Is everybody clear on that? Good. Moving on.....
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2014 Watchtower Library CD (very discreetly) changed the Insight article on Faithful and Discreet Slave
by Gilgamesh 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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stuckinarut2
So let me get this straight...
They have deliberately changed the content...and tried to just pass it off like it was always that way in the older material?
That is called being "deceitful"! Correct?
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Village Idiot
They did the same thing with the Watchtower article that stated the end would come by the year 2,000. The bound volume version changed the word 2,000 to before our "lifetime". -
Gilgamesh
In the past, like V.I. said, they changed the Watchtower from January 1, 1989 that said:
"The apostle Paul was spearheading the Christian missionary activity. He was also laying a foundation for a work that would be completed in our 20th century."
The bound volume, printed about 13 months later, said:
"The apostle Paul was spearheading the Christian missionary activity. He was also laying a foundation fora work that would be completed in our day."
They must have figured out they were going to change it (rather than address it as a mistake) before October of that same year, because they were already addressing questions about it, without admitting that the January 1, 1989 Watchtower was wrong. Here's what they said in the October 1, 1989 Watchtower:
"We have ample reasons to expect that this preaching will be completed in our time. Does that mean before the turn of a new month, a new year,a new decade, a new century? No human knows.. . . "
Unfortunately for the Watch Tower Society, these weren't the only references to the end of the 20th century. But they caught this one "in time" because someone must have pointed out that it was the same as date-setting to the year 2000.
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For this particular issue about the FDS, the real problem is the March 15, 2015 Watchtower. There will be innocent questions about why other parables are not prophetic and this one is still considered prophetic. The old Insight article gave every reason to think of it as non-prophetic. Those reasons had to go.
I don't know if this was the first change in a series of expected changes for Insight, but I'd guess that it is. I have a feeling they are already in the midst of updating those volumes anyway because of the revised 2013 NWT. The 2013 NWT is the reason they are giving for updating the songbook, even though songs don't require direct quotations. If anyone questions something like the Insight FDS issue, they can merely highlight the value of the Watchtower Online Library at wol.jw.org. (WOL)
In fact, I think that the WOL is the reason for updating the songbook, too, not just that they wanted to have some extra marketing hype over an otherwise meaningless 2014 Centennial. The WOL becomes the new constant reminder that the "celestial chariot" is moving too fast for even the presses to keep up with.
Ultimately, I believe that the Watchtower Library CD (that takes Watchtowers back to 1950, and includes most other items back to 1970) will be made more difficult for average Witnesses to get hold of and the focus will be on availability of the WOL (that only goes back to the year 2000 for most items, and one or two books that precede it). The Insight volumes are the oldest books available on WOL going back to 1988. Now that they are adding pictures to the CD in the 2014 version, this might also become a reason to turn the CD into an offline version of the WOL which also becomes another way to remove the pre-2000 material.
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Pookigirle
I want to know who the heck is supposed to partake at the memorial? If they have not been selected yet........why were they the only ones participating in the Memorial? Am I understanding this correctly? -
Gilgamesh
I don't think I get your question, Pookigirle. -
EndofMysteries
Marked. In the Jehovahs Witness green book they use many similar tactics on the history. For example Rutherford taught there was no holy spirit, his whole life he taught no holy spirit since Jesus returned and was ruling through him/headquarters, etc. But the Jehovah's Witness history book makes it seem like holy spirit teaching has always been as it is today.