What useful piece of literature have the JW produced? (page 3)

Betheliesalot

Just to use one of many of their own illustrations, If any truth has only 1% of false information, then the whole of the truth is 100% false. Like putting a drop of poison in a bucket of water, it pollutes all of it. You can get new light out of some magazines, by just throwing them in the fireplace.

Ding

Most of the old literature is useful for disproving the GB's claims about itself and the organization.

As ex-elder Leonard Chretien said, "The Watchtower's worst enemy is its own publications."

Beth Sarim

If you have ANY of these publications, whatever you do, I repeat whatever you do, guard them with 100% authority!!!

Aid to Bible Understanding

Proclaimers Book

Live Forever Book - original printing

Reasoning From the Scriptures

Revelation Climax - original printing.( but actually any copy will do)

My Book of Bible Stories - original printing (again any copy will do)

That's all I can think of for now. But the above mentioned books will soon become worth their weight in gold.

Who would have thought as recently as the 1990's such ordinary, mundane JW literature could be so valuable??

I sure didn't!!!

I have all the above. And in the safest keeping.

Overrated

Old copies of the Watchtower and Awake make great liners for bird cages. And if worst case scenario, you can use this printed material for t-paper if you run out .

Overrated

Old copies of the Watchtower and Awake make great liners for bird cages. And if worst case scenario, you can use this printed material for t-paper if you run out .

HowTheBibleWasCreated

Beth's list:

Proclaimers Book. Why? I have found so many holes in this book as for as witness history goes.

Live Forever Book - original printing. Yeah the pictures are funny. Especially the one with the French model and the demons. Not useful other then to show the idea of the generation ending in the 1980s..

Reasoning From the Scriptures. Yes this one is good for JW doctrine. I personally hated this book.

Revelation Climax - original printing.( but actually any copy will do) WTF... Nuff said

My Book of Bible Stories - original printing (again any copy will do) I learned to read from the audio of this played along to the book. But this book is a sad look at horror stories.

Beth Sarim

HowTheBibleWasCreated;

""Proclaimers Book. Why? I have found so many holes in this book as for as witness history goes.""

Exactly, all the more reason to guard it, hang-on to it dearly. That's why it's on the top of my list. All the '''so many holes'' in Witness history.

Especially when it comes to Rutherford and Beth Sarim, that AH-Hah moment!! When I stumbled across it and discovered my ''handle'', screen name.

Also, the pyramids and so much more...

peacefulpete

Yep, the large reference bible and the concordance helped many with an inclination to study to see past the mirage. It was a mistake for them to encourage research that way. I don't think they will repeat that.

I will add that the huge bonfire I had was cathartic. I don't miss any of it, and I had everything from the 1910's till the then present, even a few earlier WT's. Sometimes I have wished I'd spared the crazy early calendars with the devil with horns cavorting with fat clergy and politicians being slashed by angels to share on the web.

Disillusioned JW

I am also keeping a number of the books you list. The following are the WT books I am keeping (at least for now):

1) "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures - with References" (Revised 1984) 'study' Bible and the NWT compilation 'study' Bible of 1963 (it was compilation of the 1950-1960 volumes of the original NWT) bound into one cover and was thus the predecessor of the 1984 'study' Bible. See page 608 of the Proclaimers' book for a photo of the 1963 book.

2) "Jehovah's Witnesses -- Proclaimers of God's Kingdom" and the predecessor book from 1959 called "Jehovah's Witnesses In The Divine Purpose". These books reveal some of the origins of the JW religion and the latter makes strong doctrinal statements which the religion has now abandoned. In effect the latter book condemns some of the practices/teachings of the current WT literature. The Proclaimers book led to me researching the early second adventists and its offshoots (some of which still exist), including the Advent Christian Church, the Church of God (Seventh Day), and the Church of God (Abrahamic Faith).

3) "Did Man Get Here By Evolution Or By Creation?" (from 1967), "Life--How did it get here? By evolution or by creation?", and the brochures called "Was Life Created?" and "The Origin Of Life - Five Questions Worth Asking". These are very useful to me because they include quotes of evolutionist scientists and the sources of those quotes. Many of the scientific publications quoted from are very interesting and overwhelmingly make the case for biological evolution and chemical evolution. Those sources also provide scientific explanations for a number of perceived problems of evolution theory. In many cases I would never have learned of those scientific articles and books had I not seen them listed in the WT publications.

Likewise the book called "Is There a Creator Who Cares About You? is useful since it mentions the name of a number of important evolutionist scientists and quote from them, though frustratingly often without mentioning the publication sources of the quotes. I manged, with great effort, to determine the sources for a great many of the quotes and in doing so I learned a great deal about the evidence for cosmological evolution, chemical evolution, and biological evolution. A primary source for many of the quotes was an evangelical apologetic book (which argued from design using science [the main title of the book is called "Show Me God" and it is the first edition which the WT quoted from; in a later edition the author says he now accepts evolution and believes that the Christian God used it). The "Show Me God" book is written by a science journalist (Fred Heeren). The book accepts the big bang and an old universe and it includes many interviews of evolutionist scientists. Learning of those scientists which were interviewed helped me to then research the ideas of those scientists to learn more. In an email to me, Fred Heeren says that in addition to promoting belief in the Christian God he now also promotes evolution.

4) The KJV Reference Bible and the ASV Bible printed by the WT. Those are useful books of very low cost, but now I prefer to use a leather reference edition of the KJV (with an illustrated encyclopedic Concordance) by Oxford and a leather reference edition of the ASV (with an illustrated Bible dictionary and a Concordance) by Thomas Nelson.

5) Comprehensive Concordance of the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures". My copy of this is the edition from 1973 and is specifically for the 1971 large print (with footnotes) edition of the NWT, but it also works great for all editions of the NWT up through at least the 2013 (printing) edition. Maybe the WT later revised it to produce an edition optimized for the 1984 Reference of the NWT or for the most recent edition.

6) "Theocratic Ministry School Guidebook" and "Qualified to be Ministers" (from 1955). The latter is a predecessor to the former and it includes a history of the JW religion. Also the "1975 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses" includes a history of the JW religion. The first two books have good content for public speaking. The history contained in the latter two books is informative.

7) "Mankind's Search for God" and "What Has Religion Done for Mankind" (from 1951). The latter is a predecessor of the former. Reading what these books said about Buddhism peaked my interest in them and contributed to me seeking information about secular Buddhism.

8) "Happiness How to Find It" and related books about happiness by the WT.

9) "From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained" (from 1958) and "The Truth that Leads to Eternal Life" (1968). I keep these books because they (and the "Listening to the Great Teacher" (1971) were the ones I studied in home Bible study as a child (with my JW father teaching me from them) before I got baptized as a JW. Those books along with the 1971 edition of the NWT and the Evolution book of 1967 were the primary books which led to me making the mistake of becoming a baptized JW. [Certain WT articles and Awake! articles critical of evolution theory also sadly influenced me to become a baptized JW.] They thus help me to see how I was duped by the WT. The first two doctrinal books also contain teachings which the WT later abandoned and thus are helpful in seeing that the WT's claim of the GB of the JWs being especially used by Jehovah (Yahweh), above all others, is a false claim. I also keep the "You Can Live Forever in Paradise on Earth" book since I studied it a lot after I became baptized and thus it heavily influenced my thinking and it is a reminder of how I was influenced.

10) Bound volumes of the Awake! from 1966 - 2005. I keep them because they contain articles about science. Prior to about the year 2010 I owned less than 5 science books (though I had a 3 year subscription to a science magazine) and thus the Awake! articles on science were of great interest to me (though those articles are very simplified).

11) Revelation - Its Grand Climax At Hand! (1988). I keep that book because it is the first JW book that led to me starting to disbelieve the JW religion - when I was studying it one year in the congregational book studies! I thought it was nonsense that the religion's proclamations/resolutions of the 1920s were fulfillments of (or even in coordination with) the trumpet blasts mentioned in the biblical book of Revelation.

12) Reasoning from the Scriptures (1989 edition). It was informative for me to read the evolutionist sources quoted in the subject called "Evolution". I wish I had done that prior to 1990 for if I had I would have ceased activity as a JW a great many years earlier than I did, and I would have seen the problems with the book's counter arguments about evolution.

13) Commentary on the Letter of James

14) True Peace and Security--How Can You find It? (1986). [It is a replacement of "True Peace and Security - From What Source? (1973) which I studied (though with no interest) in congregational meetings as a preteen prior to my baptism.] It is a reminder of the WT's flawed thinking that trapped me into remaining a convinced JW for so long. It also contains citations for a number of quotes and if I had looked up some them a long time ago it would have helped me to disbelieve the JW religion much earlier than I did. Some examples are the quotes in ph. 18 of page 30.

I had thought of keeping the Insight on the Scriptures - Volumes 1 and 2 (which are a revision and expansion of the "Aid to Bible Understanding" of 1971) and the Aid book but I almost never used them and now that I am an atheist I have even less interest in term, thus I will likely sell them. I have Bible dictionaries made by 'Christendom' which I am keeping for now since they include some comments critical of portions of the Bible. I obtained the Aid Book from a thrift store in 2006. I do like what the Aid book says in the entry under "Epicureans" in regards to the similarity with modern deism, [philosophical] materialism, and the idea of "God is dead". It is also interesting what the Aid book and vol. 2 of the Insight book say under the heading of "Stoics".

For awhile I had an interest in the Kingdom Interlinear (both editions) and the WT edition of the Emphatic Diaglott, but not such much now, since I now have little interest in comparing various English translations of the NT with the the Greek text of the NT and with interlinear translations of that text. I also have no interest in Byington's translation of the Bible.

waton

Proclaimers book. page 426, I have 2 artifacts from the picture there.

it shows the perennial teaching of the wt: millions now living will never die, they still teach it today.

That gem was the top doctrine that gave them the 1919 gold medal to be the "faithful and discreet Slave" first a class, now a class act.

What useful piece of literature have the JW produced?

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