Happy anniversary Watchtower!

by Half banana 9 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Half banana

  If it still exists (!) the Watchtower magazine is one hundred and forty years old today.

  What a splendid record of thorough-going ignorance, persuasion, irrational belief, enslavement to religious rules, misinterpretation of the Bible, false alarms, historical revisionism, misleading instructions and plain deceit.

  140 years of wasting the lives of millions of people suppressing their natural ambitions to live fulfilling lives, discouraging them from having children for the sake of nearness to the fairy tale Armageddon, keeping JW children uneducated and dependent on the state to end up in old age on welfare and in poverty-- the list goes on.

  What a record of destroying billions of trees to print this useless cult propaganda, getting a record distribution figure for numbers in the publishing world and for what? To tell the world that God is going to kill all those who don't listen to the message it contains. This is organised paranoia.

  Who are the beneficiaries of the Watchtower? Only the governing body. The rank and file JW never gets anything back for all his or her lifelong devotion to this organisation. Never any thanks just the reward of being told that they are "good for nothing slaves" and should be grateful for the privilege of enriching the Watchtower leadership.

  Congratulations Watchtower!
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  RULES & REGULATIONS

  Half banana

  That was well written and all true! Don't forget that we studied the Watchtower at home, had a brother read the paragraphs at the Watchtower meetings and parrot back the answers that the Society ingrained into everyone's brain.
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  blondie

  Yes, 140 years old and doesn't resemble the first issue in 1879 in anyway.

  https://www.a2z.org/wtarchive/docs/1879_Watch_Tower.pdf

  (The WT in 1879 had no study articles, the publication of choice was the Studies in the Scriptures Volume 1-6. It was some time later during Rutherford's era that it changed and member jws were invited to submit questions to be discussed).

  https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/301975003#h=158
  

  Meetings of the Bible Students continued to supply rich spiritual food. Group studies of The Watch Tower were first organized in 1922.
  
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  minimus

  Will the watchtower society have a birthday or anniversary like they did 40 years ago?
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  Anders Andersen

  That first Watcht Tower contains possibly the best Watchtower article ever written. At least it's my favorite Watchtower article. There's only one part of a sentence that I cannot fully agree with.

  (emphasis is mine)

  "WHAT IS TRUTH?"

  This question is one which every sincere Christian should ask and seek to answer. We should learn to love and value truth for its own sake; to respect and honor it by owning and acknowledging it wherever we find it and by whomsoever presented. A truth presented by Satan himself is just as true as a truth stated by God.

  
  Perhaps no class of people are more apt to overlook this fact than the Christian. How often do they in controversy overlook and ignore truth presented by their opponents.

  This is particularly the case when arguing with an infidel. They feel at perfect liberty to dispute everything he says on religious subjects. This is not the correct principle. Many infidels are honest--as anxious to speak and believe the truth as are Christians--and if in converse with them we ignore truths which they may advance, we not only fail to convince them of our truths, but put an end to all hope of reaching them; for our failure to admit the evident truth which they advance begets in them contempt for the one who is not honest enough to admit one truth because he does not see how it can be reconciled to another. Accept truth wherever you find it, no matter what it contradicts, and rely for ability to afterwards harmonize it with others upon "The Spirit of truth, which shall guide you into all truth," as Jesus promised.

  Truth, like a modest little flower in the wilderness of life, is surrounded and almost choked by the luxuriant growth of the weeds of error. If you would find it you must be ever on the lookout. If you would see its beauty you must brush aside the weeds of error and the brambles of bigotry. If you would possess it you must stoop to get it.

  
  

  Be not content with one flower of truth. Had one been sufficient there would have been no more. Gather ever, seek for more.

  
  Weave them together as a garland --"Bind them on thee as a bride doeth." "Bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: so shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man." Prov. 3:3.

  C. T. R.
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  Half banana

  Thanks Anders.The Watchtower started out well within its limited frame of religious certainty. "A truth from Satan is still a truth". Russell was not saying he was the exclusive channel but truth could come from the infidel. How times have changed!
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  blondie

  Thanks Anders too. Great catch about that quote. I knew that CTR taught that it was his mission to gather all the "truths" that so-called other Christian religions had protected, one or two in each religion. Then he would have them all in one place, one group of people, instead of spread all over. But still that truth had to be deemed "truth" by him to be added to that new body of truth.

  CTR was functioning under his belief that by 1914 all things would be wrapped up in heaven and on earth. The anointed all in heaven, all earthly organizations like religion, business, and government out of the way, leaving the people in general on earth under Jesus (directed by God) to make things into the place that was intended for humans at the time of the garden of Eden. All members of the WTS were anointed. Thus all these people were outside the WT organization and designated to continue living on earth. No mass destruction of all non-anointed WT members.
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  niknak

  Can somebody help me find the link to the watchtower or awake magazine from like 2016-2017 (don't remember exact year) that is titled Return to Jesus?
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  The Fall Guy

  I just typed in the title you supplied on the JWBORG web site. Nothing with that title came up.
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  blondie

  The Fall Guy, I typed in "July 1879 Watchtower" in Google and got this:

  Try this, the download is free:

  https://www.scribd.com/doc/299040342/First-Issue-of-Watchtower-1879

  or this

  
  https://www.a2z.org/wtarchive/archive.htm

  This one has more than the July 1879 WT. Most of the older WTS publications.