Every so often we get so stuck with specifics and the latest WT scandals or doctrinal nuances that it's good to get back to the basics. That is the purpose of this thread.
I cannot count the times that, when dubs arguments are demolished with quotes from their own literature and practices, they resort to this statement in sheer desperation: Well, at least weve got the basics right. No trinity, no hellfire and no immortal soul.
The problem with this is that those are NOT the basics. Not even close. And not a single one of that trinity of basics has a single thing to do with the quality of one's life or how one deals with life, family and others. In fact, there are as many sound arguments for those beliefs as there are against them. If God considered those basic beliefs as the real basics, he would have made darn sure the Bible would have been written in such a way that his position on the matter was crystal clear. He didn't, so they arent.
Well, what ARE the basics, then? More importantly, do Jehovahs Witnesses live up to ALL the basics, or do they live up to ANY of the basics?
Since Jehovah's Witnesses not only claim to be Christians, but the ONLY human Christians in the entire Universe, we can use the words of Christ to define those basics. I think the Bible is pretty clear when it discusses what Christ said about the basics. In fact, Jesus was crystal clear about what HE considered to be the most important basics.
Jesus said that with his coming, the old Jewish law was fulfilled and therefore abolished. On the other hand, the WTS considers parts of the law to be so important to their religion, that they've made POLICY and RULES on what they call important principles in that law. But Jesus didn't say he wasn't relieving Christians from the principles of the law. He said he was relieving Christians from the law itself. Period. Not some of it. Not most of it. But ALL of it. One therefore has to ask why the WT has made RULES and POLICIES out of Jewish law and enforced those rules with spiritual execution. Principles are fine and dandy, but to FORCE an interpretation of these interpretations as LAW is exactly the opposite of what Jesus said and did and exactly what the leaders of Jehovah's Witnesses have done. By doing so, they are saying Jesus was a LIAR. It can be no other way, despite how they try to explain their actions away.
Simple case in point: the Jews used to stone people to death (including children) who were consistently wicked. The WT magazine in an early 1950's article spoke rather fondly of that practice and regretted that the laws of the land in modern times prevented them from stoning their own children who were rebellious. I would like to point out that with those words the Watchtower Leaders regretted the very words of Jesus in abolishing that provision. How could the only True Christian faith dare REGRET the laws established by Jesus Christ himself? They were sad they wished Jesus hadn't done what he had done and wished the laws of modern society actually agreed with what Jesus had abolished for Christians. And they're his followers? His faithful slave? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! How many slaves do you know can get away with calling their masters a liar and still be favored by their masters?
THATS' what I mean about talking about the basics. In fact, Jesus himself said the entire law could be summed up into two basic and simple things: love God and love your neighbor. It doesn't get more basic than that, folks.
Well, the Watchtower religion thinks differently. It has to play with what it thought Jesus really meant when he was talking about loving your neighbor. To a simple schmuck like me, loving your neighbor means without making this too complicated, "loving your neighbor." That looks really dang basic to me!
To the Watchtower Religion, however, it means not loving your neighbor, but loving your fellow JW. So if a neighbor is not a JW, he must not be a neighbor, even if he just happens to be an actual neighbor. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Or, when cornered on that one, they say that they do love all of their neighbors and they show that love to non-believers by selling them books and converting them.
So, in sticking with the basics, how did Jesus explain to us to show love to our neighbors? He told us the story about the Good Samaritan. The Samaritans were a group of people HATED by the Jews, yet Jesus showed believers that the Jews were not following his teachings because none of them helped out the poor man who was hurt and robbed by bandits. They just kept walking on by him, showing their hate and prejudice. It took an evil Samaritan to show the kind of help for neighbors he was talking about. That Samaritan didn't sell the guy any books or even give him any books, and that Samaritan didnt offer to study with the victim to show his love and compassion for him. NO! He ignored their differences and helped the guy out with what he really needed at the moment: wounds that needed healing and money to get him going again.
It doesn't get more obvious and more basic than that, yet JWs are taught to do exactly the OPPOSITE of what that Samaritan did. Once again, by their actions they are calling Jesus a LIAR once again. This is really simple stuff, folks. No arguments over doctrine. The Good Samaritan story is so simple a 4-year-old child would get it. The Watchtower Religion doesn't get it. I'll put my trust in a 4-year-old child.
With regards to their claims that they DO show love for each other in their own religion (even if they dont for people in other religions), they still have RULES and POLICIES about that! The WT and Proclaimers book specifically state that for the congregation as an entity to help out one of their own in need the following POLICIES must be observed:
1) The person in need must first have asked all his/her relatives for help and been refused any help.
2) The person in need must have had a LONG record of service in the Watchtower religion.
3) The person in need must have also had not just a long record of service, but a long record of FA ITHFUL service in the Watchtower religion.
Otherwise, that person is screwed and the congregation is not allowed to help. This is in print, folks. I didn't make this up. I've posted the references before. Does she have long years of service, but not always faithful service in all those long years? No? She screwed. Does she have short years of service, but all of those short years were indeed years of faithful service? No? Shes still screwed. The congregation will not help her.
Love your God and love your neighbor. Simple words. The basics. The words of Pharisees trying to make rules out of the basics and in fact, invalidate them. Jesus is a liar once again in WatchtowerLand.
Would any JW care to explain to us how the Watchtower Religion can make RULES about the congregation helping others that aren't even close to following the example Jesus gave to illustrate his point? Moreover, we arent talking about total strangers who are also non-believes (like the Samaritan and the Jew), but to JW brothers and sisters in need.
In Part II, I'll discuss even more examples of the basics that most other Christian religions have figured out and that the Watchtower hasn't. I'm only going to deal with the really, really, really EASY stuff. The stuff that is so easy, it cannot be debated with a straight face; the stuff toddlers can understand and apply, but for some strange reason, seems to totally escape the leaders of Jehovahs Witnesses. And a good percentage of the 6,000,000 people who worship their words.
Despite what they say, they don't even have the basics right. Not even the simple stuff.
Farkel
Edited by - Farkel on 12 August 2002 22:8:30