JW Dogma Analysis For Lurkers & Faders to Consider

by The Fall Guy 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Wake Me Up Before You Jo-Ho

  Wise words indeed. More from that source:

  "Their zeal for knowledge may even prompt them to dig back into things that were published long before they came into the truth, expanding and deepening their understanding, and ever growing in Christian maturity. . . . Have you really studied these earlier publications? . . . If you are a newer one in the congregation, have you studied just one of the Society’s publications. . . . How can all these people get the things they have missed? Only by studying earlier publications and digging back through previous issues of The Watchtower kept in the library at your local Kingdom Hall. There is much in the way of spiritual riches and aids toward mature knowledge in these earlier publications, and their study is most certainly worth your time. By checking back through the Society’s earlier publications you will learn where to find the answers to questions that arise, and you will rejoice to see your understanding continue to grow.” (The Watchtower, May 15, 1957, pp. 311-317).

  Nowadays, if you dare mention researching older material, you're cross examined for your "motives", reminded of the "New Light" doctrine, questioned where you obtained the earlier publications and then admonished to "keep up" with Jehovah's chariot, rather than catch up to it.
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  DesirousOfChange

  Doctrine is the wrong place to begin to awaken a JW.
  
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  The Fall Guy

  Worked for me!
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  Diogenesister

  Bookmarked, with gratitude to @the fall guy!
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  Vidiot

  The Fall Guy - "...I was so shocked by their literature-based response that it pushed me into scripturally examining and researching other topics..."

  You're in distinguished company; the same thing happened to Ray Franz.

  He mentioned in Crisis of Conscience that when doctrinal issues came up, his GB peers would almost always defer first to what "The Society" had stated in the past, with scriptures a distant second.

  It really bothered him.
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  NeedToKnow

  Vidiot: He mentioned in Crisis of Conscience that when doctrinal issues came up, his GB peers would almost always defer first to what "The Society" had stated in the past, with scriptures a distant second.

  It really bothered him.

  This has bothered me too and led me to read Crisis of Conscience myself. Very awakening. Highly recommend it. And I still get the feeling that Ray Franz deeply loved Jehovah and when he awoke to the truth, he could no longer stand by the org. He does not come across to me as bitter and vengeful and will even admit when he stood by a teaching that he later realised was not scriptural that hurt a lot of people or when he simply went along in spite of his conscience simply to not rock the boat.

  I was actually reading last night where he's going through all the info on 1914 .... what a mess that whole saga is and they continue to mess it up even worse with the whole generations. But all those old mags and books are not available to the R&F and I wouldn't be surprised if the GB took all the evidence to a dudes weekend camping trip somewhere in the wilderness of Warwick and had a massive bonfire. I sometimes wonder what my PIMI elder brothers (familial brothers, not spiritual) would say if they knew. But I think I know, they would shrug it off as old understanding and ignore that it's been repeated several times in the past 100 years. I can imagine smoke pouring out of their ears and their eyeballs bursting for having dared looked at it.
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  smiddy3

  Bookmarked for future reference
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  Jerryh

  Thank you fall guy this is really helpful.

  Number 4 (Rom.6:7) is especially a problem for JW dogma. All that necessary is read verse 8 which

  is plainly referring to the death of Jesus. Which leads to a question that I have.

  The dogma says the death of Rom.6:7 refers to the death of the JW personally not Jesus.

  This then allows Rom.6:23 to be satisfied which is obviously not Paul's point in this text.

  But if we grant their dogma here that a person's own death satisfies verse 23 then how does

  a person who survives Armageddon pay for his sin since he has not ever died. Why would

  such a person qualify for the new system? What am I missing on this?
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  DesirousOfChange

  The vast majority of JW’s who leave DO NOT leave over doctrine. This is true now even more so than in the past because most JW’s today DO NOT KNOW the doctrine. JW Doctrine now changes as often as does the direction of the wind (New Lite) and that seldom has any negative affect on active JW’s.

  In most cases It involves a personal affront — a direct frontal attack from a source they would expect — that awakens one to the “lack of love”. That’s the first domino to fall.
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  Beth Sarim

  Yes, that ''lack of love''. Which is the first domino to fall. When something happens in your life, and you experience that ''lack of love''" You can sure that 'iron fist in a velvet glove' at times. Real eye-openers.