Millie,
Thanks for pointing out the "disclaimer" in paragraph 15:
Should we, however, be suspicious of our fellow Christians, second-guessing the genuineness of their loyalty to Jehovah? Absolutely not!
I have a different take on this twist. I see it as more of thier deliberate mental and emotional manipulation of the R&F.
Consider the context. The WT writer(s) has just spent a dozen paragraphs instilling doubt and suspicion in our minds by using powerful references to well-known Bible accounts concering apostates and fasle Christians. They repeatedly talk about apostates and "counterfeit Christians" in the congregation. It is only natural at this point for a person to begin looking around the congregation and sart wondering about who may or many not be an "apostate."
The WT writer knows this and the proof is what they do next:
It would be wrong to entertain baseless suspicions about our brothers and sisters.
They deliberately planted a thought our minds and then tell us it's wrong to have that thought!
Imagine that I tell you, "There is a criminal in the room and that the criminal is thinking of the color blue. Who do you think it might be?" Next I tell you, "Being suspicious is one indication, or sign, of a criminal mind," and then ask, "By the way, you're not thinking of blue are you?"
Well of course you're thinking of blue! I told you to think of it and you obediently did as you were told. This is classic mental manipulation. And now I've got you doubting yourself, thinking that mabybe, quite possiblibly YOU ARE TEH CRIMINAL!
Notice how the WT writer skillfully continues the mental-manipulation and builds on this subconscously suggested self-doubt:
What is more, having a tendency to distrust the integrity of others in the congregation would be harmful to our own spirituality.
While they've "got you on the ropes," mentally so to speak, they continue the psychological beating by intructing you to take over their role of psychlogical inquisitor by saying:
Each Christian should “examine his own actions.
And while you're at it, take a good hard, long look in the mirror and notice what kind of person you really are:
Because of our sinful inclinations, there is always the potential for inadvertently adopting traits that are less than sincere.
You are sinful and less than sincere. In othere words, YOU CANNOT BE TRUSTED.
Of course the beatings must continue:
So from time to time, we might examine our motives for serving Jehovah. We may ask ourselves: ‘Do I worship Jehovah out of love for him and in recognition of his sovereignty? Surely we can all benefit from examining our own actions and removing any vestiges of hypocrisy from our heart.
In summary, we have an article that ostensibly starts out discussing bad examples of notoriously bad people in the Bible, individuals that Jehovah put to death for their evil ways. They gave us both OT and NT examples just to emphasize the point.
Then they draw a parallel to the modern congregation, raising suspcion and doubt in th eminds of their members only to chastize them for doing exaclty what they were told to do. Finally they cause you to believe that maybe, just possibly, it is YOU that are teh "apostate and/or "counterfeit Christian."
This is mental manipulation at it'ss best.
Let's review: Its acult!
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