Feb. 2017 "Who is Leading God's People Today?"

by Saethydd 26 Replies latest watchtower bible

  • Half banana
    Half banana

    Saethydd, thank you for your measured analysis. The matter in hand is the role and inspiration of Watchtower governance. Here it is typically presented to the faithful in terms which ambivalently provide one argument for the faithful and another one for outsiders.

    For the critics a new apologia or defence was needed to explain away the laughable inability of the WT to get dates right as well as their need for doctrinal flip-flops. The new stratagem is that “they are not inspired” yet at the same time their modesty is cast to the wind when they claim that they are exclusively appointed by God, enabling only them among all religions to have correct insights from 1919 onwards.

    To an outsider this is unprovable and irrelevant but for JWs it attempts to get them off the hook for their succession of errors and reassure believers that they are stuck with the right bunch of Bible bashers.

    This weasel talk in the Watchtower is the bread and butter for JWs, it has absolutely nothing to do with truth, it is purely of the nature of propaganda. For example the WT article you quote from uses the favourite GB expression “God’s people” so frequently, that it acts like a riveter’s hammer. If repeated enough: it must be a reality?

    Watchtower material has two functions, primarily to condition the membership to continue uncritically believing that the GB are from God even if they publicly say they are not inspired, and secondly it remains by virtue of its repetition; the mechanism they use for reinforcement and loyalty to the organisation.

    The purpose of propaganda is to enslave minds and hearts.

    Who is leading? It is not any creator God or even a Canaanite idol called Yahweh. It’s not a “who”, it’s a “what” is leading? I suggest that it is nothing more mysterious than a commercial business drive which leads the JW organisation.

  • Splash
    Splash
    If those of the Governing Body allow God’s Word rather than popular opinion to guide their decisions, who is really leading God’s people today?

    So when WT change their child protection policies because of secular pressure, who is really leading God's people today?

  • cha ching
    cha ching
    "A recent book on religion in the United States notes: “Christian leaders have regularly revised their teachings to match the beliefs and opinions gaining support among their members and in the larger society.”

    Well, we know for sure now! "A recent book on religion" said it... it must be true.... Why are we trusting "worldly" books? hmm? "Worldly" books are great, especially without any 'Title, Author, Year, Page number'

  • cha ching
    cha ching

    An ex friend of mine clinnnngggggssss to this type of reasoning, as she was praying when JWs came to her door... I believe it is her last thread of hope...

    "It rained once after I did a rain dance that's how I know it must work." That's about the same logic being used in this paragraph. They make the classic of mistake of assuming that a correlation means causation. Firstly, since these supposed angels are invisible and unwilling to testify there is no way to verify their involvement. Secondly, the fact that "many" (a rather vague amount if I do say so myself) cases have a publisher calling upon someone who has just prayed does not prove angelic direction, especially when one takes a moment to consider numbers that are involved. With several million people spending almost two billion hours year (over 5 million man hours a day) then a number of them are bound to come across people who have been praying recently.

    I love this illustration..... it is what I have been trying to put into words for quite some time... I mean, I have thought of Mormons going door to door, people praying, Mormons coming... Does that make it God directed?

    But the rain dancer? ...... excellent!

    thx! cha ching!

  • TD
    TD

    LOL - Yes!

    The average member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints can match the average JW story for story. Some of them actually seem to be the exact same story with both faiths claiming it as their own.

  • Heaven
    Heaven

    Saethydd said: The first thing that jumps out at me is the use of the word "Clarified." I am no English Professor, but I know and have confirmed through research that to clarify something means to "to make (an idea, statement, etc.) clear or intelligible; to free from ambiguity."

    Botchtower is notorious for using words inappropriately. They love the word 'Evidently' too. It's a thing cults do. They give new, special meanings to otherwise previously defined words and club their members over the head with them. I guess it makes them feel all special or something. It's starting to really annoy me that my workplace is now doing this.

  • fastJehu
    fastJehu
    cha ching
    Well, we know for sure now! "A recent book on religion" said it... it must be true.... Why are we trusting "worldly" books? hmm? "Worldly" books are great, especially without any 'Title, Author, Year, Page number'

    This should be the book:

    Secular Faith:
    How Culture Has Trumped Religion in American Politics


    https://www.amazon.com/Secular-Faith-Religion-American-Politics/dp/022627506X

  • sir82
    sir82

    More semantic dancing.

    First study article goes to great pains to say "our leader is Jehovah, not any man or group of men".

    Second study article goes to great lengths to praise and extol a group of men who are "taking the lead among God's people".

    What in the name of all that is holy is the difference between a "leader" and one who "takes the lead"?

    I usually reserve my "idiots" epithet for the numbskulls who write this dreck.

    This time, though, it will go to all the millions of JWs who, during the 2 weeks these articles are studied, will not connect the so-adjacent-they-nearly-touch dots between "leaders" and "those who lead".

    Idiots.

  • Saethydd
    Saethydd

    This article makes me wish that the Watchtower study included a period in which the audience could ask questions instead of just parroting back the information they have only just read. Perhaps if such a session were included and honest hard questions were encouraged then their logic wouldn't be so easy to blow apart.

  • OUTLAW
    OUTLAW

    Let us consider the same three factors that directed the governing body in the first century.

    Governing Body in the 1st century??!!.....WatchTards....

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