They are both mistaken AND deceptive. Read Ray Franz's books and Steve Hassan's books - you'll probably come to that conclusion as well
Is the WTBTS mistaken or deceptive?
by exwhyzee 32 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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wantstoleave
I think they are misguided, mistaken and deceptive. It's their personal interpretation of the bible, which they hold as sacred and gospel, so choose to live their lives by. The interpretation of it is where the danger lies, and opinion of man comes into play.
Then there are the followers who blindly go along because they believe it is the only path. Witnesses aren't taught to think or question, just follow and accept. That is where deception can infiltrate because they know they have a following and what they say goes. But probably deep down, they don't feel what they are doing is wrong, which comes back to the mistaken part.
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diamondiiz
Both but at their level I can't imagine them being as innocent as maybe some were during the 70s - during Ray Franz' era. In the year 2010, I don't believe they aren't covering up 607BC lie. I don't believe that they all believe that Jesus returned in 1914. Can they honestly sit through their meetings and believe that the entire archeaologic evidence pointing to 586/7BC for the fall of Jerusalem is some big conspiracy and then they scheme up ideas how to adjust the generation understanding for the regular joe publisher? Maybe they are hopeful that God will step in soon and bring in Armageddon so all their BS is "fixed" and OKed by the invisible man in the sky. In this day and age I'm not buying that GB members are innocent like they would like us to believe.
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cyberjesus
they are mistakes and they deceive. althought they arent even aware of it. they are indeed captives of a concept.
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jehovahsheep
i noticed many brothers were more concerned in being well spoken about and used by the society.
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The Finger
Deceptive
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sir82
Maybe they are hopeful that God will step in soon and bring in Armageddon so all their BS is "fixed" and OKed by the invisible man in the sky.
That's got my vote.
Barr is the last of the old-timers on the GB - all the rest weren't even in Bethel during the "old days" when Ray Franz was booted, nor when Fred Franz was something more than a "mascot" of sorts. They were all out being COs, DOs, or missionaries.
I suspect they are only vaguely aware of any "controversies" from the 60's, 70's or 80's, and cetainly don't care to look too deeply.
My best guess is that they are firmly swept up in the illusion that God has somehow, despite all the errors and screw-ups, chosen this organization as his. They are hopeful that Armageddon comes soon to (1) vindicate themselves and (2) make all those annoying "little" troublesome issues (blood, child abuse, hard science and archaeology contradicting literal interpretation of the Bible, etc.) go away.
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LongHairGal
EXWHYZEE,
I believe they are both mistaken and deceptive. Mistaken in that there are many sincere people there who have invested many years because the religion has the magic name. And, deceptive - because I definitely feel deceived as they did not lay their cards on the table when I joined the religion. They said nothing about divine claims because I certainly do not accept ANYBODY'S presumptuous divine claims (tell me who and HOW they supposedly communicate with God). They also misrepresented themselves as having no clergy class - meanwhile they have what amounts to a plain clothes clergy. They also said they are simply 'bible students'. What a gross understatement because there is nothing simple about it.
MOSHE,
You are right again in that you say the religion is just giving the members what they crave as a 'fix' and they are trying to make the 'corpse' look as lifelike as possible. This makes me definitely believe the religion listens to complaints and reads peoples letters and tailors their literature so that it doesn't upset the apple cart too much.
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villabolo
PSYCHOPATHIC AND PSYCHOTIC