The Real Purpose of the WTB&TS

by compound complex 23 Replies latest jw friends

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  compound complex

  Raymond Franz introduces a declaration made by Uncle Fred:

  Still later in 1979, in fact on November 17, the day after I left
  on a "zone" trip to West Africa, Fred Franz, now the Society's
  president, conducted the morning Bible discussion for the head-
  quarters family. He made these comments, which one member in
  attendance wrote down as they were given and passed them on to
  me upon my return as a matter of interest:

  Some persons are now talking about reading the
  Bible, that we should read "just the Bible." Well,
  that's what Christendom's churches have been tel-
  ling the people to do for centuries and look at the
  mess that's resulted.

  It's good to remember that we were the Watch
  Tower Tract Society for a long time before we be-
  came the The Watch Tower BIBLE [emphasis: FF]
  and Tract Society. Only in comparatively recent times
  have we actually published Bibles. The sole purpose
  of our existence as a Society is to announce the Kingdom
  established in 1914 and to sound the warning of the fall of
  Babylon the Great. We have a special message to deliver.

  --- ISOCF, by Ray Franz; RF notes that the Society's
  original title was Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society
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  Phizzy

  Very revealing, thanks for posting CoCo. It reveals the arrogant attitude that was FF's, but which has percolated down ever since.

  The Bible itself has been demoted even more now, the GB are the sole authority, whatever the Bible may say.

  The only gratifying thing is that if they stick to FF's dictat and do not change their message, they will find it harder and harder to suck people in to the cult.
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  yadda yadda 2

  Freddy Franz admits the sole purpose of the Society is to preach chimerical nonsense. What do you expect from a man who was a virgin his whole life and dressed like this:

  
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  nancy drew

  It was 100 yrs ago today sargent Freddy taught the band to say

  that the systems going out of style so you better preach it for a while

  so may I introduce to you the one you've known for all these years sargent Freddy's lonely hearts club band

  It's wonderful to be here it's certainly a thrill

  you're such a lovely audience we'd like to lie to you again we'd like to lie to you

  We really want to stop the show so we thought you might like to know

  that uncle freddy's gonna sing a song and he wants you to sing along

  so let me introduce to you the the one and only prophiteer

  sargent Freddy's lonely hearts club band
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  new hope and happiness

  The soul purpose of MY existence as a individual ....

  The soul purpose of OUR existence as a society....

  glad Nancy, Yadda,Phizzy, myself and yourself took the individual path....
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  AndDontCallMeShirley

  Since 1914 cannot, and could not, be proven from the Bible, there was no point in having "Bible" in the WT's official moniker. Now it is WT Bible and Tract Society, but the foundation and the claims are just as untenable, just as fallacious....

  .

  Since neither Armageddon came in 1914 nor the Fall of Babylon The Great, as WT predicted, its entire premise for existing is a 134 year old running joke.
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  AndDontCallMeShirley

  An appropriate modern revision could read:

  "Since 1931 we have been called "Jehovah's Witnesses". But the sole purpose of our existence is not to witness about Jehovah™. It is to make billions of dollars through real estate development, investing in the equity markets, and selling literature. We are a cult, posing as a religion, but operating as a business".
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  Antioch

  I at least respect the intellectual attempt of FF to try and synthesize and decipher the situation he was in. I believe the JWs are one big experiment in rationalizing the Bible. They worked from certain assumptions and extrapolated forward (and if it was true, then they did what they should have, but it isn't). Furthermore, what we have now is proof positive that in the end, the Bible contributers were partly about "truth" but mostly about controlling the people. The proof I speak of is in the attempt to apply the Bible rationally and then looking at what that created. We can thank the JWs for their experiment, for their pushing the Bible to it's "natural" conclusion. But look at what they created. It is shit.
  
  100 years later, we now have enough evidence to debunk their conclusions about 1914. We now know that their attempt to rationalize the Bible has failed. Instead of being intellectually honest, the Society and my family members (and many of yours), are sub-consciously just putting their head down and pushing it forward in a "we've come this far, we can't turn back now" manner. If they stopped to recognize what FF said above, and then looked at the evidence, it would be devastating to everything they've built.
  
  The situation now is sad, wasteful, full of concessions and self-deception that just are not worth the lives and families it is destroying.

  I just wish people could get over this religious virus and move on to better projects with as low of cost as possible.
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  AndDontCallMeShirley

  here's WT's foundation:

  1. don't read the Bible without our help...you cannot understand it (this contradicts the Bible)

  2. "Jehovah"™: a Catholic invented name for god, completely fabricated, grammatically impossible.

  3. 1914: a date based on Adventist error, formulated on a hopelessy flawed false date for the destruction of Jerusalem

  4. Armageddon- did not come in 1914 as WT predicted- false prophecy

  5. Babylon the Great was not destroyed in 1914 as WT predicted- false prophecy

  6. "special message" = a different gospel than contained in the Bible. The Bible says to reject anyone teaching a different gospel (see point #1).
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  Apognophos

  I believe the JWs are one big experiment in rationalizing the Bible. They worked from certain assumptions and extrapolated forward (and if it was true, then they did what they should have, but it isn't). [...] 100 years later, we now have enough evidence to debunk their conclusions about 1914.

  Actually, the JWs are a religion based on numerology, contrariness, and end-times paranoia. That's all. There's no assumptions besides "This time is the most important time in history", "Things are getting worse", and "God wants us to find a hidden message in the Bible", and none of those are logical assumptions that one should be extrapolating from.

  There was always enough evidence to debunk 1914, from the 1800s on when it was first proposed as a significant year. One didn't need hindsight to be able to say, "Well, nothing happened then, so it was apparently wrong" -- the very concept of cherry-picking scriptures and performing math on them was fundamentally flawed on at least two counts: (1) Why would God hide a message in the Bible? Most of his followers throughout history have not even been able to read the Bible. This implies that a special man is going to be raised up by God to inform the stupid masses what the Bible really says, which is counter to Jesus' message about babes and uneducated ones being able to come to him without an intercessor. (2) Duh, "No one knows the day or the hour"! What's the point of warning someone to keep on the watch for an imminent end when the time of the end can be determined down to the year and even the month?