by LoveUniHateExams 4 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I was just thinking about the WTS and child abuse crimes/accusations.
In ancient Israel, Jehovah used the surrounding nations to punish Israel for its wickedness.
Seeing as the WTS always likes to draw comparison between ancient Israel and today, what about today?
Could a witness argue that God is currently using 'worldly' courts to punish JW sex abusers and the WTS?
Has anyone posted this before? Has anyone used this line of reasoning to elders/other JWs?
Before the Maccabean Revolt (167–160 BCE), the prophets of Israel had the prophetic view of reality. They argued that Yahweh punishes people because of their wrongdoing and hence there is suffering in Israel (theodicy.) Later, most particularly after the Maccabean Revolt when the Jews regained control of Israel and defeated the Syrians, some Jews embraced the apocalyptic view of reality (dualism.) This is something that you can see in Dead Sea Scrolls.
Jesus also had this view, which he likely "inherited" from John the Baptist. Jehovah's Witnesses base their ideology on Jesus, and hence they also have the apocalyptic view of reality—namely that God will destroy the "world" and establish his own Kingdom on earth.
So could some Witnesses argue that God uses "worldly" courts to punish them? Well... technically, yes, but that would be inconsistent with their apocalyptic view. This is something that the prophetic view would certainly embrace—that Yahweh uses "wordly" resources to punish his people. This is not something that would be a part of the apocalyptic view. Therefore, I would argue that the Governing Body itself would not encourage that kind of reasoning. I can't say whether that would be the same with the elders since, after all, most of them are uneducated individuals who would be unable to even define the prophetic view—much less compare it with the apocalyptic view.
It would never be an official printed WTS position, but individual JWs could use (and have used) this line of reasoning in an attempt to resolve their own cognitive dissonance about how "Jehovah's organization" could be so utterly corrupt and evil regarding child abuse.
I went through a phase of this somewhere between being concerned about all the wrongs in JW land and how Jehovah allowed it all - and finally realising that JW land is a fantasy.
Probably believed it plausible for about two years and trotted it out occasionally to those closest to me as a possible antidote to my doubts.
He is punishing the RF not the GB. The GB are beyond reproach.
