by Coop Man 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Nowhere in the Bible is it stated to Celebrate your Wedding Anniversary, yet J.W.'s do this. Baby Showers are acceptable, but not Birthdays.
Correct me if I am incorrect, but doesn't the bible say to "honor the father and mother of your youth", yet Mothers Day and Fathers Day are unacceptable to celebrate. Why?
The reason they don't celebrate Fathers' day or Mothers' day is because people tend to get together w/ worldly relatives during those times, and they want the rank and file to be seperate from family because they may turn you against the "truth". Same goes for all the other holiday's or birthdays.
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Oh, I forgot to mention that anniversaries are okay because only the husband and wife usually get together on their anniversary. Thereby avoiding the evil influence of worldly family members. It does'nt matter that anniversaries have more pagan roots than birthday's.
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Doesn't make sense to me what-so-ever! It would seem that following the bibles' direction on honoring your parents would take precedence over manly thoughts or inclinations...
Coop - I agree, and I always thought it was ridiculous to accept some celebrations and no others. I think that the prohibition against celebrating holidays comes largely from wanting to stand out as different, and declining to observe holidays is very public ways in which to declare that one is "different"
Witnesses don't celebrate any "worldly" holidays because, well, they are "worldly". Christians, specifically, Jehovah's Witnesses are to remain free from the world. Celebrating any holiday conceived and promoted by non-christians(witnesses) is partaking in a celebration of the world. The religious holidays are the most vile of the holidays. Next comes the "national" holidays like Thanksgiving or Presidents Day, holidays that are promoted by a national government. After that personal type holidays are forbidden, like birthdays. Even the capitalist marketing holidays like Mother's Day and Father's Day are "worldly" therefore part of Satan's system.
Basically anything not conceived by the WTS or promoted by the WTS is from Satan's system. Anyone loyal to God's organization would have nothing to do with any worldly celebration for fear of coming too close in contact with Satan's system.
You'll note that not all holidays are mentioned specifically by the WTS. Some are mentioned specifically, like Christmas, but in general holidays as a whole are labeled as part of the "world" or "Satan's system". The WTS puts such a slant on them being from Satan that any loyal JW would not even think of joining in any of these worldly festivities.
Personally, I think the Watchtower Society is correct to point out the pagan origins of the religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter. But I think it was wrong for the Watchtower to forbid its members to participate in them. I think it is a matter of individual conscience.
The Watchtower clearly makes arbitrary decisions for its members. And that is what makes it a cult instead of just a sect.
I'm sure if the WTS found some information with regards to Wedding Anniversaries being of some incredulous background, it would suddenly become a "conscience matter". I never could understand why somethings are absolutely a huge no, and others are a conscience matter. Take R-Rated movies. A huge NO, but PG-13 is a conscience matter. What in the world is the difference? If you hear the "F" word once in a PG-13, you may as well hear it 10-15 times in an R-Rated one.
You are trying to find sense and logic where there is none, Coop.
Mizpah you are right in your comment
Personally, I think the Watchtower Society is correct to point out the pagan origins of the religious holidays such as Christmas and Easter.
But I have also found that if you dig deep enough you can find pagan origins for almost everything including baptism.
