Tower Speak - Depends On Where You're Standing

by Clam 17 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Clam

  I'm fascinated by the idea that an exact group of words can mean different things to different people.

  Consider the following quote . . .

  In order to avoid misunderstandings, Jehovah's Witnesses try to be careful about how they express themselves. Instead of saying, "the Society teaches," many Witnesses prefer to use the expression as, "the Bible says" or, "I understand the Bible to teach."...avoid giving the false impression that Witnesses are somehow bound to the dictates of some religious sect. Watchtower 3/15/98 p19

  To a householder who has little or no knowledge of the Witnesses, this possibly tells him or her that the JWs are not a sect or cult but are sincere Bible students.

  To a Witness it reiterates that their beliefs are not what the Society teaches, but what the Bible teaches. It’s also a reminder that they're not in a sect and that they need to be careful about how they express themselves.

  To me (and possibly a lot of you), it’s so absurd that it borders on satire.

  Depends where you're standing I suppose. . .
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  OnTheWayOut

  Good post. I was disturbed by this article. This seems like cult training to
  make the member believe that the Bible actually says what he believes, and
  it is supposed to do as you say for the householder- make the individual JW's
  appear to be sincere Bible students.

  But virtually every JW knows that the society teaches them how to view
  anything. The Bible is used to prove them right with select out-of-context
  scriptures.
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  free2think

  Yep, good point clam, the wts really have got it down to a fine art.
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  carla

  That is one warning I always try to give those who would like to take on a jw, remember you may be having a discussion with a jw, using the same words but they don't mean the same thing to you as they do to the jw. Take the word Holy Spirit, a Christian and a jw can sit and discuss the HS for a long time and the Christian may not realize for quite some time that the jw thinks the HS is an 'active force' like electricity or something. Salvation, saved, born again, soul, spirit, truth, today, lets not forget the infamous word LIE and the wt's redefinition, I'm sure this list could get quite long if you compare what mainstream Christianity thinks a word means and what it means to a jw. If you don't know jwese it makes it hard, still hard even if you know the language because they no longer know the meaning in the traditional sense. Turns into an argument of language and if you both don't speak the orginal languages & Biblical Greek, well you know how that goes.
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  Honesty

  1998 was about the time I started my unsuccessful 'Fade' out of the cult.

  I remember that quotation really got me wondering about what I was involved in that it took deception to spread the only truth.
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  nvrgnbk

  It's mind control.

  It's insulting.
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  cultswatter

  Those mealy mouth JF*CKING 2Us. The WTS taught the 1935 doctrine which the bible did not support . What liars!!
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  Leolaia

  "The Society teaches that beards are not proper for Christians and that the harvest of the 'great crowd' began in 1935. Oops, my bad. I meant to say, the Bible teaches that beards are not for Christians and the Bible teaches that 1935 was the year in which the harvest of the 'great crowd' began."

  "Really? Where does the Bible teach that?"
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  JK666

  The Bible says that the generation born in 1914 will not die off before armageddon. That didn't work, let me tell you what a generationreally is . . . er . . . um . . . yeah, from the Bible.

  JK
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  llbh

  Hi Clam

  In my expereience paradoxically whenever you try to reason with them they immediately begin to try and quote what the wtbs says! Or as my wife would say, we will have to wait on Jehovah, i.e. suspend reasoning because they fell threatened and retreat into thier comfort zone.

  llbh