by DS211 39 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
“Then if anyone says to YOU, ‘Look! Here is the Christ,’ or, ‘There!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will give great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the chosen ones. - Matt 24:23
I've been pondering all the boasting going on in the JW organization in recent years, and this verse keeps coming to my mind.
Well, how many people can pat their head, rub their belly, dance the Macarena and whistle Dixie all at the same time? This just makes them unique, not right. By that criteria, all religions are "right".
For all Orthodox Christians, there's a short creed that all agree to, even if forms and manner of worship may be different. A committee got together and agreed, if all follow this creed, they are Christian. If they don't, they're something else.
There's no similar creed for the Jehovah's Witnesses. The closest I've found is the (what, 200?) baptismal questions, which also include admonitions towards personal hygiene. Is a Jehovah's Witness who fails to wash his hands after attending the bathroom then shakes your hand, no longer a Jehovah's Witness?
Preaching the message? There's the Jesus Film project, Gideons, and others. They are superior because they share the bible, unadulterated.
Wherever you, go, you get the same "loving" treatment. There's Hostelling International and McDonald's.
Follow the bible the best they can. The Seventh Day Adventists are more rigorous in this regard.
Don't celebrate "pagan" holidays. You mean, like Mother's Day? There are other cults that abstain from holidays. They are wrong. Refusing to celebrate in annual family events further isolates the cultist and alienates them from family and friends. Generational JW's understand that this rule is ridiculous and find ways around it, like having a "special day" for their child close to their birthday.
Outsmartthesystem--thanks for that. Ive been on jwfacts quite a bit. I think my problem is i have trouble remembering what to say at a given time. I can spot many of these fallacies, and i absolutely 100% agree about them putting trust in men/nobles. My problem is utilizing it in my own way to be subtle...the fact that im a baptized member makes it difficult to bring up topics too much too soon. my angle right now is my wife. I have to convince her....the longer im in, the longer i take the more difficult it gets to take. i agree with everyones comments though, good stuff.
oh and the elder responded to the holiday thing--"well no ones REALLY 100% sure where some of those things originated so thats why its a conscience matter lol i coukdnt help but smile
Please tell me more about your family/wife situation. My wife and I divorced over this. Some of the best advice I've heard from those still in....with family still in is for you to take the lead as your family head when it comes to the weekly family study. Slowly but surely you can introduce critical thinking to your wife week by week in a very subtle form. This didn't work for me because I had mentally and physically left the cult years before I tried to reach my wife. I was already dead to her so I had no way of truly reaching her.
oh and the elder responded to the holiday thing--"well no ones REALLY 100% sure where some of those things originated so thats why its a conscience matter lol i coukdnt help but smile
If it is a conscience matter then ask him if you could put up Christmas lights this year and celebrate without getting DFd. The reality is that if it has pagan roots (according to the elder manual) you'd be up for a judicial committee. If we aren't 100% sure where these things originated then we can't be 100% sure that God hates them. If we aren't 100% sure God hates them then how can we disfellowship people for choosing to participate in a celebration that the bible does not specifically condemn? Didn't Jesus condemn the pharisees for making up rules with no clear backing?
The jws go beyond the gospel of the apostles, read him galations were Paul states that one that teaches other then the gospel will be cursed. Then tell him to read acts, the gospel is all about Christ and not Jehovah. Then read him Luke 21:8 in the new king James bible and ask him what christ means. Means anointed one. This should shut him up and leave a niece taste in his head to think about for some time.
Whether the Watchtower organization is efficient is debatable. I imagine they are efficient at pushing a button on a printing press, packing boxes and doing housekeeping on their facilities. This is evidence that they are God's organization??
Consider then how efficient they are in reaching people with an urgent life saving message! Their method is to send people to walk around ringing bells on doors that rarely open. How efficient is this? Compare this with how efficient other organizations are : Fedex, Apple, Nasa, etc etc which have to implement incredibly intricate methods to streamline R & D, production, deployment, support in a scale which is much larger. Surely these are true marvels of efficiency when compared to " Press button to print pamphlet, then pack boxes..." operations at the Watchtower organization.
If a mayor of a city needed to warn the citizens that the water supply was poisoned, do you think he could find a more efficient method to inform people other than ringing door bells??? If relying on people to calmly stroll around ringing door bells, is the best that the Creator of the entire universe can do, they we are in trouble...
The Jesus Film project now offers formats that can be played on a cell phone. In the remotest parts of the third world (central India, Africa), cell phones are ubiquitous. The project is adapting to the needs of the people in these "unreached" areas. The WTS is so slow to adapting it is laughable.
The Nazis were very efficient.
So what?
