Defining What is the Truth about the Truth of the Jehovah's Witnesses Religion

by Finkelstein 11 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Finkelstein

  In an endeavor to clearly define the truth about the truth of the JW religion, whats your personal perception of what you understand of how this religion came to be, in its inherit beginning and how it was able to sustain itself over the years ?
  

  From my own perspective I think the strategic actions by its founding leaders to draw attention to their own published works such as the singular endeavors starting from C T Russell and onward.

  The self proposing recognition by people such as J Rutherford, that god had specifically (1919) chosen " His " organization exclusively, is really where and when this assuming man made power began and continued to flourish.

  But the real significant thing that created attention to the public's eyes and imagination was when both Russell and Rutherford proclaimed that Christ had returned and he had started to divide and choose who was going to be saved from destruction and live on in a earthly paradise and who was to be killed at the soon to come day of judgement.
  

  Strategically one of the most important ways to show your spiritual devotion to Jehovah in appeasement to him and therefore save yourself, was to publicly distribute the literature the WTS published.
  

  This was said to be life saving work not only for the person participating in this activity but also to the public to whom they were preaching to.

  This is another reason why counting time in service is integrated into the organization's monthly publishers report card, how many placements of literature were distributed and so on.
  

  Everything is to create something outwardly appealing to the public's view, right down to the way you dress, to the length of your hair and many other subjective controls to create an image of appealing worthiness, pretty much like a private business designates how its employees are to dress, talk, look etc.
  

  One shouldn't pursue education because that meant you are not supporting the suggestion that the world is coming to an end soon. An over abundance of controls were devised into making the JW adherents stand out as something unique and distinct from all the other Christian based faiths and by doing was to create a superficial appearance of righteousness and purity assumed by each individual and to the extenuating organization as a whole..
  

  Power was proportionately offered out to separate individuals who showed steadfast obedience and loyalty to the GB men, who self identified themselves as having the most spiritual strength within the organization, who were also perceived to have the most spiritual power to repel the evil intentions of Satan the devil who was said to be the real cognitive reason why there was so much pain, suffering and misery in the world.

  Because this capability to repel Satan and his wicked evil forces, the JWS leaders proclaimed that JWS are therefore the happiest people on earth in knowing what they are doing is going to eventually save their lives and live on in a earthly paradise.

  So there is many engaging elements into why people get involved into this organization, into why they do the things they do and say the things they say, all to the dismaying acknowledgement by outside observers.

  JWS are truly captives of a concept, why and how that captivating concept came to be is another interesting and compelling story to be told.
  
• 

  Phizzy

  The problem is when trying to present TTATT to someone, we usually have no clear idea what will have an effect on them.

  Few are bothered about Doctrine, I was, (a rare exception), most are not bothered by scandals concerning Chazzer or Boozer, most are upset by revelations concerning Abuse, but even so, many manage somehow to continue as JW's despite the huge problem in their beloved org. Many seem more affected by the fact that there is not real love in the Org. They have been familiar for so long with the words of Jesus about how to tell his true disciples, that the evident lack of love has an effect that is quite telling.

  I was fascinated to learn, after I had woken up and left, about the various shenanigans that went on the early days, a little under Russell's presidency, loads under that of Rutherford, and it seems to me that luck more than judgement kept them going.

  Rutherford knew about Publicity, that alone kept the WT's head above water. Holy Spirit was sorely lacking.

  I think if we can get an honest-hearted JW to examine any of the things I have mentioned, in a thorough and in-depth way, with a mind as open as possible, then they cannot but conclude that what they are part of is the opposite of The Truth.
• 

  Hadriel

  Doctrine is only good for those that served in some capacity as an Elder, MS, C.O., D.O. pioneer etc. You have to have a deep understanding of the doctrine to start with before you can unwind it as false.

  More often than not a personal experience or experience they are aware of where someone was treated unjustly or shown no love has greater effect than doctrine.

  The ARC and the UK charity commissions among others that are sure to pop up are likely to have quite the effect over time.
• 

  Finkelstein

  One could say the JWS are saturated in delusion, when they do hear of some damaging information about the organization, they tend to make excuses and be dismissive most of time, after all this organization is so much more righteous than all other religions, they know this by what the WTS leaders told them so.
  

  The overall control and loyalty is deeply indoctrinated to all JWS and that's why its quite difficult for people who've been deeply involved, have a hard and difficult time to leave.
  
• 

  Freeandclear

  For me the start of my waking up was my disfellowshipping in April of 2015. Since I had never been DF'd before I took it pretty hard and I was really struggling with some personal non-doctrinal related issues.

  I still believed it was the truth for the most part and was contemplating getting my act together and getting back in. Then I decided to do some research on the organization and see what if anything was to be found out there on the internet. I found jwfacts.com and that was where the real eye opening happened.

  Three things really clinched it for me.

  First of all I should say this; I am now agnostic. I pretty much believe there was a creator or a first cause to all of <this> around us. To me that seems obvious and I think even science must somewhat agree with that idea that something had to cause it. Something doesn't come from nothing. Life does not arise spontaneously. But I digress....

  The three lines of reasoning for me are as follows:

  1. Deut. 18:21, 22

  21 You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?” 22 If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.

  The JW religion has made many many false prophecies over the years. This alone was enough for me to scratch my head and say "Yep, they are not the one true religion." However I don't believe in the Bible anymore anyway so....

  2. The whole 1919 "Jesus examined us and chose us out of all other professed Christians at the time because of what we believed" etc... (quotes mine) Then when you look at just what the JW org was believing at that time there is no resemblance of what they believe now. They did all kinds of un-christian pagan things back then.

  3. Finally, the ARC. When G. Jackson was asked if the org taught that they were the one true spokesman for God on Earth and he bold faced lied and said "Well that would be presumptuous of us to think that...." I about fell out of my chair. For a GB member to say that......it just blew my mind because this is precisely what they believe and teach. Theocratic warfare my ass.

  I'm fully awake now. I have no fear of them at all.
• 

  Terry
• 

  Finkelstein

  Good read Terry thanks
  

  One could realistically say that the JWS religion was founded and based upon overextending speculation, hype, voyeuristic opportunism, power seeking self adulation, tainted with a bit of commercialized corruption, which was instigated through the operation of a publishing house.

  Or to put it another way, an open unregulated continuous exercise in religoius charlatanism.
  
• 

  Finkelstein

  Terry where did your post go ?
  
• 

  ttdtt

  Let's not go beyond the things written brothers.

  Haaaaaaaaaaaaa
• 

  Finkelstein

  I'll re-post it if that's OK
  

  I think little Charlie Russell having been born after many miscarriages by his mother, was doted on and coddled beyond normal. His mother died of a fever epidemic when he was about 9 and he may have associated burning with fever with burning in hell.
  He seemed to be obsessed about hell for awhile even to the point of graffiti on sidewalks marking scriptures as warnings.
  
  He was privately tutored and brought into the men's clothing business and given and adult's responsibilities. Although the family was Presbyterian, there appears to be a streak of insubordination in the genes because they switched to a Congregational church with an autonomy of leadership and no organizational oversight.
  Why was this a big deal, do you think?
  You might suspect Charlie had a feeling of being too special to follow other people's orders. Maybe he was reared like a little Prince destined for greatness.
  
  Charlie must have been spoiling for a debate because an atheist got ahold of him and apparently left him dazed and confused for awhile.
  It is here where young Charlie probably had to choose whether he was a retail merchant by trade or man of higher principles destined by God to educate the whole earth about God's soon-to-arrive Prince of Peace.

  The fact that a young man would seek such an apotheosis is astonishing unless he was a preening Narcissist. I'm no psychiatrist, but I suspect he had delusions and perhaps burgeoning megalomania.
  ______
  
  Russell was living at a time of great unrest. After the War of 1812, a Baptist lay preacher named William Miller had gotten a big reputation from juggling scriptures and dates resulting in a mad dash to escape the downside of Armageddon. The prediction of `1843/1844 must have caused a thrilling sensation in all Christian folks who took such things seriously.
  I speculate that young Charlie Russell saw the effect of Miller's predictions on simple church folk to the extent they began leaving their own churches and preparing themselves for Christ's coming. This was truly a Big Moment!
  
  Despite the 'Great Disappointment,' the true believers would not admit defeat or own up to being dead wrong. A great many clever and imaginative Christians had their own unique ideas. Some printed and published those schemes along with charts and dates and all sorts of crackpot speculations.
  Keep your eye on these people!
  They were stubborn and impervious to reason. If you got them in your corner with just the right kind of razzle dazzle you would have a strong core of solid gold as a foundation for whatever kind of ego monument you'd care to build.
  _______
  Civil War had damaged Christian's Puritan ideals of a shining city on a hill. People were eager for answers and quick solution to their very human woes. If somebody could convince them of a way out of their problems--that man stood to make a fortune!
  
  This is where Charles Taze Russell emerged as a very wily and ambitious "Seeker" as well as an investor in such ideas.
  
  Two things launched C.T. Russell's career as a future pastor, columnist, author, lecturer and entrepreneur of a worldwide movement. He was able to AFFORD his weird hobby, dabbling, cherry-picking, and eventual invention of a theology.
  What if you ran your religious ideology like a business? Not like his competitors in the marketplace of ideas who were on a shoestring--but really put some money behind the marketing and distribution?
  
  He partnered up with men who were high-profile and got in with the crowd of movers and shakers and began competing--not as a businessman selling clothing--but as a purveyor of religious crackpot ideas exemplified with dazzling bullshit.
  
  He hired book salesmen (colporteurs) and publicized his work in a way nobody else could afford to do. He put his money where his mouth was and got in at the right time.
  
  Russell had just the right personality, manners, courtesy and genteel style to win over women (who were the bulk of Christianity as far as becoming followers.)
  
  His weird arrangement with Maria Frances Eckley to have a sexless marriage formed a beneficial partnership (she was a helluva editor and writer) and a terrific "photo op" when the two of them began working the crowds both in print and in many visits to homestyle Bible Student gatherings. This was a power couple like Jim and Tammy Faye Baker in later years. The glow of success and divine light was irresistable.
  _______
  The selfstyled Pastor Russell believed his own bullshit up to a certain point when his personal actions and treatment of others (partners and wife) triggered an awakening.
  He became shrewd, cowardly, stealthy, litigious, self-aggrandizing, and cruel.
  Throwing himself into a whirlwind of predictions, prognostications, pyramid schemings and, above all, churning out a revolutionary method of Bible Study (Studies in the Scriptures) he broke down the barrier for common folk by making study Topical and lending his slant to a pseudo-revelatory tutorial about End Times.
  
  Being half-charlatan and half-assed spellbinder, Russell spent the last years of his life juggling lawsuits, marital scandals, newspaper exposes, and the disintegration of his slapdash prophetic fulfillments which were crashing and burning right and left.
  
  The fact that he edited out all his Wrong predictions and changed the wording in reprints, indicates a guilty state of mind and awareness of his errors.
  
  As he aged and grew frail, he had on staff both a firebrand lawyer with gigantic ego ambitious to outgrow his humble agrarian background and an autodidact with a photographic memory who had had plans to be a theologian.
  
  Rutherford was the lawyer and Franz was the whiz kid with the photographic memory who had an invaluable talent. He could dip into the Bible and pull out anything you wanted him to produce and make it sound like it was prophecy.
  
  
  

  When Russell died on a train in Texas on Halloween, Rutherford and his carefully placed minions knew exactly what moves to make both legally and strategically to produce an insurgency with the goal of commandeering Russell's shell of an empire and branding it as his own.
  
  Rutherford was the polar opposite of Russell and he damned near wrecked everything by making enemies out of allies right and left. But, with Franz by his side, a wicked legal mind, and a bellicose temperament, he blazed a scorched earth policy across the entire Bible Student movement.
  

  Rutherford was ruthless, diabolical and hellbent on being a Big Man who could make everybody bow to his unbridled power. He published a book (The Finished Mystery) under false pretenses (Russell's 7th volume) and got himself and the other Directors of the Society prosecuted by the Federal Government for being traitors to their country in a time of war (WWI).
  Luckily for Rutherford and the others, the war ended soon after and the unnecessary expense of prosecuting a religious organization's lunatic administrators who had appealed on a "Writ of Error" turned on a whim and the case was dropped. None of these men were exonerated, simply released.
  
  Rutherford went on a holy crusade to punish everybody everywhere and he became a tyrannical monster throwing people of faith into the fire to create martyrs and publicity for his new-fangled religion with the awkward new name: Jehovah's Witnesses. What else would a Lawyer and part-time judge think of but "Witnesses"?
  
  These first two men were larger-than-life and totally driven by inner demons. They surrounded themselves with ardent supporters and cronies who would march into the furnace for them. They built an empire off the volunteer army of true believers by keeping the carrot of heaven or paradise in front and the stick of Armageddon to create fear of ferocious destructions at the hands of an angry, vengeful God.
  
  Every wrong step made, and each faulty explanation given--each silly prognostication and preposterous prediction, drove the weak members out and solidified the cognitive dissonance of the staunch loyalists who remained on.
  
  We all know the rest of the story. One day we joined them and one day we left it all behind with a hole in the center of our life like a festering holocaust in our spirit.
  
  Russell, Rutherford and each who followed, became contaminated with the same cancerous ideology of doom and fealty--an absolute belief based on nothing more than the psychotic ravings of self-centered mandarins full of themselves with ambitions to rule as kings and priests over the earth. This elite band of brothers is a festering pimple on Jehovah's ass admired by one and all.