by solafide 39 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
1. What is the most fundamental reason you do not accept the Roman Catholic Church to be the one true institution of God?
2. What is the most fundamental reason that you accept your organization to be the one true organization of God?
Just curious, please let me know :)
Just a point, 95% of the people here are XJWs.
oh really, in that case any ex-JW's or current JW's are welcome to answer! If you're an ex-JW, how would you have answered this when you were one?
Well, I am an X as well. But thinking back, the #1 reason I did not think the Roman Catholic Church was the one true institution of God was its role in some of the most barbarian and ruthless killing sprees in history - inquisitions, crusades, witch burning, heretic hunting to name just a few... In an interesting aside, at the one Catholic service I attended after quitting the JW meetings, the priest was denigrating the Cathars in his sermon - come on, they were wiped out by the CHURCH in a most horrific episode some 800 years ago - and he's still talking about them??? WEIRD to say the least...the witchhunt continues...
Ergo, the main reason I thought the Witnesses were God's true organization was the fact that they were peaceful, law-abiding, non-violent and refused to participate in war/killing of any kind...
That is still a point in the Witnesses' favour, in my opinion. But I no longer believe that God has one true organization anywhere on this earth. There's good Catholics and rotten ones, good Witnesses and bad ones, yada yada. Thanks for asking!
1. What is the most fundamental reason you do not accept the Roman Catholic Church to be the one true institution of God?
Becauses JWs believe THEY are the only true organization and you can't have two when they are at odds with each other.
2. What is the most fundamental reason that you accept your organization to be the one true organization of God?
As you look through other posts here, you will see reference to 587 v 607 BCE and how it relates to 1914 in JW 'doctrine'. Through twisted and circular reasoning, logic gymnastics and inaccurate historical dating, the JWs believe that when Jesus returned to earth invisibly in 1914 (or was it 1919 ???) they were the only ones doing the will of god. The ones closest to truth at the time. The Faithful and Discreet Slave that was then appointed over all the Lord's belongings on earth.
Their Governing Body tells them they are the one true org of god and they GB uses the [simplified] info presented above to prove it. It's true because the Governing Body tells them it's true.
Of course, when the 587 v 607 BCE timeline crumbles, so should their claim of being chosen as the FDS.
[There are MANY threads that discuss the importance of 587 v 607 BCE - date of distruction of Jerusalem - and the logic/biblical gymnastics that the org uses to justify it's claim that 1914 was Jesus 2nd coming and that they predicted it 30 - 50 years in advance and that they were also predicited to be chosen. I don't want to get into details myself in this thread but you can find SO MUCH on this board if you search those dates.]
I have been physically 'out' of the org for well over 15 years. But that is the gist of their reasoning - as best I can present it in short form.
-Aude Sapere (meaning: Dare to Know; Dare to Have Wisdom/Understanding; Dare to Think for Yourself)
Basically jws do not believe in the Trinity, hellfire, an eternal soul, or Mary being the mother of God. The October 1, 2009 Watchtower highlights the detailed explanation you are looking for. Of course there are other reasons such as neutrality from politics and therefore not getting involved in secular wars and actively sharing the good news with others. Many of the jws believe that these ideas separate them as the only true religion.
As blondie put it, almost all on this forum have realized that the WTS is not the only true religion. Some because of doctrines such as how jws view the use of blood. Or how the WTS changes their views such as forbidding organ transplants or alienating minor disfellowshipped children to allowing organ transplants and allowing destitute minor children to remain at home. Others because of how the WTS handles organizational matters or how they handle "so-called" wrongdoing in the congregation. Though the jws claim that they are the only ones that display Christlike love, many of us found that this love is often times just to get one into the organization then this love becomes very conditional in nature.
So speaking as an ex-JW how I would've answered when I was a JW
1. What is the most fundamental reason you do not accept the Roman Catholic Church to be the one true institution of God?
Because they pray to Mary which the bible strictly tells you not to pray to anyone but God. They also make graven images of their God, they use a cross in their worship which is a pagan practice. Finally the problem with Child Molestation in the Catholic Church using the scripture that "By their fruits you will know them".
2. What is the most fundamental reason that you accept your organization to be the one true organization of God?
When I was a JW I guess the answer would be that they were the only ones who would change their religion as they learned truth instead of sticking with their proven false teachings. They only worshipped God, they didn't worship any other deities, they didn't take part in any pagan traditions and the followers knew their bible far better than any Catholic.
Now I know that essentially everything that applies to Catholics also applies to JWs, which in turn applies to all religions. Hence why I'm an atheist.
1) Read the Rutherford era to discen the JW POV of the RCC.......... of course the WTS isn't the only ones to disregard the RCC either....like say the Orthodox Chruches, Protestant faiths, Mormons, Islam, Buddhist....and all other non-RCC belief systems
2) Because it is the mantra all of us have heard over and over and over and over......1914 Jesus was parousia and enthronement occurred, during 1918 Jesus set about reviewing various faiths and appointed the WTS in 1919 over all.......thus saith Rutherford after his incarceration but it was all sketchy until Rutherford died and Knorr/Franz set all to chronology in 1943....
Now let me ask you a question in return......
What makes a person believe the RCC is the 'one true' institution of God?......
If a person is to research either religions they would find manipulation of members, pedophile cover-ups, going beyond scripture, false teachings and the such.....
So I get to answer as a JW..
OK..
1. What is the most fundamental reason you do not accept the Roman Catholic Church to be the one true institution of God?
..Because the WBT$ says so..
2. What is the most fundamental reason that you accept your organization to be the one true organization of God?
..Because the WBT$ says so..
All decisions are made for Jehovah`s Witness`s,by the Watchtower..
I`ll bet you know why..
.................... ...OUTLAW
As AudeSapere said, if Jehovah's Witnesses accepted the Catholic Church to be the one true institution of God, they'd be Catholics.
Historically, Jehovah's Witnesses are a Protestant Adventist religion, descending (and you can take that any way you want to) from the Baptist Millerite movement (see Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Miller_(preacher)) of the 1830s.
Adventist religions are typically apocalyptic, and when William Miller's apocalypse didn't come, Charles Taze Russel took his turn at bat after some coaching from George Storrs and a couple of other post-Millerite apocalyptic. The Seventh-Day Adventists also sprang from this lot, but they were clever enough not to set a date for "the end."
Not so Russell. He felt that 1878 was the winning lotto number. Then he tried 1914. He died in 1916, never seeing the failure of his last selected date, 1918. Russell died on Halloween 1916 wearing his toga costume. (I kid you not!)
Russell was followed by the megalomaniac "Judge" Joseph Franklin Rutherford. When 1918 came and went, he pointed to the year 1925, saying it was a date "more sure than 1914," which is probably one of the most honest statements he's ever made, since both are baseless, as the passage of time has shown. Rutherford was an abusive alcoholic and died of fectal cancer. He abandoned his wife when he ascended to the leadership of the WTB&TS and spent a lot of his time in a mansion in San Diego while his wife lived about 150 miles away. Fortunately, he was not lonely. In addition to the angels that kept him company he had a couple of girlfriends. When his dead body was found in the basement of the mansion, rats had been nibbling on him for a few days.
After Rutherford died in 1942, kingship passed to the two-headed Knorr/Franz creature. Actually Nathan Knorr and Fred Franz were two of Rutherford's favorite lackeys prior to his death. Knorr ran the "business" of selling "Bible-study aids" while Franz was in charge of speaking with angels and setting new dates for the end of the world. He was the genius behind the 1975 fiasco, and most of the organization fell in line with him until it didn't come true.
Both Knorr and Franz are now dead. Knorr died in 1977 and Franz died in 1992 after his supply of tanna-leaf tea ran out.
Today the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is run by a misogynistic geriatric pedophile-protecting fuster-cluck they call the governing body. Not one member of this group has the charisma or powerful personality of any of the previous presidents.
I was raised as a JW after being born a Roman Catholic. Today I am an atheist. I believe there is no god, and no "spiritual realm" populated with any creatures of the sort described by theologians.
