Like so many people, I'm (very carefully)trying to convey the obvious "truth" about the WTB&TS to some of the members of my family. Is there any key point that "stands out" in your memory as pivotal in the opening of your eyes? Or any particular point that may have opened the eyes of your loved ones? Anyone ever try a "de-programming intervention"? (just kidding... I think?) Thanks, Gordon ...May God guide us in all things and never let our ignorance mislead our brothers.. Amen!
What was "it" that opened your eyes?
by jiggulz 49 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Honesty
Watchtower literature confirms that Jesus is not the mediator for JW's. The Governing Body is their mediator. There is a chart in one of the publications that shows the hierarchy of the WTBT$:
JEHOVAH
JESUS
GOVERNING BODY
ELDERS ELDERS ELDERS ELDERS ELDERS ELDERS
M.S. M.S. M.S. M.S. M.S. M.S.
PUBLISHERS PUBLISHERS PUBLISHERS PUBLISHERS PUBLISHERS
Where are the rest of the Faithful Discreet Slave in this arrangement?
If Jesus is not your mediator you do not have any hope for salvation.
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AlmostAtheist
Welcome to the forum!
Nobody likes to be deceived. It just eats into their soul. The Watchtower deceived us all by misquoting people to make it look like they supported the JW position when they actually didn't. Go to Google.com and search on Watchtower misquotes. You'll find several sites that show how thoroughly the Watchtower misquoted theologians in their Trinity brochure and scientists in the Creation book.
I was already out when I saw it, but I was really shocked by the obvious attemptsto mislead their readers.
Dave
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jiggulz
Thanks Honesty, Do you recall which publication had that diagram? Gordon
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serendipity
Hi jiggulz, welcome to the forum! I don't think there was a single defining event. My eyes have been slowly opening for many years. It started with the 1975 fiasco, discouraging of college back in the 1980's when I attended, continued with abuses of power by elders, lack of love in the congregation and the cumulative effect of laughable interpretations of prophecies. Over the last 10 years I've been particularly disgusted with the dogmatic judgmentalism, unfortunately after realizing my afflication with those maladies.
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ackack
For me, it was a) leaving an abusive marriage and b) challenging 607 BCE, and the response I got back was irrational and emotional. It didn't make sense.
After I got Penton's book, and once I read through that, I could see it was just another religon.
Welcome btw.
ackack
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Sunspot
I was disgusted with the sneaky and slimy WTS before the really "juicy" bombs were exposed about them.....but the "Donation Arrangement" LIE was a real beginning of the end as far as I was concerned! ;
Jehovah's Witnesses and Jimmy Swaggart
From The Watchtower - May 15, 1960, page 295: "The Scriptures justify the 'war strategy' of hiding true facts from the enemy."
Few Jehovah's Witnesses know the truth about The Watchtower Society and Jimmy Swaggart's day in court.
Why did the Watchtower Society change its literature distribution program in 1990, eliminating set prices for literature items? JWs believe the Governing Body instituted a "simplified" arrangement. Few know the change really took place because Jimmy Swaggart lost his case in court. In a February 21, 1990 letter to congregations, the Society explained the new policy this way:
By adopting a method of literature distribution based completely on donation, Jehovah's people are able to greatly simplify our Bible education work and separate ourselves from those who commercialize religion.
However, this is what really happened:
- Early 1980 State of California informs Jimmy Swaggart Ministries that tax is due for religious books and tapes sold in the state since 1974. Swaggart eventually pays the tax--$183,000.00--but sues for a refund. The case begins moving toward the U.S. Supreme Court.
- February, 1989 U.S. Supreme Court rules it is illegal for Texas (and 14 other states) to exempt religious books from sales tax. Some states had been taxing religious books all along.
- Summer, 1989 WT Society gives away "free" books released at U.S. conventions. Witnesses are instructed to place donations in contribution boxes to cover the cost.
- June 22, 1989 Watchtower Society, files amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief with U.S. Supreme Court in Jimmy Swaggart case. Others filing similar briefs include National Council of Churches and Society for Krishna Consciousness.
- January 17, 1990 U.S. Supreme Court rules against Jimmy Swaggart Ministries, declaring that the sales tax must be paid.
- February 9, 1990 WT Society writes letter to congregations announcing that literature will no longer be sold at Kingdom Hall and no price will be set in door-to-door distribution.
- February 25, 1990 February 9th letter from Society is read at Sunday meetings of Jehovah's Witnesses across the United States.
- March 1, 1990 New policy of distributing literature without naming a price goes into effect.
- The March 15, 1990, WATCHTOWER magazine and March 22nd AWAKE!--printed earlier--still say "25 cents (U.S.) a copy" and "$5.00 (U.S.) per year." The April 1, 1990, Watchtower no longer carries a price.
- March 11, 1990 Announcement is made at Kingdom Halls in the U.S. that food will be available at no cost, on a freewill donation basis, at JW conventions.
Since many JWs refuse to believe the Society actually filed a legal brief in Jimmy Swaggart's case, we reproduce pages here as evidence.
http://www.bibletopics.com/biblestudy/84.htm
Annie
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Sunspot
THIS is what opened my eyes all the way.....comparing what Lifton said and how the WTS operated:
DR. ROBERT J. LIFTON'S CRITERIA FOR THOUGHT REFORM
THOUGHT REFORM: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF TOTALISM
CHAPTER 22
(Chapel Hill, 1989)
THE FUTURE OF IMMORTALITY
CHAPTER 15 (New York 1987)
Any ideology -- that is, any set of emotionally-charged convictions
about men and his relationship to the natural or supernatural world
-- may be carried by its adherents in a totalistic direction. But
this is most likely to occur with those ideologies which are most
sweeping in their content and most ambitious or messianic in
their claim, whether a religious or political organization. And
where totalism exists, a religion, or a political movement becomes
little more than an exclusive cult.
Here you will find a set of criteria, eight psychological themes against
which any environment may be judged. In combination, they create an
atmosphere which may temporarily energize or exhilarate, but which at the
same time pose the gravest of human threats.
(BRIEF OUTLINE)
1. MILIEU CONTROL
the most basic feature is the control of human communication within
and environment if the control is extremely intense, it becomes
internalized control -- an attempt to manage an individual's inner
communication control over all a person sees, hears, reads, writes
(information control)
creates conflicts in respect to individual autonomy
groups express this in several ways: Group process, isolation from
other people, psychological pressure, geographical distance or
unavailable transportation, sometimes physical pressure
often a sequence of events, such as seminars, lectures, group
encounters, which become increasingly intense and increasingly
isolated, making it extremely difficult-- both physically and
psychologically--for one to leave.
sets up a sense of antagonism with the outside world; it's us
against them
closely connected to the process of individual change (of personality)
2. MYSTICAL MANIPULATION (Planned spontaneity)
extensive personal manipulation
seeks to promote specific patterns of behavior and emotion in such
a way that it appears to have arisen spontaneously from within the
environment, while it actually has been orchestrated
totalist leaders claim to be agents chosen by God, history, or
some supernatural force, to carry out the mystical imperative
the "principles" (God-centered or otherwise) can be put forcibly and
claimed exclusively, so that the cult and its beliefs become the only
true path to salvation (or enlightenment)
the individual then develops the psychology of the pawn, and
participates actively in the manipulation of others
the leader who becomes the center of the mystical manipulation (or
the person in whose name it is done) can be sometimes more real than
an abstract god and therefore attractive to cult members
legitimizes the deception used to recruit new members and/or raise
funds, and the deception used on the "outside world"
3. THE DEMAND FOR PURITY
the world becomes sharply divided into the pure and the impure, the
absolutely good (the group/ideology) and the absolutely evil
(everything outside the group)
one must continually change or conform to the group "norm"
tendencies towards guilt and shame are used as emotional levers for
the group's controlling and manipulative influences
once a person has experienced the totalist polarization of good/evil
(black/white thinking), he has great difficulty in regaining a more
balanced inner sensitivity to the complexities of human morality
the radical separation of pure/impure is both within the environment
(the group) and the individual
ties in with the process of confession -- one must confess when one
is not conforming
4. CONFESSION
cultic confession is carried beyond its ordinary religious, legal
and therapeutic expressions to the point of becoming a cult in itself
sessions in which one confesses to one's sin are accompanied by
patterns of criticism and self-criticism, generally transpiring within
small groups with an active and dynamic thrust toward personal change
is an act of symbolic self-surrender
makes it virtually impossible to attain a reasonable balance between
worth and humility
a young person confessing to various sins of pre-cultic existence can
both believe in those sins and be covering over other ideas and
feelings that s/he is either unaware of or reluctant to discuss
often a person will confess to lesser sins while holding on to other
secrets (often criticisms/questions/doubts about the group/leaders
that may cause them not to advance to a leadership position)
"the more I accuse myself, the more I have a right to judge you"
5. SACRED SCIENCE
the totalist milieu maintains an aura of sacredness around its basic
doctrine or ideology, holding it as an ultimate moral vision for the
ordering of human existence
questioning or criticizing those basic assumptions is prohibited
a reverence is demanded for the ideology/doctrine, the originators of
the ideology/doctrine, the present bearers of the ideology/doctrine
offers considerable security to young people because it greatly
simplifies the world and answers a contemporary need to combine a
sacred set of dogmatic principles with a claim to a science embodying
the truth about human behavior and human psychology
6. LOADING THE LANGUAGE
the language of the totalist environment is characterized by the
thought-terminating cliche (thought-stoppers)
repetitiously centered on all-encompassing jargon
"the language of non-thought"
words are given new meanings -- the outside world does not use the
words or phrases in the same way -- it becomes a "group" word or
phrase
7. DOCTRINE OVER PERSON
every issue in one's life can be reduced to a single set of principles
that have an inner coherence to the point that one can claim the
experience of truth and feel it
the pattern of doctrine over person occurs when there is a conflict
between what one feels oneself experiencing and what the doctrine or
ideology says one should experience
if one questions the beliefs of the group or the leaders of the group,
one is made to feel that there is something inherently wrong with them
to even question -- it is always "turned around" on them and the
questioner/criticizer is questioned rather than the questions answered
directly
the underlying assumption is that doctrine/ideology is ultimately more
valid, true and real than any aspect of actual human character or
human experience and one must subject one's experience to that "truth"
the experience of contradiction can be immediately associated with guilt
one is made to feel that doubts are reflections of one's own evil
when doubt arises, conflicts become intense
8. DISPENSING OF EXISTENCE
since the group has an absolute or totalist vision of truth, those who
are not in the group are bound up in evil, are not enlightened, are not
saved, and do not have the right to exist
"being verses nothingness"
impediments to legitimate being must be pushed away or destroyed
one outside the group may always receive their right of existence by
joining the group
fear manipulation -- if one leaves this group, one leaves God or loses
their transformation, for something bad will happen to them
the group is the "elite", outsiders are "of the world", "evil",
"unenlightened", etc.http://www.ex-cult.org/General/lifton-criteria
~~~~~~~~I found this a tough read, but it hit me hard when I realized what I had been involved in for 30 years.
Annie
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jeanniebeanz
Understanding the meaning of the scripture, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6
Realizing that this left no place for a man made organization to run interference between man and God completely freed me from all the fear and anxiety that had gripped me since leaving the witnesses. It also cleared the way for me to examine many other teachings and give me the first hope for a future for mankind that I had ever really experienced.
Jean
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jiggulz
WOW!!! This forum Rocks.... Thanks everyone for your quick and thoughtful responses... as far as the Swaggart breif... my jaw is still on my lap! That's probably been the most difficult hurdle of my awaking. The realization that a super intelligent person like ME could be so stinking gullible! Pride definitely goeth before..............
