the book reasoning from the scriptures was released in the 1980's, and it was used at virtually every meeting for service, every service meeting, and every theocratic ministry school meeting thereafter.
many jws had copies bound together with their bibles.
it was huge in jw land back then.. at that time, with the reasoning book, jws were trained to keep conversations going in spite of objections, to almost stick their feet in people's doors to keep conversations going, to defend "the truth," to argue doctrine, etc.. compare the situation today with that of the 80's.
I'm sure many JWs kept the Reasoning book hidden in their Bibles so they could look at it without alerting the householder to the fact that they were just parroting Watchtower statements.
I suspect the book was as small as it was for that very purpose.
After leaving the organization, a friend of mine called it "a portable ammunition dump of Watchtower theology."
couple years ago as a promising ms i had some weird conversations with two young elders.
it was always as we where alone only i and the elder.
they would initiate a conversations about things like blood doctrine, celebrating birthdays, view on homosexuality etc.
Ask them why they haven't gone to their "loving shepherds" for help and see what they say...
the gb seems to have a bunker mentality, that they are special, and that the world is out to get them, so they tend to keep within their tightly controlled, protective environment.
bottlegate proved that there is some danger outside of the rarified atmosphere of their echo chamber; you never know when a camera might be trained on you, or that someone might recognise you as being something more than plain old "joe citizen".
further, tm3's new address was quickly found and distributed, and (as i understand it) someone drove to his gated community to tell the security guard that tm3's "ass is grass".
I'm looking for the recent quote and citation where the GB said that JWs should be ready to obey any directives they receive even if they don't seem to make sense.
Could someone help me find that, please?
Thanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh9w8zmgli0.
( starts at the 21:00 minute mark ) governing body member jeffrey winder reveals the real reason for the failed doctrines throughout the watchtower's 150 year history.
he claims that the governing body are neither inspired or infallible.. the governing body do not need to apologize for getting doctrines wrong.. the governing body ''do their best with what they have and what they understand at the time.''.
The fact that the GB makes it up as they go along seems to me to be a much more logical explanation.
does anyone remember seeing old watchtowers in their kingdom hall library before they destroyed them all, of the watchtower annoucing jehovah from pleiades kingdom.
i am 72 years old and i remeber seeing these old magazines somewhere..
I remember that. I don't have any old literature which contains it.
throughout watchtower history dates have been a problem.
the usual solution for failed prophetic dates has been to kick the can down the road.
this needs to be done with 1914. the generation that will never pass away is now 110 years old and therefore is past its useful life span.
Scholar,
No need to reinvent the wheel.
Please read The Gentile Times Reconsidered by Carl Olaf Jonsson, which disproves the 607 date in many different ways.
Also, check out jwfacts dot com.
Lots of evidence there.
future gb: "please come back!
all is forgiven!".
would it work?
In the parable of the Prodigal Son, who thought the standards for restoration were far too lax?
The elder brother.
In fact, who probably wouldn't have allowed restoration at all, even with a great deal of groveling, which he would have considered insincere?
The elder brother.
Whom does Jesus want to be like? The father or the elder brother?
Hmmmmm....
if the watchtower really wants to move more mainstream they need to take a lesson from evangelicals in the united states.
they seem to say there are "essential beliefs".
a handful of core beliefs that are necessary to be considered true christians.
Their one unassailable doctrine is that whatever the GB teaches is the truth.
to all those on this forum, i would love to know what your take on this vital question is..
If God didn't know that, by the same reasoning he wouldn't know ahead of time any of the evil that would happen.
That would eliminate a lot of the prophecies in the Bible and would leave a God who knew very little about human beings.
prompted by a mention in a different thread.. cracks in the sidewalk, a pinch of salt over the shoulder, black cats🐈⬛; do jws have such superstitious beliefs.
are they allowed to?
would they be counselled if the elders became aware?.
A lot of JWs seem to say "Jehovah" in every sentence of their prayers as if Satan is going to get them if they skip it once.
