by AlanF 156 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Interesting theory, DTTP. What support for that conclusion can you offer? I did notice that some of the info on their sites conflicts directly with JW dogma. Was there something more you noted that made you lean that way in your assessment?
Respectfully,
AuldSoul
Hey Auld..
Thirsdwitness and and fella named 'Al" were sophisticated members of the E-watchman supporters, hence the defenses on his site are largely aimed at a certain apostate,Mr. E_Watchman himself. It is actually quite puerile that they are so obsessed with him. I used to read a board they both contributed on- and its agenda was to combat that wierd internet prophet.
I do not mean to detract from them by saying "puerile", but to come off more real and respect worthy they should just let that E-Watchman fella alone.
A clever CO might assign some MTS students the task of going online and learning to refute apostate objections in order to prepare them for future problems in congregations.
Auldsoul,
Also notice that 3rdWitness has proclaimed the "holy trinity" of apostate critique to be Pedo-s, 607 bce and the UN-NGO issue. UN-NGO? Not really, most Jws do not care and many Xs do not care either. The blood doctrine would be of more singificance. One might wonder why the blood doctrine did not get a shout-out... Well, the E-Watchman agrees with the WT's blood doctrine so there is little need for them to tackle it.
Well,
If Alan is correct in his thesis, or if Deathtothepixies is somewhat correct with perhaps the e-watchman thing being a sort of warm-up toward a greater effort then the efforts of ex-JWs on the net are really getting under their skins. With those possibilities in mind it might be a good idea to meet their postings with logical and well-researched rebuttals rather than the name calling Which often gets thrown at them. That is one of the reasons I keep reminding people that it does nothing for one's case to take those personal digs. Some of the worse offenders among us are also among the more capable when it comes to net based research.
So if you really think Alan is on the right track, you might want to consider that many we might not be aware of are reading and how we answer such critics then becomes just as important, if not more so than the facts we present. Its just a thought I've become pretty used to the way certain folks debate here, but many lurkers are not and are all taught that we are nothing but bitter liars.
Forscher
AlanF,
Excellent article, I really enjoyed it. I have been wanting to see some sort of essay on where the Society is going and you have provided it.
You might be right about 3W.
It's also possible that 3W is working entirely alone and is comfortable conversing with "apostates" and maintaining loyalty to the Society at the same time.
A perfect example of double think in my opinion.
1) I am loyal to the Society even though I know I am "doing wrong" by visiting these sites.
2) I know I am "doing wrong" by visiting these sites, but I am defending the Society.
3W's articles are well written, carefully researched. I think the possibility of him being a Bethelite or having close connections with Bethel is a good theory.
There are only 3 old timers left in Bethel - Jack Barr (101), Carey Barber (92) and Ted Jaracz (81). How long will they last is anyone's guess - a comfortable style "nursing home" may mean they could all live to be 100, but how effective are you at that age?
It's almost comical for JWs to believe that the latest 50 something batch of GB members could be anointed - after all, how could any of them have been chosen after 1935?
While it is true that they have some anti-e-watchman-stuff on their website, that doesn`t necessarily mean that they are defectors from e-watchman, does it? It could very well be that they are loyal jws, and always has been, but that their first quest in this internet-crusade of theirs, was to attack e-watchman. After all, if there is anything these witnoids hate more than anything, it is ex-jws who try to recruit jws/ex-jws/soon-to-be-ex-jws into some other part of christianity (or "christendom", as they would say, lol). I think these jws hate them (e-watchman and similar people) even more so than they hate ungodly, atheist/agnostic apostates like us...
Al used to be a moderator on E-W's site. thirdwitness was active on EW's site. Both were banned. Al started his own site called jehovahsjudgement.uk (or something similar) and thridwitness was very active on there. There was a big broohaahaa between Al (and I think thridwitness was involved), EW, and Timothy Kline. I never really followed the whole thing that closely and it's been over for a while now.
That being said, there is no proof that the thirdwitness posting on this site is the same person.
BB
I haven't followed TW very closely, but from what I have read, it does not make my "Agent of the GB" meter go off.
My gut tells me he is another You Know wanna be who feels he may be the second coming of Robert King. He realizes that Robert had a following and may wish for the same. Eventually, TW may create his own website and message board and pronounce himself Leader of the Free JW's. It doesn't really matter to me as I've never been one to follow men. But then again, my instinct says he is just another elder/ms/extreme jw hiding behind his monitor in some distant locale.
I seriously doubt though that the gb would sponsor a semi-rogue jw to come to this board to try and defend wts dogma. They know their doctrines have seriously gaping holes in them. Why would they want to keep bringing to light these holes? It's the same as when they are invited to a religious debate or other public forum. THEY DECLINE. Why? Because if an "apostate" ends up feeding information to a debater, they are in for a world of hurt in the opinion of those watching/listening.
If I were them, I would know that fear lies at the very root of every jw's existence. Keep that fear in place and the jw's will stay in line. One of those fears is being found out about on boards such as this. If it were me running the show, I would definitely pull a CoS move and track down every dissenter I could find - especially the so-called "faders." All faders are fearful. Fearful of losing family, friends, their job, whatever. I would infiltrate the board and become a very prolific poster. Gain the trust of everyone. Go to meetups and fests. And then I would 'out' those fading dissenters. The WTS needs to have clean congregations. What I mean by clean is that everyone that attends needs to be on the same page. I do not want to see or hear any differing ideas or opinions. This includes the internet. The web simply adds another layer of anonymity that needs to be stripped away. Strip the anonymity of those fading, and this fear will spread even more. JW's will hear through the grapevine that so-and-so was df'd because he ate with a group of df'd ones. Well how in the hell did that happen? I heard he met them on the internet.
Rambling now, sorry. But like I said, TW probably is just another wanna be hack job that is looking to make a name for himself in the anals of jw defenders.
Auld Soul: I find your capacity to imagine sorely wanting if this is the only hypothesis you can come up with to explain the phenomenon we have witnessed from thirdwitness.
Alas, until the much-publicized but long-delayed improvements to this message board appear (which will allow me to add an appropriate level of digitally canned hilarity as auditory clues to my zingers), short of the dishonorable typographical turds known as Emoticons, there is no simple way for me to clue in the autistically literal of my subtle humors, save the context, content, and punctuation.
To satisfy what we have seen, one need only imagine that the organizational "heavies" AT SOME LEVEL assigned a group of technophiles to covertly create Web sites designed to support the Watchtower Society dogma and publicly appear to address certain issues online which the Watchtower Society does not DARE address in Watchtower publications. It is not a stretch that these same defenders would be called on to direct attention to these created sites on apostate forums, engage in a bit of argumentation, but not too much argumentation from any one person, to avoid the possibility of original thoughts intruding.
Then how much easier it must be to imagine that a few fringe-Witnesses, lacking their own publishing company and worldwide distribution network, but still with a yen for annoying other people, would do the exact same thing. When the word gets out, there will soon be all sorts of lunatics peddling their hare-brained ideas about religion on the web.
I have commented previously that the entire psychology of Jehovah's Witnesses is one of rumor and speculation; old habits die hard, but they should die.
