JW's in a nutshell

drew sagan

Last night I was reading a book and I came across an illustration that fits this circumstance well. It goes like this.
A young boy at Sunday school learns the story of David and Goliath. At home that afternoon the boy comes to his mother and says "I'm as big as Goliath". The mother asks how he knows this. The young boy says "Because, Goliath was 9 feet tall. When I came home today I made my own yardstick that is 3 yards tall. Three yards is nine feet, so that means that I am nine feet tall!". Of course the mother very nicely explaned to the boy that we can't make our own yardsticks in life, but instead have to buy one from the store instead. To make our own would be a distortion of the truth.
This is a nuthshell explains the JW's to me. They create their own set of dogma, and then judge the world by it. If you celebrate holidays, take blood, believe in going to heven, the immortality of the soul, the trinity, don't go door to door, or even don't attend "Chrisitan Meetings" you arn't a "true christian". It's this kind of reasoning that lead many of us to think that things where so black and white, when in reality they where grey. The biggest gain I've gotten from my expierance with the JWs is that you can't make your own "yardsticks", doing so is a distortion of the real truth. Even if it means realizing something your heart dosn't want to be true.

KW13

i like it, a really simple and effective illustration

fullofdoubtnow

Thanks drew, I will remeber that one, excellent.

Shazard

This is called tautology! I guess!

Virgochik

That fits them to a "T" Drew! And also, they made their own Bible, too! Then they check themselves against that to see how they measure up.

DannyHaszard

Good post,to keep it simple the central core dogma of Jehovah's Witnesses,the reason they came into existence 110 years ago was to proclaim Jesus second coming in the year 1914.

When their 'prophecy' {derived from the William Miller movement of 1844} failed,they went on to say that Jesus came "invisibly".Yes,it's the 'emperor's new clothes' all over again.

They are the crooks who cooked the book the Watchtower is a lie!-Danny Haszard

moggy lover

Perfect illustration, Drew.

Sad part is that all centrally dominated religious systems, like the Mormons do the same thing. I remember a tract published by Herbert W Armstrong, where he showed his readers how to identify the "One True Church" 1You had to accept the sabbath 2 Had to celebrate the Jewish festivals, Passover, pentecost, Hannuchah, etc 3 no divorce permitted 4 the destiny of believers is to become God 5 had to accept that the English Speaking Peoples were the Israel of God etc etc 6 Had to accept that he, HWA was the Last True Prophet sent by God etc etc

Same principle, different yardstick

Cheers

daystar

So, where is this "store" where we can buy the yardstick that won't distort the "truth"? In other words, isn't this what we all often do anyway? To the JWs, the WBTS is the "store" where they bought the yardstick, to the Catholics, it is the Catholic Church, to Wiccans it is looser, but they have their rede as well.

JW's in a nutshell

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