What has happened to Jehovah's Witnesses???

by DATA-DOG 35 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  DATA-DOG

  I know this is old news, but as I sit here, and ponder the upcoming AGM, I can't help but think, " What happened?!!" I actually awoke an hour before my alarm went off, just thinking of everything that is bothering me about the WTBTS. Approach this list as a born-in, someone who was told that YOU were different from everyone else. From an early age, you were told that YOU were special,different, blessed to be part of THE ONLY religion that has God's approval. We were told that our faith was a direct successor of the 1st Century Christians. The Bible Students humbly met in small groups, and were so very different from the Churches of Christendom, and their harlotry with the governments and links to the commercial world in Satan's grasp. So where are we as a religion?

  1) JW.org

  Just watch the commercials and "news" videos. The latest video of property sales is frankly disgusting. From the humble demeanor of the Bible Students, meeting in homes and basements, we now have a site that is very similar to any other religion. We have JW.org stores and displays, and a guy at the AGM who is supposed to be some cool tech guy. What's next? Billboards? The JW.org logo at the end of every video makes me sick to my stomach. I do not watch them, my wife does, and I wanted to see what was being poured into her mind. It was disturbing to say the least.

  2) Real Estate

  Billions of dollars in real estate sales. No one notices. Multi-million dollar facilities are being built. Not just from neccessity, or material costs IMO. I have seen the humble buildings made for JWs in poor countries. There are no giant murals, pools for baptism and credit card machines. There are no buildings that are conveniently designed to be turned into a shopping center later.

  3) Modern,easy to read bible. I have no real issue with this. I understand that when you translate something, there are issues. If you convey the thought and don't blatantly alter the text, that's ok. Of course adding Jehovah even more bothers me, especially since no real basis was given. I guess it's just the fact that everyone in the audience was totally hypnotized and enraptured by the experience. Now the WTBTS is doing what everyone else has done for decades, but for some reason it's the greatest thing invented since movable type.

  For all of you who have been on the wrong side of the Elder's table, can you even imagine what would have happened to any one of us who said, " I feel the NWT needs to be updated. I have been comparing it's text with several other translations and a concordance. I feel that it is needlessly wordy and hard to understand, and it could be more accurate. Some of the words chosen by the WTBTS give our brothers the wrong idea about certain concepts. We to revise it like other translators have done." Can you say," DF'd for apostasy?" Remember the KM and DC parts that specifically condemned studying Hebrew and Greek with the purpose of checking the NWT for accuracy? Imagine telling the Elders that you felt compelled to check verses of the NWT with a concordance because Greek words can convey different shades of meaning, and you wanted to be sure that what was written in the NWT was faithful to the "original" language. LOL!!!

  peace,

  DD
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  The Searcher

  I'll bet that the Revised NWT still contradicts the Kingdom Interlinear's accurate Greek rendering of Revelation 5:10 where it says that they will reign on the earth - not over it!
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  Gorbatchov

  Amen Amen Amen. Its a sign on the wall.
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  BU2B

  So true.
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  LongHairGal

  DATA DOG:

  I got the same impression and wonder if this will make more JWs leave.

  The old-time JWs who have passed away must be turning in their graves.
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  Apognophos

  Sorry, but there's nothing new here (or under the sun!). The Society has long said that the leaders are the only ones capable of interpreting the Bible, not the rank and file. They made this same statement, louder than ever, when they began releasing the NWT in 1950. Before that Witnesses were happy with their KJV and the Society simply wrote Bible literature. When the NWT began to be released, they added "Bible and" to their company name, and claimed the authority to translate, not just reprint, God's Word. The revised NWT is just par for the course.

  As far as jw.org, yes the Society has changed their preaching method. They've changed it multiple times. At first it was preaching by publications. Then preaching door to door, but using recordings, as well as sound cars and sandwich boards. Then they phased those out. In the future they may go back to modern electronic equivalents of those. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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  Gopher

  "...can you even imagine what would have happened to any one of us who said, " I feel the NWT needs to be updated. I have been comparing it's text with several other translations and a concordance. I feel that it is needlessly wordy and hard to understand..."
  
  Agreed. Of course Fred Franz was a main force behind the 1950's work of creating the original NWT. He could take something that should be said in 20 words and stretch it to 120, in flowery language.
  
  But since the passing of FF they have dumbed down much of their literature -- and of course they would feel the need to dumb down (excuse me, "simplify") the NWT. So now they have a New New World Translation to last them the few remaining months until Armageddon.
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  gingerbread

  In the 1920's, J.F. Rutherford dictated that each 'member' must be active door-to-door ministers for the WT organization. The methods have changed but the purpose is the same - to GROW membership.

  The spoken position of Russell was the denial of creating a new 'religion'. That position was to create an alternative to organized religion - free from man-made traditions, a centralized authority and the building of 'churches'.

  ginger
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  Londo111

  It’s an organization that has evolved several times over since its inception and is a different organism than it was in the beginning. Though its beliefs were on the fringe, it didn’t start out as a cult (aka high control group). Sometimes it is a slow evolution, which is what we’ve seen in our lifetime, but there have been periods of punctuated equilibrium.

  The phase transition in leadership from Russell to Rutherford (particularly after the failed 1925 prediction) was the most radical. The Organization still bears the imprint of Rutherford’s personality. Then the phase transition in the Knorr/Franz era once more became a radical change, especially in the 50’s, when disfellowshipping was introduced, as well as the blood ban.

  I’m not sure we’ve yet encountered a true phase transition thus far, just gradually adoption of the Species formed in the early 50’s.
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  DATA-DOG

  Yes, the more things change... I had that thought as well. Given the enraptured state of all the JWs at the AGM, I don't think they will be leaving anytime soon. It it would take a scandal of mammoth proportions that could not be spun by the WTBTS, or the return of Jesus to wake up any dubs that I saw over the weekend. Also, the GB have made it clear that ONLY they have the power to interpret scripture. How kooky will they get? It's hard to say, but the dubs worship the GB/FDS/ORG. The R&F are thoroughly bewitched.