Jehovah`s Witnesses / Parasites On Christendom ,they need to thank them for the membership they have today.

by smiddy3 14 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  smiddy3

  Jehovah`s Witnesses claim that all their beliefs are based on the Bible.The Bible clearly states early on in Deut.4:2 not to add to the word....and Rev.22:18 re-iterates much the same thing in not to make additions to the word of God.

  I think we could agree on that the organization has raised the bar on that one with their "weasel" words on so many issues that have already been thrashed out on this forum.

  So a few other things that come to my mind are : With regards to J.W`s being parasites on Christendom.

  1. They claim Christendom Apostatized itself from true Christianity by the 3rd Century , yet they accept Apostate Christendoms determination of what books are to be included in the Bible as Gods word as if they were governed by Holy Spirit to do so.?

  2.Jehovah`s Witnesses have only ever followed in Christendoms Missionaries footsteps where they have gone preaching and poaching off of the work these missionaries that have laid the groundwork before them .

  3.Jehovah`s Witnesses have never opened up virgin territory and gone where no other Christian Missionary has ever gone before . { Not to my knowledge anyway I stand to be corrected if I am wrong on this point}

  They have always only followed in the footsteps of those who have gone on before them (Christendom )

  4. The average rank & file JW likes to think that Jehovah`s Witnesses are the only ones that use the name Jehovah.Little do they realise that not only the Bible they use was established by the Catholic Church but also the name of God Jehovah was also. By a Spanish Catholic Monk in the 13th Century by adding vowels to the four letters of Hebrew {Tetragrammaton} translated by him as JHVH and coming up with the name Jehovah.

  5.The Catholic Church and Christendoms Protestant religions have been using that name ever since the 13th Century in writings ,engraved on Churches and with biblical scholars throughout the world down to this day.

  So I stand by my statement that if it wasn`t for Christendom Jehovah`s Witnesses would not have anywhere near the membership they have today and that they are parasites on Christendoms religions,
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  jwleaks

  Re: Point 4. This has always struck me as hypocrisy. The Jehovah's Witnesses claim Christendom removed the true name of god from the Bible. The Jehovah's Witnesses claim they have faithfully restored the true name of god, which they claim is "Jehovah," to the Bible. However the name Jehovah was the creation of a 14th century member of Christendom and was erroniously inserted into the Bible by translators in Christendom. Modern Bible translators of Christendom corrected the error and removed the name. But Jehovah's Witnesses cling on to the name that Christendom erroniously gave to god while decrying Christendom for not using the name. Go figure.
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  carla

  My points exactly to both of you! Naturally my jw would never address these points when brought up.
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  stillin

  The 14th century Catholic monk has been tentatively "claimed" by the Witnesses as one of the scant few anointed ones who lived during the dark ages, before the great ingathering began. That's the smug answer. Or, also, "even a stopped clock is correct twice a day."

  But it's true that the JW's could never have existed without Christendom's help.
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  jwleaks

  stillin - "even a stopped clock is correct twice a day."

  Watchtower and the Jehovah's Witnesses have gone all digital and online. Could explain why they can't even be correct on the times and seasons.
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  slimboyfat

  I think JWs agree with this: the parable of the dragnet.
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  Drearyweather

  My thoughts:

  1. They claim Christendom Apostatized itself from true Christianity by the 3rd Century , yet they accept Apostate Christendoms determination of what books are to be included in the Bible as Gods word as if they were governed by Holy Spirit to do so.?

  The canon of the Hebrew scriptures was fixed even before Jesus' was born. and the New Testament books were finalized by 180 CE (the Muratorian Fragment),. So the JW's believe that the canon was determined much before the Councils of the third century Roman Catholic Church.

  2.Jehovah`s Witnesses have only ever followed in Christendoms Missionaries footsteps where they have gone preaching and poaching off of the work these missionaries that have laid the groundwork before them .

  The problem is the starting point. Christendom had 1500 years to them before JW's started. Any religion or sect or cult that started in the 1800's had the same problem. There was vrtually no place where Christendom had not reached.

  On another note, most of the Christendom history of the dark ages is filled with bloodshed, violence, inquisition, and crusades. So I would not say that JW's or any other cult followed their footsteps. And the fact that many people join these cults is that that previous religion did not do a good job in retaining them. And that's the business model of a religion. Even Jesus converted Jews to Christianity. that's how religions grow.

  4. The average rank & file JW likes to think that Jehovah`s Witnesses are the only ones that use the name Jehovah.Little do they realise that not only the Bible they use was established by the Catholic Church but also the name of God Jehovah was also. By a Spanish Catholic Monk in the 13th Century by adding vowels to the four letters of Hebrew {Tetragrammaton} translated by him as JHVH and coming up with the name Jehovah.

  It seems that the name Jehovah had come up even before the Catholic usage in the 13th Century. Following is the comment made in the part "Jehovah" in the Catholic Encyclopedia:

  the word is found even in the "Pugio fidei" of Raymund Martin, a work written about 1270 (ed. Paris, 1651, pt. III, dist. ii, cap. iii, p. 448, and Note, p. 745). Probably the introduction of the name Jehovah antedates even R. Martin.

  https://www.catholic.org/encyclopedia/view.php?id=6291

  5.The Catholic Church and Christendoms Protestant religions have been using that name ever since the 13th Century in writings ,engraved on Churches and with biblical scholars throughout the world down to this day.

  And that is what irks me. If you can use the name on buildings and other writings, why did you remove it from the Bible?? Only 1 or 2 instances in some of the authorized Bibles?? The name of God was to be used in worship. There is no point in having the names high up on buildings and in scholarly and academic writings, but removing it from the Bible, which was the primary tool for worship for the common masses. If Jehovah was not the right pronunciation of the name, then why use Jesus, Joshua, Jeremiah, etc? Since they are also not the way Hebrews pronounced them.
  
  
  
  

  
  
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  dropoffyourkeylee

  Interesting thread.

  In another context, the Bible Students of the 1800's was very much the last hurrah of the Adventist movement of the 1840's. That movement was not a religion exactly. The believers still belonged to their specific churches and only later, after the 1844 disappointment, did some of them coalesce into specific religions. Russell's Bible Student movement found its strength in Adventist Protestantism, mainly northeast US. Russell's mentors, and the base of his followers and customers (buyers of his books) were in the same places Adventism had had success.
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  nonjwspouse

  Dreary weather, coming up with the spelling name of Jehovah was an intelligent guess, and so was yahweh ( which is considered more correct) .Also, is the undue critical importance placed on this human rendition of the name that is not even considered the most correct.

  But more importantly, it is how the Watchtower placed this name in place of the Greek writing identifiers to change the definition of who is speaking, or who is being spoken about.

  It is changing the nature of what is written. that is the danger that is warned about of adding to or taking away.

  The Watchtower does this with more than that name, and in plenty of places, to make sure it fits their narrative.

  Abasiance (spelling?) and worship is but one example. It is changed out of convenience of narrative, not out of sentence structure, or anything else at all.

  Also, 1270 IS the 13th century. "The real pronunciation of YHWH is lost through time. The name "Jehovah" was invented by a monk by the name of Raymundus Martini in the 13th Century"
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  JeffT

  When I was leaving I read a book called "Apostles of Denial" by Edmund Gruss. Is basic theme is that JW's define themselves, not by what they believe, but by what they don't believe. They don't believe in hell, they don't believe in the trinity, they don't vote, they don't celebrate Christmas, etc. He pointed out that absent those things to be against, they can't explain their religion to anybody.