bondage of the church of Rome…Each new reform movement has made the failure of attempting to make a creed just large enough for its prime movers." p. l572 9/1893 WT -
maisha
You Nailed it!.
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label licker
Just before leaveing our hall for the last time we were asking too many questions. Anyone that replied would say we're too deep or we take our bible too serious. Even when we would try and talk about examples in the bible we would be told where did you read that or who did you hear that from. The most hilarious was when a sister told me she loved the life stories in the watchtower and that's our spiritual heritage. I grabbed my bible and said no, the bible is my spiritual heritage! You should have seen the blank look on her face and now she tells everyone that I'm too negative about the society. Yet, I'm not the one that has a potti mouth or hangs out with worldly people and tries to hide what I am from the witnesses.
I hope her husband asks her to explain the July watchtower coming out that cedars explained. She's the type that will get pissed off when she sees that it doesn't make sense and she can't answer his questions.
Proud to be a watchtower reject since that's how the elders made us feel when they couldn't answer our questions but attacked us with : don't be so dogmatic, negative, critical and are you questioning the fds.
Terry, you are so dead on. And I am saying that in a POSITIVE light!
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Bella15
It is a CORPORATION ...not even a Christian Ministry so and so ... a CORPORATION ... when I visited their building in NYC and I saw the forecast charts in their walls ... forecasting into years to come how much PUBLICATIONS they will "distribute" SELL, construction etc for years to come ... it was all about the CORPORATION not even mention of saving souls for JESUS, or bringing people to JESUS ... everything was about their publications ... funny that during that excursion we took a non-JW friend with us,,, he laughed at me and said YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME ,,, because he realized how false they are
We all exJWs have come to know the CORPORATION and how they are screewing up the members or the way the do business as Jehovah's Witness ... so for me it goes like this:
Watchtower Corporation DBA (doing business as ) Congregation of Jehovah's Witness ... LOL
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JeffT
In general I agree with your assessment, when I became a JW I THOUGHT I was joing a group of people who studied the Bible carefully and attempted to learn what it said with preconceived notions of dogma. By the time I found out what the real deal was, I was sucked in to far to get out easily. Obviously, I made it out eventually.
A couple of the pieces of advice you got do make sense though. The draft boards wanted to hear that you were a Consciencious Objector based on personal belief. If you went in and said I can't fight because I'm a JW (or a Quaker or whatever) you were done. Taking the physical was also a good idea. After sweating about it for four years in college I found out I was 4F when I took my physical in my senior year.
The thing about the alternate service deal that really gets me is the double standard in Mexico.
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Finkelstein
Interesting observation Terry
I would go even further and say there are even more distinct societies within the JWs, from my personal memory there were
a broad variance of believers going to Kingdom Halls, some at the highest level of acceptance and state of believability,
right down to the lowest state, who only went to a KH 6 times a year, including the Memorial.
All that programmed indoctrination effected people in many various ways.
You mentioned about how the JWs were expected to be persecuted for their preaching work,
to a point if they weren't persecuted they wouldn't be recognized or identified as being the chosen true preachers of the Gospel.
Essentially being persecuted helped in creating and reconfirm their own purposed self identity of themselves. (the true chosen preachers)
This is where the WTS. left people such as yourself to be the organization's recognized martyrs for the organization and duly exploited with
that expressive intent.
The sad and unfortunate part is that people that fell into grasp of this illegitimate publishing corporation got exploited and manipulated
upon false deceiving doctrines, that were intensionally created with that inherent agenda in mind.
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Terry
The bifurcation in this religion breaks out in bumps over and over again.
The doctrine is evidence of binary thinking.
Christianity worships Jesus as God.
Jehovah's Witnesses worshipped a 2 deity rulership (Jehovah/Jesus) omitting holy spirit to defeat a Trinitarian stance.
Jehovah's Witnesses abandoned that in 1954. (Watchtower 1954 Jan 1 p.31)
Today, the Governing Body has replaced Jesus as mediator between Jehovah and His people.
The flock in Russell's time was all true believers.
Eventually the flock was split into anointed remnant and Great Crowd.
Now, the anointed are split into GB and domestics.
The taxonomy consists again again in division rather than unity.
We have public Watchtower magazines and Private for study.
We have secret elder manuals and secret policy.
The GB has a public voice for PR purposes on both blood transfusions and on disfellowship policy.
The split-personality is a very telling demonstration of cognitive dissonace made necessary by
the constant intrusion of reality upon mind controlled members and authority itself.
And they call Apostates mentally diseased??!!
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AndDontCallMeShirley
Hey Terry:
I thought you would find this interesting. It shows that really nothing has changed since your experience in 1967, and that the Watchtower is as deceptive as ever. Note not only the hypocrisy in the following quotes but also the flat-out lie, namely, saying that Jehovah's Witnesses are not bound to think exactly as the WT orders them to think:
*** w98 3/15 p. 19 par. 4 Living Up to Christian Dedication in Freedom ***
4 In order to avoid misunderstandings, Jehovah’s Witnesses try to be careful about how they express themselves. Instead of saying, "the Society teaches," many Witnesses prefer to use such expressions as, "the Bible says" or, "I understand the Bible to teach." In this way they emphasize the personal decision that each Witness has made in accepting Bible teachings and also avoid giving the false impression that Witnesses are somehow bound to the dictates of some religious sect. Of course, suggestions as regards terminology should never become a subject of controversy. After all, terminology is of importance only to the extent that it prevents misunderstandings. Christian balance is required. The Bible admonishes us "not to fight about words." (2 Timothy 2:14, 15) The Scriptures also state this principle: "Unless you through the tongue utter speech easily understood, how will it be known what is being spoken?"—1 Corinthians 14:9.
However, this phrase, "the Society says", did not originate with the rank-and-file, it originated fom the Watchtower itself! As the following quote shows:
*** w52 7/1 p. 414 Questions From Readers ***
"The Watchtower Society says to take the children to meetings. But what if they are too small to understand? Or what if those old enough do not want to go? — D. C., New York.
"The Society says that children should be taken to the congregational meetings because the Bible says so...."
----- So, the WT demands that every JW believe exactly what WT teaches, and no dissension or differing thought is allowed. However, they don't want you to admit that to anyone, so the order from headquarters is to deny they've told you what to say.
THERE is a difference—a big difference—between education and propaganda. Education shows you how to think. Propaganda tells you what to think. Good educators present all sides of an issue and encourage discussion. Propagandists relentlessly force you to hear their view and discourage discussion.
Often their real motives are not apparent. They sift the facts, exploiting the useful ones and concealing the others. They also distort and twist facts, specializing in lies and half-truths. Your emotions, not your logical thinking abilities, are their target. (JW.Org)
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Condemned yet again by their own words!!!!!!
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Finkelstein
I'm under the impression that the GB members have intensionally refocused their power (New Light) because they are starting
to feel the pressure of being openly exposed to the organization's fraudulent actives, such as what can be easily found on the inter-net these days.
I also sense a cowering down of sorts from the organization's previous heavy power structure which existed back in the 60's and 70's.
Could this open and available exposure be indirectly weakening these fellows to their knees ..... I certainly hope so for the positive.