I was recently watching a video on Youtube and on the John Cedars channel, he was talking about how the Watchtower has discontinued quite a few of their books from back when I was still active. So it got me to thinking about how do they decide that certain teaching doesn't fit them anymore. So I was wondering does anyone have any ideas on how they come to that decision because if any of their members bring up something, that person can be disfellowshipped?
How do they decide when to get rid of certain information in their publications?
by Tameria2001 16 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Tameria2001
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pale.emperor
I’ve wondered this myself. At what point does everyone know that such and such a book is old light? Is the Revelation book still cannon or is it old light now?
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new boy
It's simple they pray on the matter.
"Dear god we have a problem! You gave us some bad information about the pedophiles in the organization also about the years 1975, 1918, 1925 and 1914. We have dozens of book with false information with 'old/new light.' Remember the time back in 1971 when you told us you couldn't divorce your mates if they were gay or having sex with farm animals."
"So what do we do now?"
God of course says. "Burn the Books!"
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no-zombie
While I'm of course not privy to the the Governing Body's thinking, I do believe that most of the publications co-authored by Ray Franz were purged after he was disfellowshiped. The Aid book and the Commentary on the book of James comes to mind. But more recently there was a post that showed a change to the cover of one of the Society's youth books, that replaced only one of the kids illustrated. Which leads me to the theory that the Organization likes to "unperson" people they conciser to be an embarrassment.
Of course they have often been forced to revise or delete books, when such publications has made clear prophetic statements that have proved to be false or are just plain crazy. The various editions of the Truth book and the Revelation book are my examples here.
Yet what I find more upsetting, is not the fact that the Governing Body deletes or revises publications but its by their not acknowledging their errors in a truthful manner. Instead of clearly stating their past misunderstandings (through the use or postscripts, references or addendums as found in academic publications), they instead use the expressions like "some Christians understood" to deflect personal examination of their failures.
This revisionistic attitude towards history, only goes to highlight their concern with image rather than truth. A position that similarly displayed in the Governing Body's handling of child abuse in the congregations.
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Finkelstein
The WTS/Jworg. is obviously a corrupt, devious and lying religoius publishing house and its operates upon that premise.
The viable documented truth of that statement has come clearer and clearer now as there is lot of solid information to verify that statement as such .
America style freewheeling charlatanism is usually structured and built upon corruption.
Why ? because it makes power and tax free money for the endeavoring individuals.
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waton
sometimes wt writers know within weeks that they have goofed, the "guidance of the spirit" notwithstanding. The correction would appear in the translated version of foreign language magazines, with hilarious results in multi-language congregations, (different positions not allowed in different bedrooms). At the latest the correction was seen in the bound volumes. so: keep your study copies.
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nonjwspouse
I remember after reading here, and jwfacts on all the misquotes and misleading information in the Trinity booklet that the WTBTS soon after deleted that one. I'm glad I have a couple, with correct full quotes for each ellipsis printed from the quoted books, just in case my husband gets on his JW kick again.
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blondie
When the WTS significantly changes a doctrine or explanation of a prophecy and put that in a new book that replaces that, they drop the old one. The time they didn't was the Revelation book where they supplied corrections on a separate page to change the old book yourself.
Other times if it is not considered comprehensive, such as no longer mentioning the 7,000 year creative day, they just stop mentioning it and print an updated version. I was at my book study one evening where some people had the old book and others the new book which replaced the 7,000 years with thousands of years. It still appears in the WT and is not mentioned after 1987 (1989).
1996
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1996243?q=creative+day+thousands&p=sen
Wonderful developments took place on earth during the six creative “days” of Genesis chapter 1, each day covering thousands of years
1987
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1987007?q=7%2C000+years&p=sen
Second, a study of the fulfillment of Bible prophecy and of our location in the stream of time strongly indicate that each of the creative days (Genesis, chapter 1) is 7,000 yearslong. It is understood that Christ’s reign of a thousand years will bring to a close God’s 7,000-year ‘rest day,’ the last ‘day’ of the creative week. (Revelation 20:6; Genesis 2:2, 3) Based on this reasoning, the entire creative week would be 49,000 years long.
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Atlantis
Yep! Blondie hit the nail on the head! Every time they change their minds, well then, we better publish a new book and get rid of the old one. This is true of a whole bunch of WT publications.
Publications Approved For Discard
Atlantis! -
ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara
The greatest Man book has been replaced by Jesus I am The Way,Truth n Life book.I checked many chapters , they were all the same. So I cant see the point of having scrapped the old for the newer book. The Greatest Man book was compiled from older magazine articles which were a regular feature. All they do is regurgitate and sheeple think its new food.
I call it Wash , Rinse, Repeat !
Most importantly they scrap, revise and all just to keep the buzz going with the PIMI's. If they do not hand out new books (so called) to read then how can they keep members hooked and to continue donating funds !!
Zing