Watchtower teaching - short summary

kurtbethel

I happened upon a page the described:

7 Really Weird Religions You Haven’t Heard Of

So I made the following comment.

When you look into it, the Jehovah's Witness religion is a bit odd. Their early teaching was that Jesus showed up invisibly in 1874 and was going to come back in 1914 and destroy all the governments and churches. He was a no show and they lost a lot of people, but they soldiered on and published that Jesus would show up in 1925 and this time we are really certain of it. Jesus did not get the memo, and also stood them up again in 1941 and 1975 when they expected the current system to end. Now the story is he came back in 1914, only you see he was invisible and he is ruling things now, only he is allowing more time for people to go knocking on doors so more people can join the salvation club. Current beliefs are that their leaders are the only people on Earth able to channel "Jehovah", that they also channel teachings from some of their 144,000 special anointed people who have died and gone to heaven, that it is okay to let your child die instead of getting a life saving blood transfusion, and letting your child get a decent college education is a bad idea because they can use that time to knock on doors and get more people to join in the fun. However, anything they currently believe can be suddenly reversed by a notice in their publications and they will all instantly believe the new teaching. They call this "new light".

A.Fenderson

However, anything they currently believe can be suddenly reversed by a notice in their publications and they will all instantly believe the new teaching. They call this "new light".

Nice summary, but in the above sentence, you failed to mention the critical point that they can simultaneously believe both that the new light is now and forever truth, and that the prior belief, though it may be in direct contradiction to the "new light," is not considered to have been false. The GB have double-think inducement down to an art.

Amelia Ashton

I too find it amazing how they "persuaded" us old light is never a lie or untrue but I believed it for many years. However, I came across a brilliant analogy describing it earlier today which really helped me and amused me at the same time. I was also a bit cross for not working it out for myself years ago, truth be told.

A chair is in a darkened room, so dark that it may not necessarily be obviously a chair but as light enters the room the shape of the chair becomes obvious. As more light enters the room and the light gets brighter and brighter we can see the colour and more and more detail of the chair. But the chair never turns into a table. It remains a chair no matter how bright the light gets and certainly never flips from chair to table and back to a chair again!

"Millions now living will never die" is now proven to be untrue and "1914, the generation that will never pass away" is the same untruth. They have all passed away. Not old light at all but just a very clever way of keeping us all thoroughly deceived! Now where have I heard that expression before?

Ding

Short summary of WT teaching: "As God's organization, the WTBTS is always right and must be obeyed without question and without criticism."

wobble

Russell, way back in 1817 in Zions watchtower said that new light can never extinguish old light, only add to it.

It is a shame that the WT today does not operate on that principle.