Some know it as The Big Eight, The Eight Watchtower Flip-Flops, The Eight Flop Puzzle, etc. The following essay, designed for those newly-interested in studying with Jehovah's Witnesses, cautions that person in what he / she may be getting into. It not only has a well-organized table of the classic WT quotations which Watchtower cannot deny, but it explores the following questions
- What do JWs say when they see this collection of quotations?
- How is it possible for a spirit-directed organization to commit such a series of blunders?
- Why The Steady Stream of Contradictions on a Single Doctrinal Topic?
- Why Haven't They Owned Up To Their Flock?
- and more
For formatting reasons -- footnotes, endnotes -- I've uploaded to MediaFire the small essay in PDF format. It begins as follows:
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Watchtower Contradiction Of Major Importance
Perhaps you are experiencing the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs) for the first time so the news that there is a serious contradiction in one of their teachings may come as a surprise. You may be studying the Bible with them. You note that they are very friendly. You may have been to a meeting at some Kingdom Hall and find nothing but what you've seen at your house – friendly and kind people.
More important, you've had Bible questions and they seem to have all the answers from their Watchtower-based publications.
By now you may have surmised that I've also studied the Bible with them before – and you're right. However, that was many years ago and I never thought of asking them a very important question during that time. Next time you see them, and if it's important to you, you may wish to ask:
Has Watchtower literature ever contradicted itself? I won't pretend to know for certain what answer you will get. I think the answer will be NO! However, that question may raise some suspicion that you have been looking at non-JW literature. The JW will probably urge you to dispose of such reading material into the nearest trash, claiming that it is dangerous to your spiritual health. The fact, however, that you have not yet been baptized gives you the freedom to choose what you will or won't do. As a result, there are less punitive measures they can place on you.
Whether Watchtower has ever contradicted itself is an important question to ask them. Contradictions are loathsome to JWs, so offensive that Watchtower publications caution its adherents, "Why must we accept everything that the churches teach when many of the teachings are confusing and contradictory?"1 So while your JW teacher may be somewhat suspicious of the source of your question, he / she will welcome that question knowing fully well what they claim.
Watchtower publications claim that they themselves have not authored teachings which revert ... (continued)
1 The Watchtower, 2003, 12/1 p. 4.
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Finally, there is a separate downloadable document which has convenient cutouts for billfold or purse. This document is a miniature basic table of the infamous 8 quotation citations.
Len Miller
