This does not include one who prooves a teaching to be inaccurate, correct?
Ah, but you see, Jehovah's Witnesses have "The Truth" -- says so right on the label. 100% pure truth. So, clearly, anything that disagrees with that truth, must be falsehood and therefore apostasy. Unless of course it actually comes from the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, in which case it is instead called "new light", and the "old light" is thereafter considered apostasy.
So, if you were a JW in the 1940's and you just stood there without ever changing your beliefs, you would have gone from strong brother in the congregation to apostate without changing a thing.
You'd think so, but it turns out that only the dozen or so men holed up in Brooklyn have "The Truth". God himself is somewhat excluded in the deal, since it is his word they keep using as a basis for their "Truth", even when it contradicts the "Truth" of yesteryear.
(Dude, I'm being facetious. JW's are as truthless as a religion comes. Most people on this board are ex-JW's.)
You'd think so, but it turns out that only the dozen or so men holed up in Brooklyn have "The Truth". God himself is somewhat excluded in the deal, since it is his word they keep using as a basis for their "Truth", even when it contradicts the "Truth" of yesteryear.
(Dude, I'm being facetious. JW's are as truthless as a religion comes. Most people on this board are ex-JW's.)
New Light - thanks Satanus, you win the prize! Interesting that it doesn't have the meaning Watchtower gives to it. And as others have observed, Prov 4:18 does not use the term new light, nor does it even support the existence of any such doctrine as taught by WTS.
Paradise Earth - Not only do the words not appear, but I haven't yet found any support for the doctrine. I think JWs make the mistake of confusing the concept of paradise with the millennial earth. The Bible teaches that paradise is in heaven, not earth. In 2 Cor 12:2 Paul speaks about being caught up into the third heaven, then in verse 4 he says he was caught up into paradise. Revelation 2:7 refers to the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God, and in Revelation 22 the description of heaven mentions the tree of life three times (verse 2, 14 and 19). It is clear that paradise is synonomous with heaven.
Apostate - Thanks to the references, especially 2 Thessalonians 2:3; Luke 8:13; 1 Timothy 4:1; Hebrews 3:12. As I thought, none of these give the meaning to the word apostasy that WTS does. So can we conclude that although apostasy is a scriptural term, and can be applied to a great revolt (2 Thess 2:3) it does not have the meaning that the Watchtower teaching now gives. Nothing to do with questioning some of the congregational leadership's teachings.