JWfacts wrote: " You really are just repeating yourself. I don't agree that there are many people that read the Bible and believe even the core concepts that you listed prior to meeting JWs.
For a start, there are only a couple of hundred thousand baptised each year, probably half of which are children. Most I know knew nothing of Bible doctrine before converting, so they had no formed opinions at all. Research into high control religions show most join at times of emotional turmoil, it has very little to do with the doctrine, other than the promise of a community and nice hope for the future."
Well, I have met many individuals, who prior to becoming Witnesses, came to the same to accept 1 or more fundamentals Bible teachings prior to coming in contact with the Witnesses. Many for instance, based on their reading of the NT, came to the conclusion that Jesus is really the Son of God, and part of the Trinity. Some did come to the conclusion that the soul dies and one must be resurrected in order to be alive again. Of course, they are many others that did not know much about the Bible or were told what to think or believe by their pastors. As I mentioned before, in some cases, some had a published book with "talking points" on what to say to the Witnesses when they came to their door or to speak to them. However, after speaking to the Witnesses, perhaps after numerous times, and carefully considering what the Bible says, they have come to agree with what we teach.
JWfacts wrote " Secondly, it is very difficult to come to those conclusions about God and the Soul without being guided to them by the Watchtower. That is why most religions do not teach them. The NWT has corrupted the New Testament by falsely adding the word Jehovah. Read as written, and as in most Bibles, most people will come to the conclusion that Jesus is God. In fact, even the Watchtower was confused about the topic, since it taught the polytheistic view that Jesus was a god to be worshipped until the 1950's. Likewise the New Testament does not paint a picture of soul sleep, but of heavenly immortality. The WTS is very much an Old Testament religion, and bases itself on many Scriptures that are rightfully considered poetic and not doctrinal. It is very difficult to read the Bible (without Watchtower blinkers) and come to the Watchtower concept of the soul.
You keep saying about all these many people that already knew Watchtower doctrine before reading a Watchtower. I would like you to see if you can really find that many. I am yet to speak to anyone that read the Bible and thought the world would exist forever and be a paradise for man to live on eternally. Or many people that believed the concept that you are totally gone at death, and some distant time in the future God would bring back some photocopier version of you."
Actually, the only way to come to the conclusion that Jesus is God and that the soul never dies is if one is influenced and taught those doctrines by the Trinitarian theolgians. The NT clearly teaches that Jesus is the Son of God and the God the Father is the "one God" and that Jesus has a God. And it says that the souls are asleep until awaken by the resurrection in the age to come and that immortality is a gift from God, and like Adamwe are humans souls that can be destroyed. Bible doctrine from both the OT and NT contradict what is taught is most churches.
I find it surprising to see your comment on what you call our polytheism. The fact is, if one your really familiar with our literature, is the word translated "worship" is from the Greek proskyneuo which can mean to bow dow, adore, or show honor to king. 1 Chronicles 29:20 says that the God's people "worshipped" Jehovah and the king. (ASV, KJV, ERV, Websters) Others version says bowed down, bow low and did homage...etc. So worshipping Jesus, as understood as showing honor and report is not wrong. That is what the Greek word, which appears in the LXX, means. However, as Jason DeBuhn wrote in his book Truth In Translation (Bowing to Bias - Chapter 4), the meaning of the English word worship has changed at times, and it has come to mean the worship that can only be given to God. In order to avoid confusion, that we do not give worship Jesus as God, the Witnesses have decided to use other words the convey what the Greek word really convey, and now the literature mainly states the we honor or bow dow to Jesus in the same way that the Israelites bowed down to the king of Israel. The Reasoning book, after discussing the different shades of the Greek work prokyneuou, thus states: *** rs p. 215 par. 2 Jesus Christ ***
In harmony with that, we must understand that it is pro·sky·ne´o with a particular attitude of heart and mind that should be directed only toward God.
As I mentioned earlier, I do know many, who have read the Bible on their own, without the help of Trinitarian theologians, that have come to the same conclusion as the Witnesses and are now active Witnesses. And even some who have not joined the Witnesses (or have not yet joined), have come to agree with some of the teachings of the Witnesses. The book Christianity Without Fairy Tales by Jim Rigas mentions the Witnesses several times in regards to the Bible teaching regarding the earth converting to a paradise. Jim Rigas, an Episcopalian, correctly mentions that the Witnesses teach that. Interestingly, he includes a footnote on John 1:1 that says the text would be better translated as the "the Word was a god." The book, by Don Cuprti, The Debate About the Christ, which appears to agree with the doctrine that Jesus is really the Son of God and not part of a Trinity, also states that the Jehovah's Witnesses are the closest to teaching the NT truths. It says on page 69 "We may conclude that the Jehovah's Witnesses are the group which is today nearest to New Testament Christianity." So there are some, who have never become Witnesses, but have closesly studied the Bible, have come to agree that Witnesses uphold the Bible truths.
JWfacts wrote " Russell would not agree with you applying Prov 4:18 to the Watchtower Society. He wrote:
"If we were following a man undoubtedly it would be different with us; undoubtedly one human idea would contradict another and that which was light one or two or six years ago would be regarded as darkness now;… But with God there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, and so it is with truth; any knowledge or light coming from God must be like its author. A new view of truth never can contradict a former truth. "New Light" never extinguishes older "light" but adds to it…" Zion's Watch Tower 1881 February pp.3,188
Watchtower history has not been one of light getting brighter, but flip flops and contradictions, often multiple times on important topics such as the resurrection.
Well, yes, that which is light will never contradict light, but if something was in error, it has to be corrected. Russell also wrote, "We do not object to changing our opinions on any subject, or discarding former applications of prophecy, or any other scripture, when we see a good reason for the change,—in fact, it is important that we should be willing to unlearn errors and mere traditions, as to learn truth.... It is our duty to "prove all things."—by the unerring Word,—"and hold fast to that which is good." (Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence October 1879 (reprint) p.38 “The Ten Virgins). Light will also be light, but it is our understanding of the Bible that keeps getting brighter. We may have taught that Jesus died on a cross, but later on learned that the Greek word for cross really means an upright pole or stake. Does that change the truth of the light that Jesus died for humankind? Does that change the fact the Jesus died for our sins? No it does not. With regard, to resurrection, whether or not one holds that the gays that died at Sodom and Gomorrah may not really be that important. The important thing is the resurrection will happen, and Jehovah God in the end will be the one who will decide who will be resurrected through his Son, Jesus Christ.
