We are not false prophets (page 3)

journey-on

What Terry said!! Calling a dog a giraffe, does not make it a giraffe.

sabastious

We let the facts speak for themselves.

Sounds good to me.

-Sab

Alice, the problem is, you can rationalize all you like, but unfortunately the Society is a religious organization, which claims to be Scriptural, therefore your musings don't count, nor do the excuses by the Society, only the Bible's statements count.

The Bible gives a definition of a 'false prophet' in the OT that the Society fully meets. Already proven to the point of redundancy.

The Bible gives a definition of a 'false prophet' in the NT (Jesus words) that the Society fully meets. Already proven to the point of redundancy.

Game over.

It's just icing on the cake that the Society has explicitly claimed to be a prophet and has clearly stated that false predictions make one "guilty of false prophesying". Their unwitting self-condemnation is just a bonus.

MarcusScriptus

Alice, Christianity itself is based on its historical record. That’s why some people reject it because it hasn’t always done a good job of doing what it was founded to accomplish.

That historical record is the foundation upon which this faith is built on whether one believes in sola scriptura or a the Sacred Deposit of the Faith. History is not just a facet of what the Christian religion is made up of, it is everything: its wisdom, its guide, its standard, its present, and its future.

While mere words are not enough, and I am sure it was meant to be more than just a gesture or the end of the matter, even Pope John Paul II was moved to acknowledge that the Roman Catholic Church had committed criminal acts against humanity, against freedom of thought, against scientific discovery, and against other faiths. Why then did he ask for forgiveness? So that his religion could get off the hook form those crimes easily? Hardly! He intended it to be a starting point to right wrongs.

If a religion that is, according to the Witnesses, a false and inferior one can yet recognize that its past is always the measure for its present and future, and that something needed to be done to at least begin to right the wrongs it committed in its past, how can you say that the religion of the Jehovah’s Witnesses is ignorant of doing even better?

Is it not “the Truth”? Should it not be more honest about its failings than the “Satanic throne of Babylon the Great”? Because it alone has God’s spirit, should we not expect it to be doing more to make up for any errors of its past than something as “erroneous” as the Roman Catholic Church? Satan is not greater than Jehovah, is he?

Besides, the teaching that the Faithful and Discreet Slave class is the “modern day prophet” is not something from its past. It is still very much a teaching of the slave class. It still sees itself as the only prophetic voice in the world. And the only type of prophet that is true is an inspired prophet. The Witnesses claim that they are not inspired. Therefore they have claimed before all that they and their message is not from God.

Is there an example from Scripture where a true prophet was never inspired? The JWs are claiming that they have never had inspiration for any of its beliefs. How is that not the same type of self-condemnation the Jews were making in Jesus day when they called themselves the children of those who stoned the prophets?

hamsterbait

VM44-

Isn't it interesting how many real FUNDAMENTAL changes come in the April 1st Witchtowers??

APRIL FOOLS day. #

There is something going on here...

HB

DaCheech

"time is the enemy of the false prophet"

time is making the WTBS reap their reward

MrFreeze

They say they are God's spirit-anointed organization, and are led by God's holy spirit. So that means anytime they say something that is incorrect, that God's holy spirit is wrong because it was the one leading them. That means they are blaspheming against the holy spirit. Debate over.

alice.in.wonderland

“If a religion that is, according to the Witnesses, a false and inferior one can yet recognize that its past is always the measure for its present and future, and that something needed to be done to at least begin to right the wrongs it committed in its past, how can you say that the religion of the Jehovah’s Witnesses is ignorant of doing even better?”

Official statements have been made about prior expectations of the early Bible students that allowed for personal reflection.

jv chap. 28 p. 631 Testing and Sifting From Within

At certain times the Bible Students had hopes and expectations that have been ridiculed by critics. Yet, all those hopes and expectations were rooted in a keen desire to see the fulfillment of what these zealous Christians recognized to be the unfailing promises of God.

From their study of the inspired Scriptures, they knew that Jehovah had promised blessings for all nations of the earth by means of the seed of Abraham. (Gen. 12:1-3; 22:15-18) They saw in God’s Word the promise that the Son of man would rule as heavenly King over all the earth, that a little flock of faithful ones would be taken from the earth to share with him in his Kingdom, and that these would rule as kings for a thousand years. (Dan. 7:13, 14; Luke 12:32; Rev. 5:9, 10; 14:1-5; 20:6) They knew Jesus’ promise that he would return and take with him those for whom he had prepared a place in heaven. (John 14:1-3) They were acquainted with the promise that the Messiah would also select some of his faithful forefathers to be princes in all the earth. (Ps. 45:16) They recognized that the Scriptures foretold the end of the wicked old system of things and realized that this was associated with the war of the great day of God the Almighty at Armageddon. (Matt. 24:3; Rev. 16:14, 16) They were deeply impressed by the scriptures that show that the earth was created to be inhabited forever, that those who lived on it were to have true peace, and that all who would exercise faith in Jesus’ perfect human sacrifice could enjoy an eternity of life in Paradise.—Isa. 2:4; 45:18; Luke 23:42, 43; John 3:16.

It was only natural that they should wonder when and how these things would occur. Did the inspired Scriptures provide any clues?

Using Bible chronology that had first been laid out by Christopher Bowen of England, they thought that 6,000 years of human history had ended in 1873, that thereafter they were in the seventh thousand-year period of human history, and that they had surely approached the dawn of the foretold Millennium. The series of books known as Millennial Dawn (and later called Studies in the Scriptures), which were penned by C. T. Russell, drew attention to the implications of this according to what the Bible Students understood from the Scriptures.

People seem to have some misconceptions and difficulty relating to the men in Brooklyn, New York and their early contemporaries. It's an item of interest for me to step into another person's shoes and understand their circumstances early in the 20th century.

exwhyzee

For over 130 years, the BS/WTS/JWs have been saying that Armageddon is coming soon. But it hasn't. How is this NOT false prophecy?

They will say the prophecy about Armegeddon was made in the Bible, they did not make it , rather they interpreted the prophecy and have had to alter their interpretation of the prophecy. For this reason they are not false prophets, but rather imperfect men who came to the wrong conclusion on occasion.

tado

Did the inspired Scriptures provide any clues?

huh? your “ seven times” for your 2520 days into years? you consider it as clues for 1914? are you king nebuchadnezzar?

We are not false prophets