A number of you like to speculate, 'reading between the lines'
of some Watchtower article, wondering what reality hides behind
the starkness of black ink on white paper.
In one recent case, that hidden reality is sad, indeed.
Take a good look at a particular contrast. First, a quote from
the 'Truth' book, paragraph 4 of the chapter 'How to Identify
The True Religion':
"The Bible tells us that 'God is love'. In harmony with this,
Jesus showed that the most outstanding mark of those who follow
his example in worshiping God is that they would have love among
themselves.[phrase in italics] He said: "By this all will know
that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves."
(1 John 4:8; John 13:35)... It must be love that deeply affects
every aspect of one's daily living. It should influence how one
treats the other members of one's household....Do the religious
organizations with which you have been acquainted have this mark
of identification?".
So, in 1968, of all the arguements in favor of Jehovah's Witnesses,
LOVE WAS PUT FIRST! All other main points came afterward - read the
Truth book for yourself, if you think otherwise.
Fast forward to June 1, 2001 - look at the article "If God is For
Us, Who Will Be Against Us?".
Look at how they identify 'the true religion' now!
In order:
1) "fruitage" of true religion
2)use of Bible
3) God's name
4) joy (oh, boy, pass me the prozac, sister!)
5) Bible principles
6) organized like 1st cen. Christians.
7)Neutrality
8) Impartiality
9)persecution
Where did the former #1 identifying 'mark of true worship' go?
It got put in as kind of a minor point under number 8, NEXT TO
LAST!!!!!!!
How did this happen? How did such dramatic words out of Christ's
mouth end up given so little emphasis - remember, he said "by this,
all will know...". How did this most important quality end up
seemingly almost forgotten?
Because it is almost forgotten.
The organization has to be pushed, forced by public shame to
reform its response to child molestors. AND MORE THAN THAT,
in common occurrence, love among Witnesses doesn't appear as
anything spectacular or notable. You say "Witnesses don't kill
each other" -- how wonderful! Outside of third world countries,
what is this supposed to prove? I see MANY churches rally together
for a member who's sick - I know a large Witness family where
a brother needed a kidney transplant - he got one - not from any
compatible Witness but from a brother who 'faded away' years ago!
Remember how "hospitality" was emphasized as a requirement for
elders years ago? Another bit of 'love among yourselves' filed
away and largely forgotten..
The Society wrote this 'identifying the true religion' article
this way because.....
They KNOW!
They know how this precious quality has ebbed away in the organization
and so, DE-EMPHASIZE IT!
And that's sad
because in the end,
when all the scandal is done,
when all the doctrines are undermined,
it would be the one thing that would save them.
so be it,
metatron