My own view is that any creator-God who fails to hold on to the whole of the created order is incompetent and (therefore) cannot be 'God' who must, by his very nature as 'God', be able to do anything. The 'free will' argument does not invalidate this view, and that is most certainly so as more evidence arises to support the deterministic viewpoint that everything we do is guided by our genes, upbringing and environment (and yes, I am a hard determinist).
God saving only the adherents of the WT Society out of all the human beings on earth hardly says much for God. Plus the fact the WT fails to offer any credible argument to answer the common theodical objections raised for why an all-loving, benevolent being allows so much unnecessary and unproductive suffering in the animal kingdom and in human infancy where 'choice' does not exist.
Another problem I have with the WT is that this is supposed to be an evil world, the system of which doomed to destruction and yet they have children! The JW I met recently has three. To me this makes no sense if they really believe what the Society is telling them. I realise that at one time the Society discouraged having children, but that is clearly no longer the case.
Furthermore there is the fact that Jesus is supposed to have taught his followers to desert their families and leave everything behind (eg., Luke 14:26,33) and the first Christians 'had all things in common' (Acts 2:44-45, 4:32). Why don't JWs do this? From what I see, many own their own houses, have cars and no doubt have insurance policies - how do they square this with say, Matt 6:25,31,32, Heb 10:34? Surely if they really believed these were 'the end times', they would all be preaching full time and barely distinguishable from non-believers in respect of finances and security?
David
