Are they really that bad??? (page 2)

OUTLAW

Every Watchtower leader who put into print the promise and said it was from Jehovah Himself

"You will never die and Live Forever if you Follow Us",

Is Dead.No Exceptions................

That should be..

................ ...OUTLAW

Cold Steel

I don't think it's a case of it being "bad" as much as it is "incorrect."

Saying it's biblical is a judgment call, and one I vigorously disagree with. The greatest problem that I see is that it's a manmade religion. "For surely the Lord Ged will do nothing save he reveal his secrets to his servants the prophets." (Amos 3:7) There's nothing in the scriptures that point to the establishment of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, nor do we know where the leaders of the church get their authority. How did God come to establish their leaders and how is the JW any different than any other church or sect?

These are the questions that need to be anwered.

GrandmaJones

You really need to do a little research of the organization's early history. I was born into it, and believed it all my life until I began reading the older stuff. Perhaps you should do a little research here. Check your facts now, once you are in, they don't let you quit. Seriously.

OnTheWayOut

You can read two books before you get further involved. They will do more for you than we can. They are Raymond Franz's CRISIS OF CONSCIENCE and Steven Hassan's COMBATTING CULT MIND CONTROL.

To break down the gist of the mind-control part, Jehovah's Witnesses insert a measure of controls on members' behaviors, information available to them (telling them to constantly read the Watchtower and never to read anything by former members nor talk with them about the organization), thoughts and emotions.

It is highly probable that their blood policy (which no other Bible-based religions agree with) has been perpetuated to make martyrs out of members, allowing their children to die to make the members feel special in taking a stand for Jehovah's organization.

Similarly to the Catholic Church keeping the pedophile priests situation quiet, Watchtower has had information kept quiet to protect the image of the organization. They have often insisted that victims without a second witness stop spreading rumors about their JW predator. Regardless of your feelings on that, they always always always contact Headquarters first in those situations for legal advice ahead of any concern for protection of the victims and they don't stand by them if they go forward to the police. It is still pretty standard policy to shush these things to make sure they don't look bad and parents within a congregation are not warned even when a pedophile is known to be in their midst.

The shunning policy to keep members from speaking to former members tears families apart. It is much more severe than excommunication from the Catholic or most typical churches. It is usually fear of losing family contact that causes many members to never leave despite their desire to do so. Other people are fearful of "everlasting destruction" to even violate the rules and talk to a grandparent or a sibling or a parent that was disfellowshipped.

Ask a JW if a Mormon were to question the truth of their Churches doctrines if it would make sense to read books by former Mormons to learn more. Then ask them if a JW should be able to do the same. Try asking them after they answer, "Why would the truth be afraid of the lies?" They will go on and on about Satan being slick/treacherous and will not back down on it ever being okay to read what they call "Apostate" literature or contact former members about information.

Black Sheep

They claim to have been selected by Jesus in 1919 to be God's sole channel of communication in our day.

That's a pretty extraordinary claim.

How do they prove it? Is their own say so good enough? How do they arrive at the year 1919? Does the data they use to arrive at that date have the support of historians and archaeologists, or does it disagree and rests on their own say so?

If they were not selected by Jesus in 1919, should you still join and go knocking on doors preaching their message? (Which is that they were.) Would you be up front with potential convert and tell them that they teach a faulty doctrine, or would you conveniently forget to mention it until after they got baptised?

garyneal

Perhaps this might be of some help.

http://4jehovah.org/help-jw-become.php

sabastious

It's biblical and I've had such an eye opener the past year or so reading some of their books and magazines .

So you are coming here searching criticism of the Watchtower even though they have been an eye opener for you?

Doesn't add up if you ask me.

-Sab

bobld

YES THEY ARE.Why do you ask? Are you studying with them?If you are, asked them what will happened to you if you disagree with them after you are baptised.

B

anonymous4

Thanks for all of your comments.

Thanks the the links also.

Curtains

anonymous4, welcome to JWN. I felt the same as you when I first started studying with jehovahs witnesses except that I did not think of asking nor pursue asking the question below (which you ask in your opening post), nor have anywhere like this to ask it

is there any real reasons why I shouldn't want to get involved further?

we have been involved and are here to tell you that the story they tell, which seems to tick all the boxes - (good people looking forward to a paradise earth in which only good people like them will live) - requires that you do a lot of violence to yourself and to your loved ones in order to chisel out badness. You have to live a very narrow life to make the story beautiful and apealing to others. All the time the leaders quietly break their own rules to suit themselves and to keep their self serving ideology in place.

Are they really that bad???

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