Last Wednesday I had the absolute joy of attending the Theocratic Ministry School and the Sales Meeting. My wife was giving a talk and I chose to support her by being there to here her speech.
One thing I found extremely funny was a point they made about what 'the name' really means. See if you think this makes sense:
The statement was made about the verse where it refers to the name of the father, the name of the son and the name of the holy spirit. Everybody knows that the father's name is Jehovah. Everyone knows that the son's name is Jesus. But, what is the name of the holy spirit?
Well, the answer is that 'the name' here implies 'according to', 'with deference to'.
Hmm. That's interesting.
You see, I thought that one of the main Witness doctrines is that 'the name' refers to the English version of the unpronounceable Hebrew YHVH. And thus, without the use of THE NAME, it was impossible to be really preaching the message. Hmm. Therefore, only those who speak of 'Jehovah' can be part of true worship.
It seems that there is a discrepancy here . . . either you go literal, or you go figurative, but you don't switch back and forth whenever you feel like it . . .
What a crock of . . . My wife even picked up on this point, although not relating it to the designation of the true religion by using 'the name'. Why not? Easy, she doesn't want to and won't see the inner contradictions.
Attending meetings to support my wife is really an eye-opening experience as to why I think her religion is a farce . . .