Do JW's teach anything about their history? (page 2)

Francois

Refiner's has got the motherlode, the Sistine Chapel of JW Apologias. It is really a hoot.

francois

ozziepost

"Jehovah's Witnesses - Proclaimers of God's Kingdom" and it was printed in 1993. It is a careful retelling of history that ignores huge chunks of what really happened, some crazy schemes and prophecies by Russell and Rutherford and generally gives a Disneyesque version of Jehovah's Witnesses. It looks and sounds nice, but it's all really just a whitewashed grave.

It's also written in such a way as to obscure the true chronology of events.

It's presented in more of a topical way than chronologically. Comes in handy for them when they want to put a spin on things.

Cheers, Ozzie

refiners fire

Its only a guess, but did they not take records back then because they weren't concerned with such things back then?

Random . Such an innocent explanation never occured to someone as suspicious of the Watchtowers motives as myself. I was referring to a graph in the book that indicated consistent growth. I would imagine the years from 1879 thru 1928 were ommitted from the graph because if they had been included they would have shown a decrease in membership during the 20s. This wouldnt have looked good on the graph.

Edited by - refiners fire on 14 September 2002 9:32:52

SYN

The Proclaimers book is very much a Mickey Mouse book! In fact, it makes for great reading if you need a laugh. They leave out all the GOOD STUFF, like Russel's pyramid grave, the aluminium hysteria, "Booze" Rutherford's drinking "habits", Beth Sarim's true purpose, air baths, UV rays being good for you, the supreme racism in the early magazines, the countless doctrinal flipflops, the 1975 debacle, and all the rest!

As everyone knows, it is TRULY a Disneylandesque rendition of the history of the Society!

gumby

Quote: Everyone here seems to know a lot about JW history, but when I ask my friend (who was a convert) they don't seem to know too much

I would say you learn more about their history, once you find out it is a bogus organisation and you leave. Backround research begins when you leave.

The reason for this is when you are 'coming in'....you are only shown the modern stuff. Looking into older books is actually discouraged as they are to keep abreast of fresh 'food at the proper time'.

Some dubs do not know much about the borg anyway. They don't care to. All they know is it's the closest thing to the truth they can see.....and that's good enough.

refiners fire

The "Jehovahs Witnesses in the Divine Purpose" history if full of juicy tidbits.

here is just one, on page 36. Its talking about a speech Russell gave in a church. Whats wrong with this quote??

" At the evening meeting Russell determined that now, since they had evidenced their interest in Christs return and in the blessings that would accompany His presence, it was necessary for him to go deeper into the matter and talk to them about the time that these things would take place. This he did, pointing to 1914"

abbagail

I've got that "gem" of a history book, "The JWs and the Divine Purpose," old green book, same size as the large Bible Stories book. It's written in a format of two JWs studying with Dick and Jane (or whatever), and answers their questions one by one. I used to be "thrilled" by that book, especially the secular quotes about how "wonderful" the JWs are. I obtained it, along with 20 years' worth of old WT & A!s and some other old books, from an elderly sister in a town near here who had a detached garage chock full of grocery bags and boxes FULL of WT literature all the way to the ceiling of this garage. You could have called her garage the WT-DEPOT since, she said, she became known as the place for friends to give their old literature; and she let others come and take what they wanted to create their own library.

The 3-8-01 A! (hi John!) is kinda funny knowing what I know now. The front cover: "What Should We Learn From History?" The first page article, "History, SHOULD WE TRUST IT?" says:

To live without history is to live without a form of memory. Without history, your family, your tribe, or even your nation would seem to be without roots, without a past. [What about the past of your RELIGION???/grits]
"History can be a vast reservoir of lessons for life. It can help us avoid falling into the same old pitfalls time and again. As one philosopher asserted, people who forget about the past are condemned to repeat it. Being familiar with history can open our minds to past civilizations, amazing discoveries, fascinating people, and different ways of looking at things. [I'll say! A different way of looking at WT information!/grits]
But since history deals with people and events of long ago, how do we know if it can be trusted? If we are going to learn vaulable lessons from history, then obviously these must be based on truth. And when we discover truth, we ought to accept it, even though that may not always be palatable. The past can be like a cactus garden -- it has its beauty and its barbs; it can inspire, and it can prick.
In the following articles, we will consider some aspects of history that can help us asses the accuracy of what we read. We will also consider how authentic history can benefit the discerning reader."

In the second article entitled, "What Can We Learn From The Past?" there is a subheading: "Can History Be Trusted?" and it says:

"Historians are more like detectives than scientists. They investigate, question, and challenge records from the past. They aim for truth..."

And another interesting subheading is entitled, "DOCTORED HISTORY"

Sometimes history is not just biased but doctored."

Then it gives an example of Trotsky's name being expunged from the book on the history of the Soviet Union, "Truth in History." The article points out, too, that "doctoring history... is an ancient practice..." -- The main gist of this series of articles, I think is to show that human historians are obviously flawed, but BIBLE HISTORY IS RELIABLE (which is the 3rd article, "The Bible, Authentic History?") -- In any event, we all know the WTS is guilty of "doctoring" their own history, expunging pertinent bits of info when it serves their purpose; and the [apostate] HISTORIANS do a FINE JOB of bringing this to the forefront for the enlightenment of all WT-slaves.

Edited by - Grits on 14 September 2002 9:57:17

link

Refiners Fire and "whats wrong with this quote?"

According to all the teachings at that time the Second Coming had already taken place!

(1874 or 1878 I think they said)

link

refiners fire

Yeah link. While not being an out and out LIE, its very misleading. The modern reader sees the words.

Russell said...1914...Christs return....

But thats not what Russell actually said. Its designed so that current readers can filter what theyre reading thru current understandings and draw a false conclusion

Realist

as far as i can tell the average JW knows shit about the WT history. They don't care since they trust the shitheads in brooklyn.

Do JW's teach anything about their history?

Share this