Impartiality Watchtower style

by Norm 12 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • Norm
    Norm

    Christians and the Watchtower Society tell us all the time that among the other excellent qualities attributed to God he is also supposed to very impartial. In a Watchtower magazine from 2003 in an article titled ?Imitate Jehovah, Our Impartial God? the magazine set out to give its readers examples of Gods impartiality. Let us take a look at it:

    ?*** w03 6/15 p. 12 Imitate Jehovah, Our Impartial God ***
    Imitate Jehovah, Our Impartial God
    ?There is no partiality with God.??ROMANS 2:11.
    CAMPED on the Plains of Moab in 1473 B.C.E., Israel listened attentively to Moses. A challenge lay ahead, beyond the Jordan River. Moses declared Jehovah?s purpose to have Israel defeat the seven mighty Canaanite nations in the Promised Land. How reassuring were Moses? words: ?Jehovah your God will certainly abandon them to you, and you must defeat them?! Israel was to conclude no covenant with them, and they merited no favor.?Deuteronomy 1:1; 7:1, 2.
    2 Yet, Jehovah spared one family from the first city that Israel attacked. People from four other towns also received God?s protection. Why was this? What do the remarkable events associated with the survival of these Canaanites teach us about Jehovah? And how can we imitate him??

    Let?s see if we got this. Jehovah wanted Israel to exterminate seven different Canaanite nations, which lived in the ?Promised Land?. In other words he wanted the Israelites to carry out what we today call ethnic cleansing and genocide of an entire population living in the area. Am I crazy or does this really sound like being impartial to you? Are they completely insane in Brooklyn?

    It looks like this fantastic impartiality on Gods behalf was that he apparently saw fit to make exceptions from the wholesale slaughter.

    *** w03 6/15 pp. 12-13 Imitate Jehovah, Our Impartial God ***
    4 When Israel first penetrated Canaan after crossing the Jordan, they set up camp at Gilgal. (Joshua 4:9-19) Not far away stood the walled city of Jericho. What Canaanite Rahab heard of Jehovah?s actions stirred her to act in faith. As a result, when Jehovah brought destruction on Jericho, he spared her and those in her house.?Joshua 2:1-13; 6:17, 18; James 2:25.
    5 Next, Israel ascended from the lowlands near the river into the central hills of the region. Following Jehovah?s direction, Joshua employed ambush tactics against the city of Ai. (Joshua, chapter 8) News of the ensuing rout prompted many of Canaan?s kings to assemble for war. (Joshua 9:1, 2) The inhabitants of the nearby Hivite city of Gibeon reacted differently. ?They, even of their own accord,? relates Joshua 9:4, ?acted with shrewdness.? Like Rahab, they had heard of Jehovah?s deliverance of his people at the Exodus and at the defeat of Sihon and Og. (Joshua 9:6-10) The Gibeonites realized the futility of resistance. So on behalf of Gibeon and three nearby cities?Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim?they sent to Joshua at Gilgal a delegation disguised as though from a distant land. The stratagem succeeded. Joshua concluded a covenant with them that ensured their survival. Three days later Joshua and the Israelites learned that they had been tricked. Nevertheless, they had sworn by Jehovah to the covenant and thus held to it. (Joshua 9:16-19) Did Jehovah approve?

    So the leading cause for Gods alleged impartiality was sucking up to Jehovah and become a traitor, or use lies, deceit and tricks to survive the Israeli killing machine.

    *** w03 6/15 pp. 13-14 Imitate Jehovah, Our Impartial God ***
    Dealings With Abraham and Israel
    8 The disciple James drew attention to God?s undeserved kindness in His dealings with Abraham and his offspring. It was Abraham?s faith, not his ethnic origin, that made him ?Jehovah?s friend.? (James 2:23) Abraham?s faith and love for Jehovah brought blessings to his descendants. (2 Chronicles 20:7) Jehovah promised Abraham: ?I shall surely bless you and I shall surely multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens and like the grains of sand that are on the seashore.? But note the promise in the next verse: ?By means of your seed all nations of the earth will certainly bless themselves.??Genesis 22:17, 18; Romans 4:1-8.

    How can it be impartial for anyone to pick out one unscrupulous bloodthirsty tribe or group of people and use them as a tool to murder and slaughter other peoples to cleanse a strip of land? And the only requirement for being used as tool for extermination is if they are willing to suck up to this homicidal maniac God. What the hell has this insane story got to do with impartiality?

    *** w03 6/15 pp. 13-14 Imitate Jehovah, Our Impartial God ***
    Dealings With Abraham and Israel
    9 Far from showing partiality, Jehovah demonstrated by his dealings with Israel what he can do for those who obey him.

    So the only criteria for this extremely perverted form of ?impartiality? is who ?obey? God. If you don?t subscribe to one particular form of superstition, you are in for extermination! How can anyone read complete insane drivel like this and think it has anything even remotely to do with being impartial?

    Norm

  • Will Power
    Will Power

    Norm, I'm one of your silent fans. Good to see you posting. The more current the better to hedge off the "that was then, this was now" comeback line. LOL I love it.

  • JustTickledPink
    JustTickledPink

    The words remind me of modern day suicide bombers who declare war in the name of Allah. They do believe they have God's favor.

    I can't see how any reasonable person can read the Old Testament and make sense of it all and come out believing that the God portrayed is a loving and just God.

  • Ticker
    Ticker

    Just like how the watchtower reads the bible and interprets it as saying only God will spare the witnesses. You'd swear they were on LSD when they read it. lol Wow if that isnt the biggest example of God being totally impartial then nothing is. lol Yep the good ol' impartial god says "I will only save the witnesses even if they are full of greedy hypocrites and only honour me with their lips. And all the others that honestly try to serve me with a good heart no matter what denomination or circumstance, uhhhh sowwy but you wernt sellings my magazines and now im short a couple bucks! ZAAP! Your dead at the Big A."

    Wow total impartiality. lol OMG I dont understand why they keep feeding such garbage to the rank and file.

    Ticker

  • Room 215
    Room 215

    ``Let?s see if we got this. Jehovah wanted Israel to exterminate seven different Canaanite nations, which lived in the ?Promised Land?. In other words he wanted the Israelites to carry out what we today call ethnic cleansing and genocide of an entire population living in the area. Am I crazy or does this really sound like being impartial to you? Are they completely insane in Brooklyn?"

    Norm, it ain't just Brooklyn; this stuff is right there in every religion's Bible.

  • Norm
    Norm
    Norm, it ain't just Brooklyn; this stuff is right there in every religion's Bible.

    I know, but using those examples and claim it show's impartiality is so incredibly dumb it hurts.
    Of course those who wrote it probably know the mental capacity of their audience. It is almost as I suspect
    that the person[s] who wrote this did so just to see how outrageously stupid such material can be and still get
    away with it. One other example I can think of was when they pronounced J. F. Rutherford "humble".

    Norm

  • frankiespeakin
    frankiespeakin

    It is the same type of impartiality the JWs use when reading the Bible. Jehovah is alway good no matter what evil he does because he's got rights as creator to torture anybody and anything that pisses him off and all a loyal jw can do is admire God's goodness in everything he does even if they don't understand it,,he a god of love and some times that love can burst at the seems when God unleashes his hot love upon all those lacking faith in him.

  • frankiespeakin
    frankiespeakin

    What really gets this impartial God pissed off is when you ignore him or don't beleive in him or that he's the greatest whatever . That really makes him pissed,,and he promises to impartially reward all such non beleivers with his wrath. So yes he is impartial to any that disobey him.

  • seeitallclearlynow
    seeitallclearlynow

    Yes, Norm - odd example of "impartiality". Jehovah was rarely impartial it seems. He was instead HIGHLY partial to the ones he chose to favor. Good essay!

    Also, side point:

    So the leading cause for Gods alleged impartiality was sucking up to Jehovah and become a traitor, or use lies, deceit and tricks to survive the Israeli killing machine.

    There seem to be a number of examples in the scriptures of various ones resorting to deceit in order to gain favor, who then received favor / blessings from Jehovah! It was always hard for me to grasp the "righteousness" of this - and Jehovah's demanding and threatening nature was a big turn off for me. Imagine how hard to "serve" this god for so long, never able to love such a personality!

    So glad to be aware now.

    Thanks so much for your post.

  • Greenpalmtreestillmine
    Greenpalmtreestillmine

    Norm,

    How would you expect or want God to act? Please, if you can, give us a synopsis of how you think God should deal with mankind not a "God should not do this or that" kind of thing but rather a proactive scenario of what you believe God should do with regard to man. How about this very day, today, January 10, 2005 what in your opinion should God be doing with regard to the earth?

    Thanks,

    Sabrina

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