The Quiet One,
The Watchtower is NOT a false prophet
I have read most of the thread. I don't know that I understand it totally.
The way I think of it is like this.
When I stopped attending the kingdom hall one of the examples that is pointed out is of Moses and Korah. With Moses and David it was very evident that they were used by God.
Moses went to Pharaoh and the ten plagues followed the hebrews were lead through the parting of the sea and the egyptian armies were destroyed.
David slew Goliath and it was said of David "Saul has struck down his thousands and David his tens of thousands." (1Sa 18:5-7) and Jehovah commanded Samuel to annoint David.
As a Witness I understood that we were the only ones doing the preaching work. This Good News was being preached in all the earth. This identified JW as being God's chosen ones. We had the truth from God's Word. The preaching was going on despite the Devil's efforts to hamper it.
I am no longer considered a Witness as I do not join in making known the message of JW.
If we go right back to Pastor Russell and the beginning of the Watchtower Pastor Russell said this.
"So here the gospel church has been God's recognized channel of truth, or mouthpiece, but are such, we believe, no longer. Truth will come through other channels.
Since 1878 (and never before that) we have felt at liberty to call God's children out of the nominal churches to a position of freedom and liberty"
Watchtower May 1881.
I understand that Pastor Russell believed that the time of the end began in 1799 and the Lord's second presence dated from 1874 saying things like this.
"Nor should any doubt the fact that the forty years of "harvest" began in the fall of 1874"
Divine Plan of the Ages. Pg 42.
JW no longer believe these things to be true. So I ask myself should people have listened to the Watchtower and left the "nominal churches"?
It sounds to me that the message was false. It also sounds that at the time if I had lived then I would have been asked to make a choice between the churches and the Watchtower teachings. A little like the situation between Moses and Korah.
We now understand from JW that this message of the 1874 and the forty years of harvest was wrong.
However in 1959 the question was posed to my parents concerning what Pastor Russell had taught about 1874 ect.
"Why would anyone who claimed to serve God want to fight against a message to the effect that the time had come for the Messiah to present himself a second time and breing to faithful mankind the blessings that he had promised when he was here before?"
Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose Pg 37.
The teaching of the 1975 can also I believe be traced back to the Divine Plan of the Ages.
So at the present time I have stopped joining in with the preaching of good news of the establishment of God's Kingdom in 1914 due to the fact that in my opinion I do not have sufficient facts to support it. However I have nothing against the Witnesses and still believe in Jesus Christ.
