How do JW know they have the Truth? (page 2)

garybuss

#1, The Governing Body is the spirit channeler and they alone are the source of "truth".

#2, Only the Governing Body can explain what the Bible "means".

#3, The Watchtower magazine and other literature produced by the Governing Body is primary support.

#4, The Bible is secondary support . . . The Bible actually supports the literature that explains what the Bible "means".

#5, The Governing Body alone speaks for God and they alone are the source of "truth".

Narkissos

In addition to the objectivist indoctrination method which has been very well described in the former posts ("objectivist" in that it refers to the so-called "accurate knowledge"[TM] an "objective truth," "based on" Bible proof-texts etc., and ultimately addresses the reason of the prospective convert -- one could speak of "gullible rationalism" here), I would submit that subjectivity is also implied, although in a much less systematic way than the Mormon appeal to "inner testimony". The JW "student" is encouraged to pray, ask for Jehovah's spirit and guidance, and any religious feeling s/he can get in this context will be welcomed as a confirmation of the "truth". (Of course, any religious experience pointing to a different direction will be explained away as a deception from the devil.)

Basically I think this is not qualitatively different from the way any religious organisation treats religious subjectivity -- welcoming it as long as it confirms objective "orthodox" doctrine, dismissing it when it gets different. The difference is quantitative. There is little room for mystical experience and expression among JWs, but I wouldn't say it is totally absent. I remember that when my stepmother told her "JW testimony" she always said she "immediately felt it was the truth", and nobody ever objected to that...

Noggin

So back to my original post:

My question: How do Jehovah's Witnesses know that they have the Truth?

The response is varied.

If they do not use feelings for ratification, what do they use?

So JW's declare to the world that they are the truth on nothing more than:

The WTS is true (i.e. God's only earthly organization) because we say it is true ???

Isn't that completely teleological?

"Our bible is the Truth (truer than those other Christian sect bibles) because we say it is"

I know that those I studied with told me that God (Jehovah) would lead me to the Truth. I guess I inserted my Mormon background into that assertion in thinking that I would be able to tell the WTS was true through a spiritual witness.

Incidentally, how do they employ verses such as James 1:5?

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of god...

Galations 5:22 fruits of the spirit?

If there is no spiritual feeling portion to the WTS, it appears like a defunct, spiritually dead religion that, amazingly, thrives for some reason (people fear leaving?).

Noggin

juni

Thank you Leolaia!!

That was a complete and very understandable explanation as to why JWs believe they have the "truth".

Juni

juni

Noggin, hi and welcome.

Probably you are referring to the statement, "The truth has a certain ring about it." Has someone said those words to you?

Reread Leolaia's explanation. Very understandable and right on the target.

Juni

Noggin

Narkissos wrote:

I would submit that subjectivity is also implied, although in a much less systematic way than the Mormon appeal to "inner testimony". The JW "student" is encouraged to pray, ask for Jehovah's spirit and guidance, and any religious feeling s/he can get in this context will be welcomed as a confirmation of the "truth". (Of course, any religious experience pointing to a different direction will be explained away as a deception from the devil.)

Yes, that was my experience. I was told to study the WTS literature, compare it to the bible, and then pray about it for guidance from Jehovah. I was told to seek for a confirmation.

THANKYOU! I knew I wasn't crazy.

Narkissos continues:

Basically I think this is not qualitatively different from the way any religious organisation treats religious subjectivity -- welcoming it as long as it confirms objective "orthodox" doctrine, dismissing it when it gets different. The difference is quantitative. There is little room for mystical experience and expression among JWs, but I wouldn't say it is totally absent. I remember that when my stepmother told her "JW testimony" she always said she "immediately felt it was the truth", and nobody ever objected to that...

Your stepmother felt immediately that it was true. That is exactly what I am talking about. That is the divine providential guidance I am referring to. There is an inner compass reading that investigators are supposed to tune into in order to find out that the WTS is the Truest religion on earth. And Jehovah is supposedly the entity behind that compass.

Incidentally, I suppose after the conversion experience, that is when the mystical experiences drop off? I can see that. Once you have the conversion experience, are baptised, then it is all faith in what the WTS says and produces. That makes sense.

If anyone else reading this post has viable information that refutes this, I am extremely interested in knowing it. I really am only interested in what is real.

Noggin

Thanks so much Leolaia for your comments. They make a lot of sense.

Leolaia writes:

The "sinker" comes when the idea is introduced that God has always had an organization and is himself organized. If JWs teach the truth and are the only true religion, then it is relatively easy to accept that the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society is "God's earthly organization". And once that idea is accepted, then any teaching stemming from the organization can be accepted as true, even if it has no biblical basis, such as the teachings about "1918" and "1935", or that the Society is to be identified as "faithful and discreet slave" in Matthew.

The mechanics of "Once that is accepted" is what I am after. I am after how that gets to be accepted in one's mind. Narkissos says it is accepted after a feeling comes that is supposedly from Jehovah. A confirmation. That was my experience in studying with them. This type of revelatory process is the basic premise of all of the One and Only True Religions be it pentecostals, SDA, Catholics... and definately Mormons. I had some aquaintences on another forum board tell me that there is no personalized confirmation feeling from a supposed JW god entity leading investigators into the WTS.

Noggin

Noggin, hi and welcome.
Probably you are referring to the statement, "The truth has a certain ring about it." Has someone said those words to you?
Reread Leolaia's explanation. Very understandable and right on the target. Juni

Hi Juni No one told me that couplet. Is it an article published by the WTS? I would be most interested in reading it. Do you have a link? I'd even go buy it. Noggin

zen nudist

JWs work with IF THEN set up questions base in pure binary logic.... there are only two possibilities for all of their questions...and since they are the ones which fit the RIGHT possibility in all cases they present, naturally they MUST be the right religion...there is no other option!

and it is easy to fall into this binary thinking of theirs because many have been trained by prior religions to think in black and white terms and JWs get most of their converts from already believing people, they dont do well in new territories that no one else, christian has made inroads.

Narkissos

Narkissos says it is accepted after a feeling comes that is supposedly from Jehovah. A confirmation. That was my experience in studying with them.

Actually I meant that this can happen and is welcomed if it does, but it is not expected, and is not felt as something missing if it does not.

I have found a similar pattern among Evangelicals: the "catch" message is, "accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and you will be saved / born again"; but if someone says "I accepted Jesus but I felt nothing particular," the prepared answer is: "trust the Scriptures: you are saved / born again because they say so, even though you may have felt nothing particular."

Other churches, though, will require an expression of personal experience -- such as Pentecostals with "speaking in tongues".

How do JW know they have the Truth?

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