WTS was a book publishing company. They used to print the KJV until they decided to make and publish their own Bible. Charles Russell calculated and made all his predictions on when the end would come by using the Egyptian pyramids. It's in their history books.
Why doesn't the Watchtower Society never study the Bible cover to cover?
by RULES & REGULATIONS 29 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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blondie
Supposedly, attendees at Gilead (1 month) and Bethel (1 year), are required to read the bible cover to cover in less than year. Even ordinary publishers have been told to make reading the entire bible a personal goal and how to do it, from a hard copy of the bible and not from a screen (another case of speaking out of both sides of their mouth)..
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/s/r1/lp-e?q=reading+entire+bible+gilead&p=par&r=occ
All members of the global Bethel family who serve at the world headquarters or at one of the Society’s branches are required to read the entire Bible during the first year of their Bethel service.
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2002443?q=goal+whole+bible&p=sen
What will make studying easier for you, more appealing? Goals. What realistic study goals could you set? For many, an admirable first goal is that of reading the entire Bible. Perhaps up till now, you have read sections of the Bible on occasion and have benefited from it. Could you now make it your determination to read the entire Bible? Your initial goal to that end might be to read the four Gospels, followed by an intermediate goal, such as then reading the rest of the Christian Greek Scriptures. Once you have the resulting satisfaction and benefits, your next goal might be a progressive reading of the books of Moses and the historical books through Esther. Accomplishing that, you will see it is realistic to complete the rest of the Bible. One woman, who was about 65 years old when she became a Christian, wrote on the inside cover of her Bible the date when she began to read it through and later the date when she finished it. She now has five pairs of dates! (Deuteronomy 32:45-47) And rather than read from a computer screen or printout, she had the Bible in her hands.
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2018368?q=reading+entire+bible&p=par
At 12 years of age, Toby set the goal of reading the entire Bible before his baptism.
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/402016687?q=reading+entire+bible&p=par
One of the best ways to strengthen your faith is to read the entire Bible. Perhaps you could try to read it in one year. That helped a circuit overseer draw closer to Jehovah when he was young. He said: “One thing that helped me to appreciate that the Bible is the Word of God was reading it right through.
Here is what jws are told to people who think reading the bible is how they receive understanding.
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1101989261#h=70:0-71:0
‘I just read my Bible at home and pray to God for understanding’
You might reply: ‘Have you succeeded in reading the entire Bible as yet?’ Then perhaps add: ‘As you work on that, you will find something very interesting at Matthew 28:19, 20. . . . This is significant because it shows that Christ uses other humans to help us to understand what is involved in being a real Christian. In harmony with that, Jehovah’s Witnesses offer to visit people in their home for an hour or so each week, free of charge, to discuss the Bible. May I take just a few minutes to show you how we go about it?’
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stan livedeath
i was forced to start reading the bible in my teens. i got to the talking snake and lost interest.
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blondie
I have to admit that I quit reading after Genesis, too many questions and stupid answers in the WTS publications. I did like Psalms, Proverbs, and the gospels and Acts. I read parts of the NWT that applied to things I wanted to discuss with so-called bible experts in my congregations. I was forced to go through the book of Revelation several times at the book study, about 5 times (too many questions then also). I have found that reading the bible through if not in order of the books, helps to see things in context in contrast to how the WTS has twisted them by using snippets and only citations instead of whole quotes (avoids the context problem).
For example, I asked a long-time jw POMI about the phrase, governing body, as to where it appeared in the bible. Of course, he took me to Acts 15 and was stunned not to find it there. I also told him that no where in the WTS publications do they indicate in this format "governing body" (a snippet) is a quote from the bible, they do associate that scripture with that phrase subtly implying that the phrase is in that scripture. He was stunned, he always bragged to me how often he had read the bible through and intensively studied it while going to the KH. I pointed out that I had found that because of the snippets, citations only, and bouncing around all over the bible, that many things had not occurred to me until I was trying to prove it to others.
Another, example, does the WTS stated in direct terms, that Jesus is Michael the archangel or do they dance around that?
Let me know what you find out. I know what I found out.
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TheOldHippie
I do not quite understand what you mean with your question. In the so-called mid-week meeting, each week two or three chapters are commented on, a talk is given on a major point from the chapters, and those present are invited to tell what points of interest they have found in the chapters in question. They start with Genesis and end with Revelation after five years or so, and then they start all over again. Additionally, when a new book of the Bible is in line, a video is shown giving the main points, the background, the when and where and by whom.
In short, exactly what you state is NOT done.
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sir82
They start with Genesis and end with Revelation after five years or so, and then they start all over again.
Just a point of clarification, the 5-year cycle is what used to be done in the old Theocratic Ministry School.
Now, with the CLM, they go much much much slower. They've only covered Matthew - part of 2 Corinthians since January 2018 - at that rate it will will take at least 10 years to cover the whole Bible.
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dozy
‘I just read my Bible at home and pray to God for understanding’
You might reply: ‘Have you succeeded in reading the entire Bible as yet?’ Then perhaps add: ‘As you work on that...
Something of a patronising response there!
As Old Hippie says , there is a weekly bible reading portion which ( slowly ) proceeds through the bible. Other than that , systematic regular bible reading ( without reference to the Societies publications ) isn't especially encouraged , and certainly not as a private group ( which may encourage apostasy. ) .
When I was a JW , I started a project once to read the Greek scriptures & quite enjoyed it , though I gave up half way through as there is always so much more to do in JW activities that made it difficult to sustain ( some irony there , sadly ). To look at things in context did give me something of a different perspective from the traditional Society method of pulling scriptures from all over the place to support their doctrines.
Otherwise , the bible ( especially the OT ) is a bit of a dogs breakfast and to read it cover-to-cover is extremely tedious.
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stillin
It seems to me that there is a lot of effort needed to plow through much of the material in the Bible. And more often than not there is no return on that effort. My thinking was that it is God's word, He wants me to read it, and even if it's difficult I should consider it an investment of myself. To this day I have no idea why so much of it would ever have any relevance. When one of the publications or talks try to shoehorn some obscure scripture into some sort of wisdom, it's just mind-numbing, which can't possibly be the reaction that Jehovah was looking for when He inspired those words.
Can it?
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StephaneLaliberte
As a JW, I always took pride in the fact that we would read the bible cover to cover every three years through the weekly bible reading.
What I hadn't realized though is that it is impossible to keep track of the context and writing style of the authors at such a rate. And so, you don't connect various events and teachings as you should and you end up reading the bible all wrong through the lens of the Watchtower.
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moreconfusedthanever
The bouncing around and choosing scripture back and forth constantly was what convinced my son that "the truth" is not true. He worked that out before I did. He was 14.