Exposing them is good, but you could take a step back, breathe, and try to be more concise. The stream of consciousness style is a bit much.
You want to attract people to your message.
DD
STOP treating Watchtower Bible & Tract SOCIETY as a RELIGION
by Nathan R. Koppe 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
JeffT
Sorry, your posts are too long, rambling, incoherent and the links don't work. You may have good ideas and information, but the presentation needs serious work.
-
blondie
Actually, Up until about 1950, the WTS taught and preached that all religions were false, and that the WTS was not a religion. Then about 19501 the WTS quietly without announcement started teaching that they were the only true religion and all other religions were false.
You'd be surprised how many jws at that time missed that. The jw family generation before me, adults at that time, missed it and did the questioner in the QFR below in 1951.
Investigation shows that jws wore placards in the Rutherford's time that said, "Religion is a Snare and a Racket." Note there was nothing indicating that some was good or true.
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1951207#h=1:0-9:0
● In the past we regarded “religion” as anything that was against God’s will. Now many brothers are using the expressions “true religion” and “false religion” to make a distinction. Is this advisable?—D. D., California.
The brothers are correct in using the qualifying adjectives “true” and “false” respecting religion, so as not to be misunderstood, especially by those outside the organization. In the past we have had to do so much needless explanation and extricating of ourselves from embarrassing positions by not being specific on this. The footnotes of the New World Translation show the early use by Latin-speaking Christians of the term religio as the equivalent of the Greek term thres·keiʹa. It simply means “form of worship”, of which there can be a true and a false kind. Study over the footnotes in the New World Translation on the texts at Acts 26:5, Colossians 2:18 and James 1:26, 27, and see how the footnote renderings allow for the use of the term “religion” or “religious”, though the texts themselves use the expressions “form of worship” or “formal worshiper”. Hence it is well to make clear our use of the term “religion” by qualifying it as “true” or “false”, if the context or setting does not do this sufficiently.
-
Anna Marina
Hi Blondie - I came in in 1992 and I remember being taught WBTS is not a religion. The one who studied with me asked me a very interesting question:
"Would you call Jesus religious?" I thought about her words for a bit then replied, "no, he wasn't."
On occassion I have asked others, who know a reasonable amount about Jesus, that question. They too respond saying Jesus wasn't religious.
Maybe the reason for this is because Jesus Christ is about freedom and treating others properly. Not binding them by re-ligaments to someone who wants to muscle in on his role.
-
Nathan R. Koppe
CAN ANYBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN HOW TO DELETE A TOPIC?
-
Finkelstein
There is certain kind of irony within the WTS/JWS for at one time the JWS denounced all religions as being false with false doctrines and false practices of worship.
Then in 1919 the president and leader of the WTS proclaimed that god had chosen them "Him" IBSA at the time as true worshipers chosen by god and subsequently guided by his holy spirit.
Eventuality as time went by the organization started to create its own doctrines ie. blood, birthdays etc., just like others Christian based faiths and a structure of a religion was gradually created, with one might see now as false doctrines.
Blondie touched on that as well
-
Finkelstein
When a group of men organize and established a set of doctrines by their own selective interpretation of the bible (Holy Book) and that organization institutes a rigid enforcement to uphold those set doctrines towards its member base, you have a recognized religion.
-
Anna Marina
And potentially, free labour.
The body of Christ can be described as an organisation because a body is made up or organs. But a corporation is also a body, usually set up for the purpose of business.
The thing to examine is the relationships between the people. Are they based on love (as in brotherly love and a voluntary spirit) seeking the genuine well being of the other person or are they based on contract and money. Ok, WBTS does not use money. In their case they use a kind of enticement. I am not quite sure how to describe it. Social engineering? Priviledge? Mind control?
The point I want to make is that they are not seeking the other person's well being but their exploitation.
-
rockemsockem
It is a religion. As many cults are. Even Scientology is a religion. Calling a cult a religion does not give it respect.
-
Finkelstein
Here's a description of what constitutes a recognized religion via Wiki ....
Religion is a cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that relates humanity to supernatural, transcendental, or spiritual elements. However, there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion.
Different religions may or may not contain various elements ranging from the divine sacred things, faith,a supernatural being or supernatural beings or "some sort of ultimacy and transcendence that will provide norms and power for the rest of life".Religious practices may include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration (of deities), sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trances, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service, or other aspects of human culture. Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are sometimes said by followers to be true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life, the universe, and other things. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has been considered a source of religious beliefs.