Smiddy » For the first 4000 years you couldnt shut Jehovah up, and the next 2000 years you dont here a beep out of Jehovah or Christ Jesus.
Actually, while your point is valid, the above isn't the case at all. There were many long stretches where God didn't speak. As I noted elsewhere, when Gabriel appeared to Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, and told him his elderly wife was going to have a son, it had been more than 400 years since God had spoken. There were many false prophets over the years, and they spoke frequently; however, real prophets came along only when it was necessary, and for the benefit of the people.
Also, the early Christians believed that Jesus was Jehovah. They viewed Jehovah as being the Son of God and the great Mediator between God and Man. When Moses and his people "saw the God of Israel," and when Moses spoke to God "face to face," (see Exodus 28 and 33), they were not speaking about God the Father. Moses wasn't the great Mediator between God and Man -- it was Yahweh, the Son of the Father.
Matthew tells us of a lamentation made by Jesus while he was yet in mortality:
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matthew 23:37)
This clearly doesn't apply to the thirty two years he had lived in mortality. Many of those years he most likely didn't know himself who he had been in premortality. Plus, in his lifetime he had more miracles, and there were many more angelic visits and laws given than at any other time in history. Jesus began his church, gave detailed instructions on how it should be run and after his resurrection spent 40 days giving his disciples special instructions, none of which the JWs have any inkling of. Then Paul speaks of going to the third heaven and seeing and hearing things it wasn't lawful to repeat, again which the Governing Body knows nothing about.
For JW apologists when God gave a ruling/decree in the Old Testament how many times did he adjust /redefine/change what he said using the excuse "the light gets brighter and brighter"?
NONE
And yet JW`s would have you believe God has been continuously doing this for the past 100 years not being able to give a precise or concise direction that didnt need to be changed after a couple of years.
Absolutely. If God spoke anciently when he wanted to do something, it shows God was an active force in accomplishing his will. "For ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you," Jesus told his apostles. And in the Old Testament, God told Jeremiah, "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee. And before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."
Yet now, in the last days, God has decided to change from active to passive. The church forms first, then the Lord comes out and selects them. Anciently God speaks to man and man complies; now man speaks and God complies! But while it's a great setup if you can get it all worked out, there is the problem of God never changing. In the past, God was visible when he appeared. Now he's invisible when he comes.
It's also strange that the saints are now called "Witnesses" when they really haven't seen or heard anything. "Well, what are you witnesses of?" Answer: nothing, really, because everything was invisible! His coming, his being appointed King, his selection of a publishing company as his divine will. And instead of being chosen and ordained, they choose God and ordain themselves!
Active versus passive. And they've never explained that aspect of their foundation.
