How would you summarise each of these books?
Which would you recommend to a JW to read first?
Raymond Franz' books COC & ISOCF
by Fernando 5 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Balaamsass
COC. Lays the ground work.
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dontplaceliterature
Well, Crisis of Conscience is more about Ray's personal story, the inner workings of the GB, and the scandals that went on which led him to resign. In Search of Christian Freedom is a much longer book that examines many of the controversial doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses and offers reasonable alternative explinations to them. I personally enjoyed ISOCF much more than the first book, but it's a tome.
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Fernando
COC - Exposing the darkness
ISOCF - Revealing the light
Personally I would want the lights on first.
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Phizzy
I think a JW should read C.O.C first, that way they get rid of any notion that there is some vestige of truth in the WT/JW organization. THe W.T spectacles will fall off their face.
They are then ready to start to look for true Christian Freedom.
By the time I read ISOCF I had gone beyond belief in the Bible or in God, so, though I appreciated Ray's arguments, and enjoyed his gentle reasoning, so loving, and so true to what the Bible actually says, I did not become a "Christian" again.
I am a Rational Humanist so enjoy all the freedoms, with none of the baggage.
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Indian Larry
Both of these books are very powerful. I was raised a JW and when I read COC it totally rocked my world. I had associated the org so closely with God that when this book exposed the org for what it is I lost faith in God as well. It was only after listening to some Christian apologists like Ravi Zaccaharius, William Lane Craig and others that I even had the energy to care enough to read ISOF.
To me ISOF is the primary book to read. Rays writing style if excellent. He does not really run others down so much as just show what the bible says. Of course that does not matter if you don't believe in God, but I have regained that belief and that book helped.
That is not to say that I don't struggle at times with belief, especially after things like the school shootings and that poor indian girl that was gang raped and killed. However, I just can't find it in myself to believe that we evolved from nothing. It just doesnt feel right.
Anyway, I am getting off the subject. Read ISOF it is a life changing book.