Penetrating the Deepest Level- "Jehovah" is God

by OnTheWayOut 47 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  OnTheWayOut

  And when I say that nothing works, that is not totally true.
  My wife is missing from some meetings, actually missed the last C.O. visit and part of the one before for personal activity out of town.
  Although she is really the same person at the KH that she always was, I am confident that "our" brothers and sisters consider her weak because of her husband and treat her a bit like Swine Flu at the Hall. She is visiting a different foreign-language cong. "to learn the language" and I hate that she goes to more meetings when she misses some, but she will learn the language. From all evidences, it seems she is making new friends of JW's that do not know Brother OTWO because the old friends are treating her differently.

  She is full of contrary beliefs/actions. She is so into how important education is, but supports the flimsiest of WT sayings that "college is not for everyone" and how many can just get some trade school. (It's all BS for her dissonance, she focuses on the few who couldn't make it in college in order to see some merit in WT doctrine.) She is concerned about retirement "in this system of things" and she goes to lunches and gatherings of co-workers or people involved in the same "secular" activities that she/we are into.

  She just won't even consider that WTS is not "the truth." It is slowly (very slowly) becoming less relevant in her life, but WTS is still there for her. I am concerned that in the last year, her mother got baptized (attended for years, finally retired from Babylon the Great so she got baptized) and her sibling got reinstated (out for over 14 years).
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  undercover

  Helping a family member leave the JWs is sometimes a covert operation with success measured over the course of time...three steps forward, two steps back. At first it looks ineffective but over time you start to see the results.

  You're seeing them now. Your wife, a one time hardcore JW, is missing meetings and actually missed the CO's visit. These are the first signs of independance from the cult. Of course, next week the guilt may kick in and she'll aux. pioneer. But the thrill of that will fade, she'll go back to her normal routine. As you help her find new and more fulfilling interests outside the KH, she'll miss even more meetings and service.

  In time, she may become completely inactive, but never having come to the realization that the WT Society/JWs is a cult and she had been duped all this time. But it doesn't matter...you freed her mind from being enslaved to the organization.
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  passive suicide

  Jehovah doesn't exist.
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  OnTheWayOut

  Jehovah doesn't exist.

  I know, I know. They don't know.

  ...three steps forward, two steps back.

  Thanks, that made me smile.
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  Narkissos

  My opinion is that a "God" (the WT Jehovah) who can be hijacked and bent to every whim of an organisation (let alone local authority holders like elders or even JW parents) sorely lacks personality -- even on a purely imaginary plane: he doesn't resist, even as a figment of the believers' minds. And this (always imo) results from his being made up in the average JW mind of a patchwork of contradictory scriptures, without any ordering or hierarchising principle -- only what the next issue of The Watchtower will see fit to "highlight" counts. JWs have no consistent and subsisting "canon in the canon" to construct a solid and enduring portray of their God. This week's Jehovah can be loving or cruel, just or tyrannical, petty or forgiving, like the WT writers want him to be. What matters is just what the organisation now says about him -- even last week's Jehovah cannot stand to that. Lack of mental remanence as it were.

  I tend to believe that one of the genius traits of Christianity consisted in daring to portray its God as a man -- the Gospels Jesus. Even though the portray may be highly artificial and contradictory (I think it is), it is also very powerful. Christians in general "see" the God they believe in when they think of Jesus. "Jesus" resists authoritarian attempts at confiscating him in the minds of the believers. Christian doctrine has been a tool of control for sure, but "Jesus" has also inspired questioning of authority and doctrine throughout the history of Christianity. Notice that this doesn't require a very high Christology to work: even JWs would theoretically admit that Jesus is Jehovah's best image and revelation: in principle, every other revelation should be assessed by his. But practically JWs do not allow the "Jesus" portrait(s) to question any WT picture of "Jehovah" -- even if it doesn't sound like Jesus at all. If next week's Watchtower summons an angry Jehovah swallowing Qorah and his followers for questioning the divinely established authority, it is unlikely that the reminiscence of Jesus challenging authority will even come to most readers' mind and trigger "cognitive dissonance".
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  minimus

  I believe in "God". "Jehovah" doesn't bother me. Neither does YHWH.
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  drew sagan

  An additional point built upon what Narkissos is saying.
  
  Because the Watchtowers concept of Jehovah is constructed primarily as a support and justification for the organization, Witness doctrines about God are difficult (or even impossible) to maintain outside of the group.
  
  I think this is why splinter movements have never gained any traction. Many people have left the Watchtower with the intent of starting their own group that borrows theology directly from the Watchtower (Greg Stafford comes to mind, but there have been others in the past). Yet, most people who leave the JWs aren't interested in keeping the theology, because it really only holds relevance to the organization. Taken outside of the Watchtower world, the "Jehovah" construct simply doesn't have much relevance. Consciously or subconsciously, people who leave typically seem to recognize this and move on.
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  Sunspot

  What thoughts do you have on penetrating a JW's deepest level of belief that "Jehovah" as defined by WTS is God and WTS must be "right" because they carry HIS name?

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  I have since come to appreciate that there is only ONE NAME that the bible says to be honored and revered and placed above ALL others, and that is Jesus Christ. (Phil 2:9-10) We see at Acts 4:26, "And it came to pass that for a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught many people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." Followers of Jesus Christ....were called Christians....not Jehovah's Witnesses.

  The WTS can think up all sorts of cutesy cliches to "prove" they are the only ones approved by God.....but the bottom line is that all they HAVE is a bookbag filled with cutesy cliches. One has to get a WTS defender to see that first.