i distinctly remember how the WtBS used to bash the catholic church for restricting reading material . and to read something forbidden was a very serious sin. implied in these comments was that it was wrong of the catholic church. that people should be free to question and explore .
does anyone remember this as well? perhaps any articles? it'd be a good one to use to defend why i've looked online at ex jw sites if i ever have to .
forbidden reading and the wtbs opinion
by candidlynuts 4 Replies latest watchtower bible
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candidlynuts
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Pole
*** w78 4/15 pp. 6-7 The True Religion?How to Identify It ***
10 When we mention the Bible, is your reaction, ?Well, most all persons who accept the Bible believe, fundamentally, the same thing?? Many feel that way. However, that is definitely not the case. As with the engineer in West Berlin, millions of sincere, intelligent persons who have examined this vital issue of true worship know that there are vast differences between the teachings and the practices of various religions claiming to be based on the Bible. And, frankly, there are also vast differences between most of these religions and the Bible itself. These differences can involve your entire approach to life and religion. As we examine a few basic and vital points, analyze your own religion or beliefs. Ask yourself, ?Am I personally seeking true worship?? And if you see that in some ways your beliefs or practices are at variance with true religion, think seriously about what you will do.
11 The possible need to adjust our beliefs or conduct should not surprise anyone familiar with the Bible. For instance, Jesus Christ said, regarding some very religious persons of his day, ?the worship they offer is worthless; the doctrines they teach are only human regulations.? (Matt. 15:9, JB) Nor is it just a matter of doctrine. Jesus? half brother James wrote: ?Faith is dead if it is separated from good deeds? and ?Nobody must imagine that he is religious while he still goes on deceiving himself and not keeping control over his tongue; anyone who does this has the wrong idea of religion.??Jas. 2:26; 1:26, JB.
*** w89 5/15 pp. 27-28 The Land of the Pepper Bird Hears the ?New Song? ***
Emmanuel adjusted his affairs so that he could care for his large family and share in the full-time pioneer work in Gardnersville. He met Varney and Lucinda and started a home Bible study with them. However, they believed it was a sin for a person to change his religion. Emmanuel showed them what the book Reasoning From the Scriptures says on the subject . They borrowed the book, read other material in it, and started attending Christian meetings. Shortly thereafter, they took up the Christian ministry. Meanwhile, their landlord?a clergyman?noted the change in their conduct and invited them to use his sitting room for their Bible study. After attending a district convention, the landlord was convinced that he had found the truth and requested a Bible study of his own.
*** w82 2/1 pp. 4-5 Modern Christianity?How Much Is Genuine? ***
Today hundreds of millions of people use the Christian ?label? or ?signature.? Maybe you are one of them. But how can you tell if you are a genuine Christian, the real thing? First, check your conduct and beliefs against the Bible record of the teachings of Jesus Christ and his apostles. Next, examine how early Christians applied those teachings. Thirdly, analyze your own form of religion to see if it fits the mold that Christ set. Now ask yourself, Is my religion genuine Christianity? Do I practice it?
*** yb97 pp. 50-51 Africa ***
Stella, a university student in Nigeria, was searching for the truth. After a few years as a Pentecostal, she thought she had found the right religion. She decided to write a book to show that all other religions are false. However, as she made a list of the prominent religions around her, she realized that she did not know much about Jehovah?s Witnesses. ?I?ll attend their meetings for three months to find out about them,? she said to herself. That weekend, she went to a circuit assembly. By the end of the program, she began to have doubts about her own religion. The following week she was at the local Kingdom Hall. She also read as many Witness publications as she could find. After her third meeting, she approached one of the congregation elders and said: ?Brother, baptize me. I am now one of you.? The brother explained that there were things she had to know before she could be baptized. He then gave her a book to study. Stella read it in two days and then went back to the elder and said: ?I have finished the book, brother. Baptize me.? The elder arranged for a sister to study with her, and a few months later, Stella did get baptized.
For those who were born to JW families:
*** g90 3/22 p. 25 Should I Get Baptized? ***
Yes, religion can be a feeble force, indeed, when it has been imposed upon a youth by his parents. A study made of a group of Catholic juvenile delinquents further illustrates this. Half of them attended church. Most knew the basic doctrines of their faith. And almost 90 percent of them did not approve of stealing. Yet, over two thirds were thieves! Observed the book The Adolescent: ?One reason may be that the boys? religious commitment was marginal. All were born Catholics; their initial commitment was made for them by their parents. Their religion was not their own.?
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Pole
This is perhaps even more relevant:
*** w01 12/1 pp. 25-26 Accepting Jehovah?s Invitations Brings Rewards ***
About that time, a woman informed us that the Catholic priests of Itu had forbidden their parishioners to accept copies of ?the red book about the Devil.? They were referring to ?Let God Be True,? the Biblical publication we had been offering people during the week. Since the red book had been ?banned? by the priests, we prepared a presentation for the blue book (?New Heavens and a New Earth?). Later, when the clergy got wind of this change, we moved on to the yellow book (What Has Religion Done for Mankind?), and so on. It was a good thing that we had a variety of books with covers of different colors!
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AlanF
Jehovah's Witnesses are the world's worst hypocrites about this. That's because they're The One True Religion, and so rules that apply to others don't apply to them.
AlanF
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candidlynuts
thanks pole for the quotes. excellent ones , theres still one in my head i'm still looking for..
edited to add.. i went to look at the quotes website and found this article and i think this is the one i was thinking of. because the date would be about right. 1994.. (although this one does have a warning against reading immoral, or apostate things)
Awake! June 8, 1994 p.20-21 The Bible's Viewpoint Does the Bible Discourage Freedom of Thought?***
The Bible's Viewpoint
Does the Bible Discourage Freedom of Thought?
THE flames leap heavenward as the bonfire devours precious books fed to it by German officials. A scene from Nazi Germany? Yes, but it could also be a scene from the year 1199, when a Roman Catholic archbishop ordered all German-language Bibles burned.
Actually, incidents of book burning?a universal symbol of the suppression of freedom of thought and speech?have occurred in many countries and in many centuries. Often, it has been instigated by religious leaders who feared the effect that freedom of thought would have on the common man.
No wonder that many today assume that the Bible mandates rigid restrictions against open intellectual inquiry. But does it really? Does the Bible encourage restraints on freedom of thought?
'Love Jehovah With Your Whole Mind'
The Bible does not discourage the use of the mind. In fact, Jesus encouraged each of us to 'love Jehovah with our whole mind.' (Mark 12:30) His ministry shows that he had a keen interest in current events (Luke 13:1-5), biology (Matthew 6:26, 28; Mark 7:18, 19), agriculture (Matthew 13:31, 32), and human nature (Matthew 5:28; 6:22-24). His illustrations indicate that he clearly understood the principles in God's Word and the background and thinking of his listeners and that he thought carefully about how to bring the two together.
Paul entreated all Christians to render their service to God with their "power of reason." (Romans 12:1) He encouraged the Thessalonians not to let misleading 'inspired expressions shake them from their reason.' (2 Thessalonians 2:2) He had some knowledge of Greek and Cretan poetry (Acts 17:28; Titus 1:12) and military equipment and procedures (Ephesians 6:14-17; 2 Corinthians. 2:14-16). And he was observant of local customs.?Acts 17:22, 23.
Although Jesus and Paul enjoyed so much freedom of thought, they did not view themselves as the sole authority on right and wrong. Rather than reject the Bible in favor of his own reasoning, Jesus repeatedly quoted from the Scriptures. His swift and severe reply when Peter urged him to consider a course different from the sacrificial death that was God's will for him shows that he would not even contemplate that line of thinking. (Matthew 16:22, 23) Similarly, Paul told the Corinthians: "When I came to you, it was not with any show of oratory or philosophy, but simply to tell you what God had guaranteed." (1 Corinthians 2:1, The Jerusalem Bible) Like Jesus, his reasoning was based solidly on the Scriptures.?Acts 17:2
The Bible encourages the use of one's mental faculties to the full but not without all restraint. However, the burden of responsibility for keeping our thinking in harmony with that of Jehovah is placed on the individual Christian, not the congregation. Thus, when a number of Ephesians publicly renounced their practice of spiritism and became Christians, Paul did not take it upon himself to burn their books, but "a number of them who had practised magic collected their books and made a bonfire of them in public." (Acts 19:19, JB) Why did these Christians feel it necessary to burn their own books?
The First Line of Defense
Consider this illustration. A successful military defense often involves several lines of defensive bulwarks. No successful general would feel that any one of these is unimportant and should be given up without a fight. In a Christian's fight against sin, there are several lines of defense as well.
James 1:14, 15 states that "each one is tried by being drawn out and enticed by his own desire. Then the desire, when it has become fertile, gives birth to sin." The first step toward sin is the cultivation of a wrong desire in the mind. Thus, the first line of defense is to refrain from cultivating the desire?to control one's thinking.
It is because of this link between thoughts and actions that the Bible warns us: "Keep your minds fixed on the things above, not on the things upon the earth." (Colossians 3:2) When Christians refuse to dwell mentally on immorality, spiritism, or apostasy, they make this decision, not because they fear that these ideas might prove superior to Bible truths, but because they wish to avoid anything that could draw them into a sinful course.
'All Things Are Openly Exposed'
Another important reason why we should control our thinking is our love for Jehovah and a respect for his ability to know our thoughts. Imagine that you had a cherished friend or a close relative who was particularly sensitive to dirt or dust. Would you stop inviting your friend into your home, unwilling to do the extra cleaning that your house would require? Would love not move you to make the needed extra effort to keep things clean? Jehovah's sensitivity to our innermost thoughts is shown at Psalm 44:21: "He is aware of the secrets of the heart." Paul said we are accountable for those thoughts: "There is not a creation that is not manifest to his sight, but all things are naked and openly exposed to the eyes of him with whom we have an accounting."-Hebrews 4:13; Psalm 10:4; Proverbs 6:16, 18.
Job acknowledged man's responsibility to God for his thoughts. "Job . . . offered up burnt sacrifices . . . ; for, said Job, 'maybe my sons have sinned and have cursed God in their heart.'" (Job 1:5) Willful contemplation of a wrong course could in itself be viewed by Jehovah as a sin.-Compare Exodus 20:17.
True Freedom of Thought
The Bible encourages each Christian to set as a goal the bringing of "every thought into captivity to make it obedient to the Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:5) This is achieved, not through restrictions placed by religious leaders, but through an individual's exercise of self-control and through his love for and understanding of Jehovah and His principles. With the achievement of this goal comes true freedom of thought, limited only by godly standards and enhanced by the joy of knowing that, even in our thoughts, we are pleasing to Jehovah.
[Emphasis Added]