They shoot their own wounded.
RB
Rolf Furuli Disfellowshipped Last Week
by Sea Breeze 45 Replies latest watchtower scandals
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Vidiot
@ slimboyfat...
1914 is too integral a component in their chronology, ideology, and eschatology to be dropped. They simply can’t, it’s a sacred cow... go back far enough and everything hinges on it*.
The overlapping generation thing should be all the proof you need, ‘cause there’s just no fucking way they’d come up with something that weird unless they absolutely had to.
...
*Remember, Fred Franz left no protege, and Ted Jaracz purged out all the creative and outside-the-box thinkers, so there’s no one left with enough narrative creativity to properly overhaul the script... they’re stuck with it.
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MeanMrMustard
@sbf: Keen observation. It does put his overall outlook into an odd category.
He’s committed so much of his professional career to the 607/1914 doctrine. His entire life must feel invalidated at some level.
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Nathan Natas
Well, at least Furuli still has the resurrection. /*sarcasm: OFF*/
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Sea Breeze
The central core of JW teaching is that you cannot have salvation by faith alone. Their central teaching is that
salvation is only by active membership in their church.
I believe that only when this purpose is acknowledged,
can a person start to make sense of WT reluctance to let go of certain out-dated teachings:
1. Jesus already returned in 1914 - In other words you missed the boat, now work for us2. Only the 144K can even get saved - In other words you missed the boat, now work for us
3. The 607 chronology correctly predicted Jesus invisible (how convenient) return but did not accurately predict the end of the system of things like we taught for almost 100 years.
This does not mean we were wrong in teaching that salvation by faith alone is limited to only 144K which ended according to our unique 607 chronology shortly after 1914 - In other words, you still missed the boat, now work for us
No matter what happens to the supporting chronology and teachings that support the
salvation-by-church-membership doctrine, the one thing they can never allow is the idea to get loose that the Rank and File can have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ like the old-timers supposedly did in decades past and claim for themselves the promises of God contained in the NT.
If this ever catches on, there will be no purpose for their organization what so ever.
The bible teaching of Salvation by Faith Alone represents the greatest threat to any super organization like the Watchtower, Catholic Church Mormon Priesthood etc.
Romans 3
24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith..... so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.... For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.
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LV101
Sea B - Romans 3:24 so why can't followers just take the "faith" part and run with it! Seems to good to be true -- actually is for JWs who are stuck because of marriage/family/friends/work/handouts.
I see the attraction to TV evangelizers who preach the faith alone - I couldn't believe it after the cult crazy.
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Beth Sarim
''Vidiiot:
@ slimboyfat...
1914 is too integral a component in their chronology, ideology, and eschatology to be dropped. They simply can’t, it’s a sacred cow... go back far enough and everything hinges on it*.''
That's why I posted this video the other day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak5hMAzvuFg
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Beth Sarim
Vidiot
Beth Sarim - “...I do believe the GB have painted themselves into a corner with the 2013 July understanding of the 'faithful slave'...”
Let’s be honest.
These days, all they do is paint themselves into corners."
yyyup. It sure seems that way. Doesn't it.
😏
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Earnest
slimboyfat : Yes they’ve certainly departed from the “teachings handed down to us”.
Yes, to everything you wrote in this post. But I think it goes further. The belief that God is using the faithful and discreet slave to dispense food at the proper time, together with the light growing brighter, meant that providing there was some scriptural support for a new teaching it would be accepted almost without question. It is even feasible that there could have been "new light" about the relationship between Christ and God or other core beliefs, and it would have been accepted. But to change the understanding of the faithful and discreet slave itself means that tomorrow it may change again, so why accept something as true from an oracle which was never what we thought it was and may be something else tomorrow.
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Vidiot
slimboyfat - " I suspect, if they had maintained the traditional belief that the anointed class in general constitute the 'faithful slave', from the apostles until today, then it might not have become as attractive a target for criticism..."
This.
Word to the religiously wise...
...never let doctrine become dogma if there's a chance that evidence might disprove it.
Of course, that would have required caution based on long-term thinking and planning on the part of the WT Leadership, and from what we've seen, that's not really their jam.
