Well, it just sort of came to me while I was driving.
The doctrine of NEW LIGHT is a false analogy.
Why had I not considered this before?
Here is what I'm thinking; see if you don't agree...
Jehovah's Witnesses are divided into three distinct tiers of membership.
1.Governing Body anointed
2.Clueless anointed
3.The rest of the non-anointed schmucks
Is that about right?
Jehovah, who edits the Watchtower, sends beams of insight, instruction, prophecy directly to headquarters and the "mouthpiece of God" lets the rest
of us know because we are like dogs eating scraps at the dinner table.
This is called "food at the proper time" because the bottom 2 tiers of recipients are on a "need to know" basis.
This "meat in due season" is served up by being printed in books, pamphlets, Watchtower studies, the Kingdom Ministry, etc.
Here is where the False Analogy comes in.
Imagine you are in a big dangerous place with spiders, snakes, lions, tigers and bears (oh my!) and it is pitch black dark. YOU CAN'T SEE, can you?
No. But, if somebody with infra-red goggles on (and could see) had a flashlight with them, they could shine that LIGHT in various spots of danger to you
and you'd be able to AVOID the danger. Right?
Now here is how it breaks down. Pay attention...
The flashlight battery is weak! There is barely enough light. But, JUST ENOUGH at the time for you to avoid stepping on that snake or bumping into
that sleeping tiger.
So far, so good, eh?
But, every once and awhile the weak light outlines a shape in the semi-darkness that APPEARS TO BE A BEAR but it turns out it was only a stack of old Watchtowers in the shape of a bear. No harm--no foul.
THIS IS THE DOCTRINE OF LIGHT. The "light" the Watchtower offers sometimes offers the appearance of a warning or prophecy. YOU are the one who makes the mistake by READING THE SHAPE WRONG and reacting strongly to absolutely nothing.
Get it? NOT THEIR FAULT---YOURS!
What is wrong with this analogy? Read on...
The false analogy stems from the fact that JEHOVAH sends the message FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE of informing his servants BEFORE an event.
The receiver (prophet) can't pass it on without UNDERSTANDING IT (and knowing where to shine that sputtering light).
The very last pair of eyes to land on a dimly illumined shape is the unwitting JW stumbling around in the dark. How can you blame them?
The Rank and File can't claim to know anything UNTIL the light is shone. If it is shone ON THE WRONG SPOT, how can they be blamed?
For example, when Fred Franz started creating the hubub over THE END OF 6000 YEARS OF HUMAN EXISTENCE (1975)and drawing the exciting parallel
with the 1000 year reign of Christ after Armageddon---it was FREDDY FRANZ'S LIGHT that was being beamed to all the Kingdom Halls around the world.
If it had been JEHOVAH'S light which Fred Franz understood, the transmission would have been illuminating an ACTUAL EVENT worth preparing for instead
of what turned about to be A HUGE CAMPAIGN ENDING IN ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BUT EMBARASSMENT.
All the rank and file members did was STEP WHERE THE LIGHT WAS BEAMED. They didn't carry their OWN flashlight, did they? No.
It doesn't matter how weak or bright the light is. It is the one DIRECTING THE BEAM who is indicating the dangers in the dark who is acting on
DIRECTIONS from either A. Jehovah or B. Their own crazy ideas.
So, where does this leave NEW LIGHT? New Light would not help the stumbling JW after 1975 who fell over the debacle of having bet everything on
Armageddon being right where Fred Franz's flashlight had indicated the terror of Armageddon. NEW LIGHT would be the sudden awareness THAT THERE WAS NOTHING THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!
Do you see my point?
NEW LIGHT CAN ONLY BE AN EXPOSING OF THE FRAUD AND MISDIRECTION. It can never be a clearer understanding of A TRUE THING.
NEW LIGHT from the Watchtower Society always reveals ONLY THAT THEY DIDN'T KNOW WHERE TO LOOK OR WHAT WAS THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE
or they wouldn't have been pointing their sputtering flashlight on that spot to begin with!!
Get it??