A word to Jehovah’s Witnesses: What is the basis for the authority the seven members of the governing body can claim in controlling the lives of eight million followers? The organisation they represent has never got one useful piece of information correct in one hundred and thirty five years... so why should they be believed?
What is the basis for authority for the governing body?
by Half banana 41 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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The Searcher
Simple question to ask one of the "trolley dollies" - "Who exactly told you that the 7 men in Brooklyn really are the FDS, and can you show me the proof?" -
looter
They do have a false basis for authority in Matthew. That apparently warrants the followers to believe that the governing body are God's chosen stooges. But that is just it. They believe because they are brainwashed into believing, not that there is actually any proof or basis for worship and recognition. The governing are masters of trickery, but we already know that. -
Oubliette
David Miscavige, the current leader of Scientology, supposedly said, "Power is seized."
In reference to the WTBTS, Rutherford did it back in 1916 and a chain of opportunists have taken over since his day until now.
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millie210
Its been ever so gradual.
When I was young the organization seemed zealous and Bible based. The leadership was anonymous and the stated reason given for that sounded "noble" (they didnt want personal glory or worship).
Then I became more aware of the term "Governing Body" and lastly, they proclaimed themselves as the FDS.
Now, you cant hardly turn around without seeing one of the GB on some level. Their names are household words in Witness homes and their word is law.
The process I referred to above was 50 years in the making. So gradual until at the end and by then it was unopposed and they didnt have to be gradual. Or subtle either as it turns out.
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Magnum
millie210, that's exactly the way I perceive the matter, too.
The organization did seem so "zealous and Bible based". The leadership seemed more serious and noble. Now the leaders seem like attention-seeking buffoons.
I used to think that Acts 15 provided scriptural precedent for a governing body, but then I read an analysis of the Acts 15 account that changed my thinking.
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Finkelstein
The basis of power is based inherently from themselves and the past leaders.
Rutherford in 1919 got he ball rolling when he announced that god had chosen the WTS as his
earthy organization to dispel bible truths. Of course he took that proclamation to create validity
to himself and the literature he published. From that indulgent self acclamation and commercialization
the JWS grew in power by expansion in adherent numbers.
Sure the doctrines created by the WTS were bullshit but they were alluring and accomplished what they were established to do in the first place, draw in devoted members who were to be exploited to sustain the structure of power .
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JeffT
They use circular reasoning (or used to).
I remember seeing this in a couple of study articles years ago. The FDS teaches the truth about such Bible truths as the trinity, no hellfire, God's kingdom etc. Unlike the rest of Christendom.
A short time later they came out with a statement that we have to believe in such Bible truths as the Trinity, no hellfire, God's Kingdom etc because they've been taught to us by the FDS.
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Pete Zahut
What is the basis for authority for the governing body?...and has anyone seen a scripture in the Bible it says there would be a literal Faithful and Discrete Slave or where it mentions a Slave "Class" ? -
Half banana
They must have a limited authority by the position they inherit individually as an appointed trustee of the WTBTS... I assume. (Assumptions are the last thing we want when examining evidence, anyone with better knowledge; do let us know.) Collectively and much more importantly, the aura of power is made through their relentless propaganda machinery to a captive audience.
This has been cranked up in recent decades to the point where the GB have elevated their own status approaching that of immortal demi-gods who will be sitting at the right hand of Jesus in heaven basking in perpetual bright new light (and they are welcome to it!) But the fact is that true believers will believe anything, so long as it originates with the divine leadership of the seven undereducated, out of touch buffoons of Brooklyn.
Morally their leadership is flawed. They have condemned whole groups of people on the basis of their Bible interpretation such as the UN... and then joined them for political gain. They have heartlessly condemned individuals for holding certain beliefs and then later adopted those beliefs as if from God. An example of this is their mocking and railing against “organised religion” and then for financial clout and taking control of all the JW finances worldwide; they have today become “organised religion” with an eye to following their role model of the Catholic Church (where there is real power and unimaginable wealth). Not to mention those individuals who were disfellowshipped for holding certain beliefs which were later made ‘sacred truth’ simply by saying so in the columns of the Watchtower...This is the deception of their authority: their demand for slavish obedience to the written word, both in the Bible and their own' holy' decrees in the Watchtower magazine.
As I suggested they have never got anything right! They have never informed in advance of things going to happen. They simply did not serve as a “Watchtower” as they symbolically presented themselves... instead, they have proved to be more like a deep and dark pit into which millions have fallen. The “new light” is more like a toxic fog...
So in all its one and one third centuries of religious blathering... nothing worthwhile has ever emerged from this organisation. Absolutely everything they promote has had to do only with the financial security and status of the governing body to dictate its cultic power over its susceptible followers.
They are not interested in the welfare of their flock. They use the Bible as a weapon to blind the sheep to what they are actually doing (enforcing their own control). Their Bible doctrines cannot possibly be inerrant if they are at liberty to determine how they are to be believed as “new light” for a limited time. If it was true, it would be so for all time without need for revision.
Are these not reasons for denying authority to the Watchtower org and escaping from its selfish propaganda?
If you are a JW why do you not turn away from this harmful, misleading and useless Bible organisation?