He's Trying to get me to come back to the fold...by admitting the faults of the Watchtower

by PYRAMIDSCHEME 54 Replies latest jw friends

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  outsmartthesystem

  "All this proves that as humans, when it comes to spiritual things, we can speculate and guess and anticipate all we want, but usually we do not fully understand until after the fact. "

  OK. Fine. But then the GB has absolutely no right to demand that you, me or anyone else follow their teachings.....with the threat of disfellowshipping in store for any that dare disagree

  "Also, answers do come slowly, progressively. All the things mentioned above were eventually understood by the apostles, but only as time passed and Jehovah's purpose worked out. "

  Again....okey dokey. Jesus did make it clear that he would have to inform his disciples about some things progressively (i.e. John 16:12). But show me an example from the bible where truth was released.....and then changed.....and then changed.....and then changed.....and then changed. I recall the matter of circumcision being up in limbo for a while. For many years actually. But one thing remained constant. There was ONE change and that was it. First.....they thought all men needed to be circumcised. THen they debated it. Then it was determined that they do NOT need to be circumsised. END OF STORY. And THAT is the difference between the 1st century Christians and the GB of today. The GB changes the same thing over and over again. With the "generation" topice.....first it was 1) those that were adults and saw the events of 1914. Then it was 2) those that were perhaps 15 years old. Then it was 3) those that were alive in 1914. Then it was 4) (in 1995) an unlimited time period. Now it is 5) an overlapping generation of those that saw the events of 1914 with those that will see the "end".

  This is like the 1st century Christians saying 1) All must be circumcised. 2) No....wait.....all must NOT be. 3) No....wait....All over the age of 21 need to be. 4) No....wait......just the Gentiles that are over the age of 21 need to be. 5) No wait....it us purely up to each person

  If you want to believe that God releases "progressive" light then fine......but there is no excuse for waffling so much on one subject. There is NO scriptural precedence for that.
• 

  Terry

  I had a friend I grew up with whose Mom was a truly awful cook. I'm sorry to say this. But, she was a cab driver by profession. She drank a case of beer a day and always had a cigarette dangling from her lip. She would be smoking and tossing back the beer WHILE COOKING DINNER!

  The taste of her prepared meal was simply unbearable to me. I had to pretend to eat it. I'd toss it when nobody was looking! My buddy, however, grew up eating her swill and thought it was just dandy!! Go figure.

  Well, when my friend was older and got married, he invited me over for supper. But--he warned me; "My wife is a terrible cook."

  Can you imagine how scared I was? If this guy thought somebody's cooking was bad--how truly disgusting must it be???

  I sat down at the dinner table and gingerly touched the fork full to my lips.

  Amazingly....it was DELICIOUS! It was really very good cooking!

  My friend, asked my privately, "I appreciate your pretending to like her food. You must have a strong stomach."

  I was deeply puzzled. At first I thought he was kidding or being ironic. But--no. He was accustomed to Mother's cooking.

  Nothing could compare.

  I think your Elder friend is like my friend. He is so used to eating the horrible Watchtower "food at the proper time" it has distorted his

  perceptions and ruined his palette.

  When he says "there is no place else to go" for Truth---he is really saying "I want the taste of Mother's cooking" no matter how awful it is!!
• 

  BluesBrother

  " Many things are left unanswered at this time because it provides us an opportunity to demonstrate our faith. An imperfect, overbearing elder is a test to our faith. An inaccurate statement by the faithful slave is a test to our faith. But without faith, it's impossible to please God well. My friend, if you walk away from the brotherhood, you are walking away from Jehovah. Where else are you going to go? "

  This is just the kind of desperate "logic" that I get all the time from family and very occasionally from another dub who wants to help me. They all say the same. They cannot think "outside of the box" , it goes something like -

  We know the Society has been wrong in the past, in fact they might even be wrong now on small issues.

  We know that at the same time as Christ adopted them as a nation and rejected false Christendom, they celebrated Christmas, believed that the pagan Gt. Pyramid had divine information in it, and they foretold the end at numerous times that have failed to happen.

  We know that despite adopting the Christian personality some of us, even elders can be very nasty. Mistakes happen frequently at the highest level....

  But where else can we go? It is THE TRUTH you see..We know that because WE have decided that it is...that makes it right no matter what else.

  It is like somebody being determined to trust a leaking old lifeboat, despite the evidence of his eyes - just because it was HIS decision and he was going to darn well stick to it !
• 

  TD

  He sounds like a nice guy, but he's having a hard time with cause and effect.

  For example, these two statements are incompatible:

  ....as it [GTR] would indicate the date of the fall of Jerusalem being later than 607, which in turn would make null the chronology of 1914. But even if it was proved true.....

  What other organization is following Jesus' direction of preaching the good news in all the inhabited earth?

  The 'Good news' that JW's preach is that Christ returned in 1914; God's kingdom was born in the heavens; Jesus has since been ruling as King of that kingdom and this kingdom will shortly be established upon earth. This is stated explicitly over and over in JW literature.

  If the 1914 date is incorrect for any reason at all, the basis for the question of what other organization is preaching the 'good news' evaporates into thin air.
• 

  garyneal

  He freely admits the faults of the WT and even goes on to say that even if they did not have Gods Holy Spirit, he felt they would still have Gods blessing as the one true religion.

  Without Holy Spirit, how can they have God's blessing as the one true religion?

  That second to the last paragraph contains a lot of 'sure they may or may not have doctrinal errors' and pretends like they don't matter. Yet, they would be quick to point out the doctrinal and behavoral problems of other churches and use it as proof that they are not preaching the truth.