by VM44 30 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Good quotes mineralogist....all they can say is "it seems likely"....which means they have no facts, evidence, or proof......just speculation.
Most of The Watchotwer doctrines and beliefs are the result of speculation....strange, didn't they even write once that people should "shun speculators"?
Maybe we should all take The Watchtower's advice and apply it to them!
--VM44
Just want to keep our evaluation fair...As for the comment that the Bible Students in 1918
Believed in Trinity,immortality of the soul and hellfire.
This is not correct. Russell's first doctrines (influenced by Adventists) were in fact rejection of immortal soul, hellfire, and eventually the Trinity, the last of which contributed to his fallout with N. Barbour.
But the Bible Students DID participate in Birthday celebrations, holidays, did not prohibit going to war, worshipped Jesus, smoked, used the cross symbol, voted and could take part in government, etc.
This is besides the fact that the WT leaders were spewing tons of completely false predictions.
VM,
You are right when you say that what they teach is based on speculation. I was of that opinion way back when but I kept my feelings to myself. The way I see it is: they make an assumption and on that assumption they make other assumptions, and so on and so on.
Kind of like a house of cards.
Furthermore, the book Blondie quoted from says:
Revelation Climax chap. 2 p. 9 The Grand Theme of the Bible ******
It is not claimed that the explanations in this publication are infallible. So are they admitting this might not have happened?
If the "temple" which was inspected consisted of those associated with the Society ("the anointed"), then the application should remain with that group. To extend the application to all the churches of Christendom introduces inconsistency into the picture.
I believe, however, that Rutherford was looking for a way to distinguish his presidency from the Russell era and needed to find a prophecy in order to do so. In this he was never quite successful. Rutherford would have liked to put the original Bible Student movement in a class with the churches, and to have claimed that the one group was selected out when he became president. But to make this claim more emphatically, he would need to deny the foundation on which he himself was building. He also wanted his own people to believe that they (as "the anointed") had achieved a status which was never held by those Bible Students who had left the Society - that these independent Bible Students could never achieve the insights of those who had been united in the "temple." As more of Rutherford's works become available we may see that many of his statements regarding the "temple" and its judgment were inconsistent.
nice ponts, Justin.
One thing I never quite understood was why Jesus would supposedly need to bother inspecting all the churches if none of them contained "his anointed brothers" anyway...
One thing I never quite understood was why Jesus would supposedly need to bother inspecting all the churches if none of them contained "his anointed brothers" anyway...
That's why you can't have the "mind of christ the org collective"
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If you can get someone to believe something like that "doctrine", they're gonners - you could tell them anything - they've lost their minds.
At the time I became associated with the Jehovah's Witnesses the pattern of TYPE and later ANTITYPE was prevalent in the books and articles of the magazine.
I think we can thank Freddy Franz and J.F.Rutherford for the proliferation of that parallelism run rampant.
If any Bible character did something they didn't just do it because they wanted to get it done.
Nooooooo. It went much deeper.
1.Every character in the Bible represented a GREATER so-and-so. This GREATER person came later and was usually either Jesus or Jehovah. The ancient character was a "shadow" of things to come, you see.
2.Every incident of purpose had a GREATER FULFILLMENT. Just as so-and-so did X the GREATER so-and-so did Y. When on a roll, Franz and Rutherford could even generate a THIRD fulfillment in our own time!
3.Russell set the pattern and the Greater Russell (Rutherford, Knorr, etc.) let it rip with invested meaning and portency.
Individuals could conveniently change character and become part of a TYPE that was a GROUP. The faithful and wise servant became a CLASS of people and not an individual.
Of course, they went wild with that too.
Jews weren't decendants of flesh and blood families from Abraham's loins, but, gentiles who became SPIRITUAL jews (thus cheating actual Jews out of their birthright just like actual bible characters cheated each other). It was a beautiful device!
With this elastic mechanism of hyperbole Watchtower articles could turn anyone or anything into anything necessary to make some point, fulfill some promise, complete a prophecy or explain a deep verse of scripture.
Has anybody noticed that the TYPE and ANTITYPE routine seemed to evaporate? Hmmmm.
What do you suppose that means? It became the target of critics and was laughable to actual scholars. Their theology was easy to ridicule and could not be propped up in response. So, it faded.
Today, the Governing Body relies on the outrageous assertion of PERSONAL AUTHORITY to hold people's feet to the fire. Explanations don't need proof anymore; just threats will do the same trick. Requires less brain power anyway.
Terry
It was interesting for me to read the Writings of Russell and then Rutherford and then Franz and Knorr. (I'm not very sure Knorr ever actually wrote anything.) Look up and read about the test of the coal. Think what that means. There was a pretty radicle change in the Watchtower magazine in the months after Rutherford died. Start reading in 1940 through 1946.
My take on the inspection, explanation of the loss of the publishing business, the appointment, and the 7 trumpets was all an attempt by Rutherford's successors to reconcile all Rutherford had done and written. Of course they had to omit volumes to make anything at all acceptable out of it. All Rutherford produced was confusion and Knorr and Franz built on that.
Actually Knorr and Franz borrowed back side strategy from the Advent Christians. Their history is almost required reading to understand the Jehovah's Witnesses. None of the explanations used by the Witnesses are original to them, all borrowed from the Advent movement. Unlike the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Adventists don't hide their history and their historical writings are still in print over 150 years later. It's all fascinating to me.
Actually Knorr and Franz borrowed back side strategy from the Advent Christians. Their history is almost required reading to understand the Jehovah's Witnesses. None of the explanations used by the Witnesses are original to them, all borrowed from the Advent movement. Unlike the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Adventists don't hide their history and their historical writings are still in print over 150 years later. It's all fascinating to me
The STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES are the real gem. I think the Society has mined them over and over for ideas.
T.
