From Captives of a Concept: Gods Prophet, Hypocrisy and Propaganda used to control.

by Jon Preston 24 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Jon Preston

  I teresting info from Caltives of a Concept....i cannot express how fantastic this book has been and i highly recommend it. The first thing i found to be huge. (Because the society trues to explain it away so well):

  A Spirit-Directed,

  Uninspired True Prophet?

  Here is another example of how faulty reasoning eventu- ally catches up with those who try to force the Bible to up- hold their illusion...

  The Governing Body does not deny that the organization claims to be, or acts as God’s prophet. 108 What they do deny is that they are inspired. 109 Somewhere along the way someone came up with the idea that it’s all right to put God’s name on their teachings and prophecies as long as they don’t claim to be inspired. But this causes a problem that they apparently haven’t noticed yet. According to the Bible there are only two kinds of prophets:

  • True Prophets

  • False Prophets

    True prophets are inspired by God. False prophets are not...

  • Inspired true prophets

  • Uninspired false prophets

    But the Watchtower’s religious leaders have created a third kind of prophet that is a mixture or combination of

    both a true prophet and a false prophet...

    Added to this is the fact they also claim to be “God’s spirit-directed organization.”110 Therefore, when you add up all the things they do and don’t claim to be, they end up a kind of prophet that has never before existed. They now have an illusionary Spirit-directed, uninspired true prophet to go along with their illusionary God’s organi- zation.

    Now what was Interesting about this is hiw the Society tries to prove they arent a prophet:
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  Then at the bottom of the page this is stated:

  This [Awake!] magazine builds confidence in the Creator’s promise of a peaceful and secure new world before the generation that saw the events of 1914 passes away.

  Is there a difference between saying “ These are the words of Jehovah ” and “ This is the promise of Je- hovah ” (i.e. the Creator’s promise)? The above promise was printed in every Awake! magazine for many years until November of 1995 when the Governing Body finally re- alized that it wasn’t the Creator’s promise. It had only been their promise.

  This does not seem to be so much a case of a deliberate attempt to mislead as it is an example of their inability to realize what they are saying. All they can see is that they are giving an explanation that satisfies themselves that Rus- sell and Rutherford were not false prophets, even though their argument completely falls apart when they then go on to say what they just got through saying the Society has never said. (Captives of a Concept, pgs. 60-61)

  This was my "doubt" topic when i went to the elders about 1975. And they basically said that they never claimed to be an inspired prophet...and now as i read this i think "damnit i wish i had this when i went to them" lol.

  There is more to come about hypocrisy and how WT condemns, labels, and use propaganda in the same manner as they claim to condemn in others.

  This book is fantastic!

  Jon Preston (aka DS211)
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  Jon Preston

  I apologize for any type errors as i posted this from my phone (no computer lol).
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  Frazzled UBM

  I found Captives of a Concept interesting. I think some of the doctrinal changes the GB has made recently were an attempt to shore up some of the criticisms levelled at them in Captives of a Concept.
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  steve2

  Your comments have inspired me to check out Captives of a Concept. Many thanks.
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  Jon Preston

  You can buy the pdf for 7 bucks on his site...i forget the address though
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  Frazzled UBM

  you can buy it on Amazon as well
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  Jon Preston

  Best book that ive found if you want to go at them with their own doctrines....other than JWfacts and this site.
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  sir82

  This is worth a second look:

  This does not seem to be so much a case of a deliberate attempt to mislead as it is an example of their inability to realize what they are saying.

  This is true of virtually everything they've published over the past, oh 100 years or so.

  It seems that no one in the writing department has an attention span of longer than 30 seconds. They appear to be literally incapable of reasoning for longer than that, to determine the implications of their doctrines.
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  Jon Preston

  Second point:

  Techniques that WT say the propagandist uses...let me know if you can spot the hypocrisy:

  1. From Awake: "Some people insult thise who disagree with them by questioning...Motives instead of focusing on the facts."

  And yet this is exactly what the Governing Body does in their March 15, 1986 Watchtower where they are referring to “those who disagree with them”.

  "Some opposers claim that Jehovah’s Witnesses are false prophets. These opponents say that dates have been set, but nothing has happened. Again we ask, What is the motive of these critics? -p. 19

  2. Name Calling:

  In the above March 15, 1986 Watchtower the Governing Body “slaps” those who disagree with them with the nega- tive labels— opposers , opponents and critics . In that same article they repeatedly use their all-time favorite nega- tive, easy-to-remember label— apostate . This latter label really sticks because it convinces Jehovah’s Witnesses to “reject the person or the idea on the basis of this negative label instead of weighing the evidence for themselves.”

  Note their powerful propaganda in the same article that “agitates the emotions” and is obviously not designed to en- courage Witnesses to weigh any evidence for themselves...

  "Name-calling slaps a negative, easy-to-remember label onto a person, a group, or an idea. The name- caller hopes that the label will stick. If people reject the person or the idea on the basis of the negative label instead of weighing the evidence for themselves, the name-caller’s strategy has worked."

  "The Devil and other opposers of true worship are skilled in deception . We should never forget that they stand every ready to break our integrity if they can. Their propaganda is designed to weaken our faith , to cool our love for God... The only sat- isfaction, of a perverted kind , may come in be- ginning to beat one’s fellow slaves with slander and half-truths.... At Proverbs 11:9 we are told, “By the mouth of the one who is an apostate brings his fellowman to ruin .”...Therefore, resolve in your heart that you will never even touch the poison that apostates want you to sip. Heed the wise but firm commands of Jehovah to avoid completely those who would deceive you, mislead you , turn you aside into the ways of death . If we love Jehovah with our whole heart, soul, and mind, while loving our neighbor as we love ourselves, we will have no room for penetration by apostate thinking.

  128 March 15, 1986 Watchtower , page 14. When the Society exposes other religions they say that it is “in imi- tation of Christ.” But when others do the same thing to them it is ‘in imitation of Satan.’ - See Proclaimers book page 122

  And if all the above isn’t enough to convince Jehovah’s Witnesses not to read anything about the Society that isn’t written by the Society, 130 they liken whatever “apostates” want them to look at to “pornographic material” that would result in “spiritual fornication.” 131 And, as they always do, they bring in their biggest ‘Gun’ of all...

  When a fellow human tells us, ‘Do not read this’ or, ‘Do not listen to that,’ we may be tempted to ignore his advice. But remember, in this case Jehovah is the One who tells us in his Word what to do . And what does he say about apostates ? “Avoid them.”

  This may not be enough to debate with elders on but i thought it to be excellent tools in the tool kit for conversation and planting ideas.

  the Next and last point i found today is the Chapter on Jehovahs witnesses and how to get around the whole "wherever we go we learn and act the same" thing they ise to justify why they are Gods Org....
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  notsurewheretogo

  @Frazzled UBM

  No change in any doctrine since Don wrote that book has changed anything that the book refers too...even the change in who the FDS is doesn't change any of the chapters in the book as Don goes to prove the FDS cannot be God Directed...even if they were appointed in 33 CE or 1919CE!!!!