WT at its most clever?

simon17

The WT prints a lot of absurd nonsense. But sometimes they are extremely crafty. I can forgive stupidity and ignorance, even if I don't want to be a part of it. I cannot forgive intentional manipulation, though I can at least be impressed by its cleverness. Here's 4 of my favorite clever examples:

4: Fixing the zero year. Such a bone-headed error but claiming that the error was discovered just as research necessitated a change in the Jerusalem destruction date was a stroke of genius. It turned something stupid into something "providential!"

Providentially , those Bible Students had not realized that there is no zero year between “B.C.” and “A.D.” Later, when research made it necessary to adjust B.C. 606 to 607 B.C.E., the zero year was also eliminated, so that the prediction held good at “A.D. 1914.”—See “The Truth Shall Make You Free,” published by Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1943, page 239. (*** re chap. 18 p. 105 Earthquakes in the Lord’s Day ***)

3: The picture in the recent Awake of the internet cable making the shadow of the Serpent. That was a really clever picture to subtly make people suspicious of the deceptive 'powers' of the Internet.

2: In the recent WT regarding the proof of Jerusalem in 607 BCE, they had this clever piece of manipulation. Besides the scholarly dishonesty of the calculation, to the ignorant lay person, the fact that they make it seem on first glance like Simanu is equivalent to July, so that there is a close match (4th instead of 15th) in the year the scholars say it happened but an exact match (15th day exactly) in the year they say it happened. To someone reading this without thinking or knowledge this was very clever IMO. Quote below

"The tablet mentions a lunar eclipse that was calculated as occurring on the 15th day of the third Babylonian month, Simanu. It is a fact that a lunar eclipse occurred on July 4 (Julian calendar) of this month during 568B.C.E. However,there was also an eclipse 20 years earlier, on July 15,588 B.C.E."

1: 11/22/98 Awake on United Nations. This is of course the most famous of the articles "supporting" the United Nations which would be submitted to the Disgusting Thing and featured on their website as support from their NGO's. But the clever part was that they had to lambast the UN too. So what they did was very clever: they made a conclusion saying that Bible students know that the United Nations will soon be at the center of events that shortly are prophesied to take place which will eventually result in a peaceful new world. (I don't have the exact quote with me here). But I thought that was really clever. Any Witness reading it would know these future events were its being the Satanic organization that helps direct an attack on God's people while disgustingly taking the place of God's Kingdom. Any UN employee reading it thinks that the UN will be helping to bring about world peace. That was brilliant!

Phizzy

They occasionally shine at talking out of both sides of their mouth, and at manipulation,and at clever lies all shown in your fine examples above.

But most of the time they are simply talking out of their arse.

ABibleStudent

The WTBTS is very good at rewriting scriptures and then citing the scripture to validate their opinion to make it appear as if they were only reciting the scripture in the Watchtower and Awake literature.

Peace be with you and everyone, who you love,

Robert

JW GoneBad

Phizzy, worth repeating:

‘But most of the time they (WT) are simply talking out of their arse butt!‘

Amen to that!

AnnOMaly

In the recent WT regarding the proof of Jerusalem in 607 BCE, they had this clever piece of manipulation.

Those two articles were wall-to-wall clever pieces of manipulation ... AND misinformation.

I don't knock the 'internet Eve' picture, though. I thought that was brilliant yet ironic in view of the comments that followed about being careful about writers' credentials, their bias, whether they properly reference their sources and are up-to-date. A classic.

maisha

no 3 i found rather annoying, visual mind games, but they do it all the time with their images,,

i tell you what if i or any of you guys like outlaw did the sort of things they get away with in the magazines i would get DF...

LOL

Billy the Ex-Bethelite

When this is their worldview...

...they're left with no choice but to talk out of their a$s.

Ding

Providentially, those Bible Students had not realized that there is no zero year between “B.C.” and “A.D.” Later, when research made it necessary to adjust B.C. 606 to 607 B.C.E., the zero year was also eliminated, so that the prediction held good at “A.D. 1914.”

"Providentially" makes the whole fiasco sound like a brilliant strategy by Jehovah instead of what it really was -- a blunder by the organization's leaders that shows that Pastor Russell's calculations were based on nonsense.

The truth is that Russell had to stick to the 1914 date or look like a fool.

So when people pointed out their "no year 0" blunder, they simply "changed" the 606 BCE date to 607 BCE in order to retain 1914.

When historians pointed out that Jerusalem fell in 587/586 BCE, the Society simply denied it and stuck with their date system.

kurtbethel

In order to lie that craftily and that often, one would have to be heavily corrupt.

What amazes me is how craftily they tell the truth. They say that if you are a part of their organization, you have a prospect of everlasting life.

Did you catch that? You have a prospect of everlasting life. You realize, that when you go into a casino, you have a prospect of winning a jackpot. So they are not even promising you anything, and if you don't get everlasting life, oh well.

NoStonecutters

Simon, your post 666 was very revealing.

WT at its most clever?

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