by ithinkisee 58 Replies latest watchtower bible
Plan to shower people with magazines during these last months of this dying system of things!
Written in 1967!!! "These last months of this dying system of things".
Yet another vivid example of how the Watchtower backs itself into the corner....and then blames its critics because the walls prevent a dignified escape!
Slight correction: That remark was from 1974. But yes, indeed, it makes no difference how empty and foolish those words were!
Ooops. I saw the first quote and assumed the second one was also for 67.
It's a real shocking quote. It puts to the lie the Society's attempts to excuse itself of culpability.
***g68 10/8 p. 23 A Time to 'Life Your Head' in Confident Hope***
True, there have been those in times past who predicted an "end to the world," even announcing a specific date. Some have gathered groups of people with them and fled to the hills or withdrawn into their houses waiting for the end. Yet, nothing happened. The "end" did not come. They were guilty of false prophesying. Why? What was missing? Missing was the full measure of evidence required in fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Missing from such people were God's truths and the evidence that he was guiding and using them.
Hung by their own words. They say such people by their actions do not show that God was guiding and using them. The Society itself claims that they are God's organization, and this damning passage was written at the very time the Society was hyping 1975 as the date of the end! And the Society even claimed to be a "prophet" and that God was "using them":
***
w59 1/15 p. 39 Down with the Old?Up with the New! ***People should listen to the plain preaching by the remnant prefigured by Jeremiah, for these preach to men the present-day fulfillment of Jeremiah?s prophecies. Who made them a prophet to speak with the authority that they claim? Well, who made Jeremiah a prophet? .... He did not make himself a prophet. He could not have done so, especially since he was set apart to be a prophet before he was born. Still he could of his own accord agree to and submit to serving as a prophet when told of the vocation for which he was marked out.... Came the year 1919, and the work of witnessing to the nations in fulfillment of Jesus? words was still there to do. It faced all men who claimed to follow and obey Jesus. In that opening year for postwar decisions and work the question of highest importance to Christendom and to all who called themselves Christians was, not, Should all nations get together in a peace league? but, Who will be Jehovah?s prophet to the nations, to speak to them everything that He should command? Who will be the modern Jeremiah?....
The fact that decides the answer to the question is, not, Do all the clergy of Roman Catholicism and of Protestantism agree that Jehovah?s witnesses have been and are God?s prophet to the nations? but, Who discerned the divine will for Christians in this time of the world?s end and offered themselves to do it? Who have undertaken God?s foreordained work for this day of judgment of the nations? Who have answered the call to the work and have done it down till this year 1958? Whom has God actually used as his prophet? By the historical facts of the case Christendom is beaten back in defeat. Jehovah?s witnesses are deeply grateful today that the plain facts show that God has been pleased to use them.
*** w72 12/1 p. 728 How Much Do You Care About People? ***
Accordingly, if we as his people were to fail in declaring the "good news" and fail in aiding others to take their stand for the Kingdom so as to survive the end of this system, we would be bringing reproach on God?s name. This is because God could then be blamed for having left mankind without due warning. The position of Jehovah?s Christian witnesses today is just like that of the prophet Ezekiel in ancient times. Ezekiel was told by God: "A watchman is what I have made you to the house of Israel, and you must hear from my mouth speech and you must warn them from me."?Ezek. 3:17. Just as Ezekiel of old did not fail in performing his duties as a watchman, Jehovah?s witnesses as a body today will not fail to sound the warning.
*** w72 4/1 p. 197 ?They Shall Know that a Prophet Was Among Them? ***
However, Jehovah did not let the people of Christendom, as led by the clergy, go without being warned that the League was a counterfeit substitute for the real kingdom of God. He had a "prophet" to warn them. This "prophet" was not one man, but was a body of men and women. It was the small group of footstep followers of Jesus Christ, known at that time as International Bible Students. Today they are known as Jehovah?s Christian witnesses..... Of course, it is easy to say that this group acts as a "prophet" of God. It is another thing to prove it. The only way that this can be done is to review the record. What does it show?
Indeed, what does it show? That they are "guilty of false prophesying". Could a "false prophet" be an "organization," just as the "prophet"?
*** w74 6/15 p. 381 The "Lake of Fire" and Its Purpose ***
Similarly the "false prophet" is not a person, but is a system or an organization. A "prophet" claims to have inspired information for the direction of others. A "false prophet" would mislead others, to turn them away from God and toward false worship.
And then here are the later statements backpedaling from the suggestion that the Watchtower is a false prophet:
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g93 3/22 Why So Many False Alarms? ***Jehovah?s Witnesses, in their eagerness for Jesus? second coming, have suggested dates that turned out to be incorrect. Because of this, some have called them false prophets. Never in these instances, however, did they presume to originate predictions ?in the name of Jehovah.? Never did they say, ?These are the words of Jehovah.? The Watchtower, the official journal of Jehovah?s Witnesses, has said: "We have not the gift of prophecy." (January 1883, page 425).....They are voicing expectations based on their own interpretation of some scripture text or physical event. They do not claim that their predictions are direct revelations from Jehovah and that in this sense they are prophesying in Jehovah?s name. Hence, in such cases, when their words do not come true, they should not be viewed as false prophets such as those warned against at Deuteronomy 18:20-22. In their human fallibility, they misinterpreted matters.
Quite disingenuous, considering how the Society had already claimed to be appointed by God to be a modern-day prophet!
My mom actually got talked to about her lack of faith by planting a garden that wouldn't be able to be harvested until after 1975.
we who lived as jw's know what the words " strongly encourage" and " what a fine example" mean.
Good points, you foul old fowl.
They do not claim that their predictions are direct revelations from Jehovah and that in this sense they are prophesying in Jehovah?s name. Hence, in such cases, when their words do not come true, they should not be viewed as false prophets
A clever fail-safe clause that, in the governing body's eyes, lets them off the hook. I wonder what criteria they would ever use to identify whether anything they've uttered could ever be viewed as a false prophecy.
In 1972, my grandfather, who became a JW in the early 1930s, said to me that he knew the end was real close because the Watchtower articles had an urgency that he had never before seen in the literature. His favourite phrase was, "Now's the time!" He was not a man given to exaggerated talk, so I really believed we'd be seeing the end in months. Given the steady diet of writing in the watchtower encouraging such a view, it's no wonder JWs as a whole had a sense that "Now's the time".
Funny how all that orchestrated urgency silently dissipated shortly after 1975 passed. The pinnacle of deceitful cleverness, however, was yet to come: The Watchtower's sneaky little comments about "brothers" getting carried away and expecting more of 1975 than was ever directly stated. Blame the JWs for what happened. That is the height of hypocrisy and arrogance (i.e, knowingly blaming "weak" brothers rather than humbly admitting the governing body as a whole used the 1975 teaching to further the organization's mission).
I heard a lot of witness people talking about the 'urgency' in recent Watchtower articles.. a lot of these guys really believe the Governing Body are messengers from God, I'm sure of it.
Of course they're supposed to be messengers of God. Just as what I posted yesterday in another thread:
*** w59 5/1 p. 269 Attain Completeness in the New World Society ***
In the same way Christ, the Head, employs the organization that is his body to carry out his assigned work. His orders reach the whole of the organization on earth through the governing body, and on down through the Branches to the congregations.?1 Cor. 12:12-18; Matt. 24:45-47. To hold to the headship of Christ, it is therefore necessary to obey the organization that he is personally directing. Doing what the organization says is to do what he says. Resisting the organization is to resist him.
COs, and DOs are pretty high up the "organization" too. It's not just resisting what the GB says in print.
