some watchtower interpretations are speculative,.
a very few are arguable,.
and many are just stupid and specious.. perhaps the most stupid and specious interpretation.
If the WT gives up on the FDS teaching...they will cease to exist.
The only thing that keeps people in is the twisted idea that they
have the only direct line to Jehovah. To keep people buying into
that they have to continue to give them a shot of `fear` (notice
the theme of this years assembly?)
If they stepped down from the pedestal of being God`s oracle, who
would stick around waiting for new light?
JWD
some watchtower interpretations are speculative,.
a very few are arguable,.
and many are just stupid and specious.. perhaps the most stupid and specious interpretation.
You no doubt realize that ALL new religions have a very similar
teaching. They need some biblical basis for being the sole bearers
of THE TRUTH. Once they`ve convinced believers that they are THAT
SPECIAL ONE, it really doesn`t matter what they do or teach.
I`ve flirted with the idea of coming up with a similar teaching
myself. I`d use the section in John 10 where it talks about the
`gate keeper`, the one who opens the gate to the fold so that Christ`s
sheep can come and go. I would say, `No I`m no the Christ, I`m just
his humble servant... the gate keeper.` Thus if anyone wants to reach
Christ they need me to open the gate for them.` I could go on to say
that there has been one gate keeper in every generation and I am the
present one. Sure, at first only a few would believe me, so I`d tell
them that was because they were specially chosen. Then as the number
of believers grew I would point ot the growth and say that was proof
that this was the truth. See how it works...
Okay, who wants to be my first followers?
Remember what Jesus said in Luke 21, `Many will come saying the
time is at hand and I AM HE. Don`t follow after them!!` JWD
i have posted some of the following info in various other threads i`ve.
started which touch on the matter of jws in japan.however,people continue to ask me `why japanese become jws?`,so i thought i`d put.
down a few of my observations for anyone who might be interested.. as you may or may not have noticed,japan has(had) the fifth largest number of jws in the world.
Tattogirl,
Most Japanese `freak-out` when they find out that one of their
family members is studying with the JWs. There are many reasons for
this. For one, the JW religion is viewed as being quite anti-social.
In other words, JWs will make decisions regardless of what friends
and family think. That means they cut across the grain and cause
friction. Certainly there are times when going against the flow and
doing what is right is necessary and good. However, in the JWs case
they carry it to an extreme. i.e.no birthdays, no holidays, no blood,
no voting, very little involvement in community life, leaving work
early to attend meetings, taking off work days to go to conventions
regardless of how busy their company might be, very negative stance
towards higher education,etc. They also have a high divorce rate in
Japan and are considered to be `anti-family`.
Here`s a common scenario. A housewife starts to study at home without
her husband knowing about it. He comes home late from work anyway.
Then one day when he comes home he finds that his wife has left a
note saying, ` she`s gone to a meeting and will be back about 9 p.m.
It says his lunch is in the frig. `. This takes him completely by
surprise so when she comes home he asks where she was. When she says
she was at a Kingdom Hall, he is shocked and tells her to stop going.
She was warned that there would be opposition and feels his attitude
is a `fulfillment of the WT prophecy`. She had felt a little guilty
about hiding the fact that she was studying with the JWs, but when she
meets opposition she feels hurt and justified in studying. From then
on they fight every Tuesday , Friday and Sunday when there are meetings. The husband calls her parents and the family gets together
to try to make her quit. By this time, the sister studying with her
has loaded her up with verses about persecution so she is thoroughly
convinced that she is suffering for the `Truth`. It no longer matters
what the WT teaches and she begins to forget her own original doubts.
Now it`s merely a matter of `survival`. After several years of this
domestic tension, the husband begins to give up. He purposely stays
late after work on the nights there are meetings. He feels very resent
-full towards his wife for not listening to him. He may even begin an
affair as a way of `getting back at her`. As their children get older
another round of strife begins. This time it`s the issue of college.
The father wants to send his son to college, the mother wants him to
skip college and become a full time pioneer. The battle rages on and
if the son has been faithful at meetings he sides with his mother and
skips college. The father is devastated and gives up. He seeks a
divorce.
Various versions of the above have been repeated countless times all
over Japan. One of the nation-wide newspapers ran an article which
told about how high the divorce rate is for JWs. And so it goes.
Perhaps that will help you understand why your mother reacted as she
did.
JWD
i have posted some of the following info in various other threads i`ve.
started which touch on the matter of jws in japan.however,people continue to ask me `why japanese become jws?`,so i thought i`d put.
down a few of my observations for anyone who might be interested.. as you may or may not have noticed,japan has(had) the fifth largest number of jws in the world.
Japan is a nation which traditionally is made up of villages.The
culture of the village is one where trust relationships are built
slowly, but once they`re in place there is a strong tendancy towards
blind loyalty.This same dynamic applies to ALL areas of life,from
buying a car to religion.When people make a decision, it tends to
be based more on trust towards the person recommending the step
rather than concrete,objective analysis of the merit of their
choice. For the Japanese JWs, that means strong loyalty ties to
those in their congregation, but not necessarily a great amount of
knowledge of the WT teaching.I never cease to be amazed at how
little `doctrine` many Witnesses have a handle on despite having been in the organization for a relatively long time. I`ve met sisters who`ve been JWs for over ten years and even pioneered much of the time and still don`t have a very good handle on the WT teaching!! Makes you wonder what they are telling people in FS. Actually the answer is that they are parroting pat phrases which have been drilled into them and using the `friendship` dynamics to actually get people in the org. The upshot of all that is a fairly ignorant JW population
which shows blind loyalty to the org. mainly based on a strong
commitment to the JWs around them in their congregation.Also there
is a strong tendancy for them to become inactive after moving to
a new area and joining a new congregations where they don`t have
those personal ties and are viewed as an outsider. JWD
i have posted some of the following info in various other threads i`ve.
started which touch on the matter of jws in japan.however,people continue to ask me `why japanese become jws?`,so i thought i`d put.
down a few of my observations for anyone who might be interested.. as you may or may not have noticed,japan has(had) the fifth largest number of jws in the world.
Fredhall,
Thanks for reading my thread. By the way, what is that picture along
with your signiture?
JWD
for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.
is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.
of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.
Don`t know if I mentioned it but Ray Franz`s book ,`Crises of Conscience` came out in Japanese earlier this year. It`s selling
slowly but steadily.Due to the nature of the content it took some
time to complete the translation.It was particularily difficult to
get the older WT publications in Japanese.The oldest ones I`ve seen
are some of Rutherford`s books.It`s rumored that Russell`s Studies
do exist in Japanese, but they would be as rare as hen`s teeth.So,
some of the photo copies had to be put in in English together with
a partial translation into Japanese.
Steven Hassen`s, `Combatting Cult Mind Control` has sold over
2 million copies in Japanese. One other book that made some waves is
a book entitled , `Jehovah`s Witnesses and Mind Control`.It came out
in 1994 and has sold nearly 20,000 copies.It`s caused quite a few
waves.Talking to the author I found out that he had gotten a death
threat from an apparent JW. He turned in a copy of it to the local
police in the Tokyo area to be kept on file in case anything should
happen to him or his family.
The video, `Battling over the Children` dealing with JWs and child
custody cases is in Japanese. The Japanese title is `Chisana Higaisha`
which literally means `the little victims`.
If anybody needs any publications,videos etc. in Japanese,let me know.I have access to most anything, both pro and con. JWD
over the last ten years or so i`ve seen and heard things which when.
looked at objectively can only be termed `craziness`.however, in some.
cases these episodes of craziness might be viewed as wonderful testimonies to a strong commitment to jahovah.
The name of the game in the Watchtower maze is definitely CONTROL.
And they are loathe to give up control even when someone opts out of
their little kingdom.
A friend of ours,sister`Y`,sent in her letter of disassociation.
Shortly thereafter she approached a `study` and tried to explain what
she found out about the WT and why she left.She then received a visit
from her former elder telling her that `You know that apostates aren`t
allowed to speak to those in the truth, so abide by the rules!` What
the nerve!! She`s out, but he`s talking to her like she still has to
play by their rules!! When I heard about it, it was beyond belief that
the elder thought his game of control continued EVEN AFTER PEOPLE
LEAVE... More craziness...
On other occasions I`ve known elders to go to someone who has left
and demand that they return some item. For example the NO BLOOD card,
the pioneer ID card and even on one occasion the book Reasoning from
the Scriptures. Several ex-JWs say they felt intimidated by the elders
demands despite the fact that they were already out of the dark
castle called the Watchtower. Just lots of Craziness if you ask me...
JWD
for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.
is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.
of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.
Don`t remember if I mentioned it or not, but a branch of the Japanese
police force which is charged with maintaining `public order` has
developed a task force which keeps an eye on cults. The branch is
called the `Koan` (literally `public safety`). One of the groups on
their list is the Watchtower. The Koan regularily sends detectives
around to various people who are known to counsel Jehovah`s Witnesses
and asks for information on any recent changes or new movements within
the WT. They collect that information and analyze it.
The Bethel headquarters here is very aware of whats going on and issued a directive to all elders not to co-operate with the Koan.
There is an extremely heightened awareness with regards to image and
legal matters. A while ago I talked with an elder from Chiba near
Tokyo and mentioned that a certain letter to the elders listed the
name of an individual who was considered very damaging to the WT.The
elder was very quick to point out that `individual`s names` were
never specifically printed in those letters. After arriving home I
pulled out my copy of the letter and re-checked it and sure enough it
listed his location, but not his name. Naturally, everyone who knows
anything knows who it was refering to. So, apparently commiting
actual names to print is avoided in view of future legal reprecussions. JWD
over the last ten years or so i`ve seen and heard things which when.
looked at objectively can only be termed `craziness`.however, in some.
cases these episodes of craziness might be viewed as wonderful testimonies to a strong commitment to jahovah.
JAVA, are you a coffee lover? I am. Here in Japan they have some pretty good coffee. They go in for a lighter roast, but tend to get
the highest quality beans from all over the world. A cup of coffee
(no refills) at a coffee shop will generally run anywhere from $3 to
$5 a cup. The more spendy places might go as high as $8. Starbucks
has swept into Japan and become quite the rage. They`ve opened 200
shops around the country and are going for 500. There is a French
super market called Carrefure nearby with a Starbucks. Sitting there
drinking coffee makes you wonder what country you`re in.
Now for the more crazy ones. The sister`H` which I mentioned earlier
who burned her husband`s `apostate` literature told her husband one
day that she was praying asking Jehovah to destroy him. Shortly after
that the husband was diagnosed with cancer. He died last Fall. I visited the house the day he died and was overwhelmed by the LACK of
any emotion.No tears.No actual recognition that any thing had even
happened. They have 5 kids and only one is out of the org. She was
the only one there that showed any sign of `human-ness`.She cried,
talked about her father affectionately and was polite towards me.
The rest of the family sat around eating and making small-talk. It
was just weird !
Sister `D` DA`d and tried to tell her daughter what she had found
out about the org. The daughter refused to listen, refused to eat
anything her mother made, refused to let her mother touch her laundry,
and finally told her mother she would `laugh when Jehovah destroys you
at Armaggedon!`.The daughter then left home (she was still in high
school) and has been `missing` for 4 years.The mother and daughter
were very close before the mother left the org.
The org. succeeds in destroying natural human emotions, feelings of
affection towards those you would normally love. JWD
over the last ten years or so i`ve seen and heard things which when.
looked at objectively can only be termed `craziness`.however, in some.
cases these episodes of craziness might be viewed as wonderful testimonies to a strong commitment to jahovah.
Early one January I was shopping at a local supermarket and when I
went to the check-out I noticed that a sister who I know was working
the register. When I stepped up to the register to pay for my stuff
she looked up at me and seeing who I was got that `terrified` look in
her face that JWs get when they see someone they aren`t supposed to
associate with. I decided to try to be as normal as possible and since
it was still the first part of January for the sake of making some
small talk I asked her, `So, did you have an enjoyable New Years?`.
Well, she was in panic mode and blurted out , `I don`t get involved
in idolatry!!` To which I said,`Neither do I. I was just wondering
how you spent the end of the year vacation.` Realizing what she said
she just looked down and ignored me. More craziness....
Japanese JWs have their own unique set of taboos. One such taboo is
not being able to wear black at a funeral. The reasoning is that someone might get the impression that you were involved in ancestor
worship.If you`ve ever lived in Japan you know that Japanese wear
black clothing to many special occasions i.e.weddings,graduations,
piano recitals as well as funerals. Naturally, the prohibition is
only with regards to funerals.So, black is okay anywhere EXCEPT
funerals.
Another unique prohibition is the calling of church pastors `sensei`. The fact that Christian church members call their pastor
`sensei` is viewed as a proof that Christendom is wrong since the
Bible say ,`You shouldn`t call anyone teacher(rabbi)`.The equivalent
of that is the word `sensei`.Here again is another major inconsistency due to the fact that the term `sensei` is used for
school teachers and doctors as well. The JW himself(herself) is
allowed to use the term when refering to anyone EXCEPT pastors.
It`s just more craziness.... JWD
