Once, I knew an elderly member of the anointed in Bethel. Sometimes he carried an old King James Bible with him that had
certain passages highlighted with a purple marker.
He said those verses were "precious promises" - personal statements Jesus made to him, in effect.
He came from a generation that read a different Watchtower - one that had personal poetry about God and Jesus Christ.
- a generation that might not recoil from calling Jesus "Lord" in casual conversation, as early Christians did.
I write this to manifest the contrast of a cold, legalistic corporate culture that NOW consumes the faith of Watchtower loyalists.
Jehovah seems to be a distant tribal God who got promoted to head a corporate religion - rather than a loving Heavenly Father
- a God who blesses printing presses and shyster lawyers to advance his "organization".
If you think I'm exaggerating about this 'worldly' influence of 'corporate culture', consider:
If Brother Weak tells Brother Elder "I don't believe in God anymore", he may get tea and sympathy
But what will happen to Brother Weak if he says "I don't believe in this organization anymore"? Logically,
if you don't believe in God, the organization is out the window but ......Faith in the Watchtower is critical.
Why does the Watchtower leadership refer to an "organization" when the Bible uses the more intimate phrase
"association of brothers"? ( Hint: who rules in each?)
Why does the New World Translation REPEATEDLY use the phrase " in union with" God or Jesus instead of simply ..."in"?
What's wrong with having God or Jesus "IN" you? What's wrong with being "IN" God or Jesus? You can easily guess the
answer - that kind of intimacy with the Divine tends to exclude the ministrations of Jehovah's Glorious Corporate Organization
doesn't it?
I conclude that the greatest practical difference between "born-agains" and Witnesses is not the Trinity or Hellfire or
any other doctrinal point. Rather, it is this feeling of intimacy with Christ that Witnesses NO LONGER possess.
Fundamentalists will assert that Witnesses "don't believe in Jesus" but that inaccuracy misses the critical point
that Witnesses worship thru a corporate structure in which Jesus is little more than a functionary, an obedient flunkie
needed to attract people to the legalistic "organization". The Apostle John could never stomach this cult - with his
counsel about a mystical union with Christ. They'd drag him off the stage as soon as ambiguity about the Word came
out of his mouth.
I'm forced to agree with cynics who think that religion is just an obstacle put in the way of spirituality - by hijackers who
want to turn some coin by forcing You to Go Thru Them.
In this case, if the path to God is a beautiful bridge
then the Watchtower hierarchy is just a pack of trolls who man a toll booth.
metatron