by Island Man 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Are you in 'The Truth', or are you only in 'The Current Understanding'?
How long will it be before many of the current teachings peculiar to the organization are rejected as old light and relegated to Watchtower's dust bin of old light, out-of-print literature to be expunged from future issues of Watchtower Library CD-ROM?
That process has been the pattern for over 100 years.
The official JW.org under "history" shows a copy of the
"Finished Mystery" Nothing "finished" about that book and
it reads like the rants of a madman. Old light ? Or just ongoing
darkness and false doctrines ? Starting with the "faithful and discreet
slave" doctrine that is a distortion of the scripture to create a small
body of absolute authority, claiming without it there would be "chaos".
In reality, not chaos, but freedom in Christ and one body, one spirit.
Interesting thought. I wonder if anyone has done any statistical analysis on the frequency of change of major doctrines by WT leadership over the last 130ish years!
My sense is that the average doctrine in this religion has a very limited shelf-life.
There has been seven separate generation teachings, for example. That's six changes from 1914 - 2011. (See "Changes to the Generation Teaching," jwfacts.com). That particular doctrine gets changed about every 16 years on average!
Food for thought.
Was it true that the sun revolved around the earth? or.... Is it true that the earth revolves around the sun?
Was one idea true, until someone became enlightened? or was it ever true? Was it a false idea?
"Galileo's championing of heliocentrism was controversial within his lifetime, when most subscribed to either geocentrism or the Tychonic system. [7] He met with opposition from astronomers, who doubted heliocentrism due to the absence of an observed stellar parallax. [7] The matter was investigated by the Roman Inquisition in 1615, which concluded that heliocentrism was false and contrary to scripture, placing works advocating the Copernican system on the index of banned books and forbidding Galileo from advocating heliocentrism. [" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei
When is truth, truth? When is false, false? When it becomes "new light"?
Is there ANY Jw doctrine that CAN'T change or has not changed?
Are you in 'The Truth', or are you only in 'The Current Understanding'?
I finally got to laugh today. Thanks, Island Man!
Great question Island Man.
It highlights the hollow clang of the overused buzz phrase "In the truth".
I for one, have been out for many years. Upon making a return to "see if it so"
for family reasons, I am coming to the conclusion that you cannot conscientiously say
you are "in the truth". You can only say you are one of jw's and your doctrine is that which
the gb decree it to be at any given time. If you are happy with that, good for you.
So then, if you want to be "in" something, you can only
honestly be in the "current understanding of 'truth'" if you like.
In reply to the second question; Many of the old truths and statements are being relegated
to the trash can as we speak. If you quote an old mag in any research and it jars with 'current understanding'
you are quickly and in no uncertain terms advised that "you need to only use the current available research data".
jtg
p.s. Why was Jonah trepidatious about his assignment??? Why are so many jw's feeling the same about their current 'assignment'?.
Jonah looked a bit of a dill didn't he.
It is true that they change doctrine frequently but many of the basic elements have remained the same for decades. I left 40 years ago and when I arrived here I knew the basics. Some items I never knew b/c the teaching was inept. The basics that stand out to me involve high control, a demotion of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, Armageddon focus. I do believe I know more about Catholicism. The Society was very antiCatholic.
If it changed to a great degree, I would not be able to recognize it anymore. Oh, I left out how humans are evil.
