i don’t understand how jehovah’s witnesses can rightly claim:.
that less than 150,000 faithful christians existed prior to the 20th century....when allegedly millions were martyred during the first 3 centuries of the common era alone.
unique ability to interpret scripture...when interpretation of prophecy has been 100% wrong for over 130 years.. .
obviously, the older “ anointed ” from 1914 died.
and because they were anointed, they hopefully went to heaven.
in the first century though, a newer generation did not replace the old.
@Fisherman,
You have the wrong generation altogether. In Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21, Jesus was not talking about anointed Christians, nor was he talking about a generation other than his own.
obviously, the older “ anointed ” from 1914 died.
and because they were anointed, they hopefully went to heaven.
in the first century though, a newer generation did not replace the old.
@ DJW
Sea Breeze asked
Why do you yearn for others to join you in naturalism?
I must say that you do seem to have a bee in your bonnet
So why don't you start your own thread on the wonders of naturalism instead of following Christians around and hijacking other people's threads just to discuss what you want to discuss?
gb worried about not enough coming to in person meetings.
what are they going to be like when they realise not only jdubs don’t want to go to in person meetings but they really don’t want to go back on the min.
zoom has so much more appeal for rather than meetings or door to door.
And to think that door to door evangelism was never commanded by Jesus Christ and probably never practiced by the Apostles.
being born-in and raised as one of jehovah's witnesses i remember a common theme or phrases used by the watchtower in its theory of why things are the way they are -.
jehovah created humans.
jehovah created humans as free moral agents.
Did I have a choice to respond to this thread? If everything is determined and there is no free choice, should we really be condemning anyone for their actions, good, bad or evil?
i don’t understand how jehovah’s witnesses can rightly claim:.
that less than 150,000 faithful christians existed prior to the 20th century....when allegedly millions were martyred during the first 3 centuries of the common era alone.
unique ability to interpret scripture...when interpretation of prophecy has been 100% wrong for over 130 years.. .
Thank you Earnest. I was not aware that they changed their teaching again on this invisible event. It is hard to keep up with all the changes.
But then again, it could be 1918 after all.
Why not between 1916 and 1943?
What they should say is...we were just speculating about 1878, then 1918 and now we realize we haven't a clue if anyone is in heaven at the moment.
Thanks again for the update.
i don’t understand how jehovah’s witnesses can rightly claim:.
that less than 150,000 faithful christians existed prior to the 20th century....when allegedly millions were martyred during the first 3 centuries of the common era alone.
unique ability to interpret scripture...when interpretation of prophecy has been 100% wrong for over 130 years.. .
Yes, the current teaching is that the Apostle Peter and the rest of the anointed who died were raised to heavenly life in the spring of 1918. Those of the anointed class who are still alive (almost 20,000 at last count) will join the saints in heaven when they die.
It is amazing what Watchtower knows without a shred of biblical evidence.
i don’t understand how jehovah’s witnesses can rightly claim:.
that less than 150,000 faithful christians existed prior to the 20th century....when allegedly millions were martyred during the first 3 centuries of the common era alone.
unique ability to interpret scripture...when interpretation of prophecy has been 100% wrong for over 130 years.. .
@ Fisherman
False. JW have erred in interpreting the year of the great tribulation but not in interpreting prophecy or scriptures relating to the time of the end
Your assertion that the WTS only got the date for the Great Tribulation wrong is false.
What about the date for the first resurrection?
"Why have Jehovah's Witnesses disfellowshipped for apostasy some who still profess belief in God, the Bible, and Jesus Christ? … Do we have Scriptural precedent for taking such a strict position? Indeed we do! Paul wrote about some in his day: "Their word will spread like gangrene. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of that number. These very men have deviated from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already occurred; and they are subverting the faith of some." (2 Timothy 2:17, 18; see also Matthew 18:6.) There is nothing to indicate that these men did not believe in God, in the Bible, in Jesus' sacrifice. Yet, on this one basic point, what they were teaching as to the time of the resurrection, Paul rightly branded them as apostates, with whom faithful Christians would not fellowship." Watchtower 1986 April 1 pp. 30, 31
So, Hymenaeus and Philetus were branded as apostates for teaching a wrong date for the resurrection.
Curiously though, for close to 50 years prior to 1927, the Watch Tower Society, based on certain eschatological calculations, taught that the first resurrection began in 1878.
“In 1878 the process of setting up the kingdom began. The Lord raised the sleeping saints. WT 6/1/1922, p.174”
“Our Lord's resurrection occurred three and a half years after his advent as the Messiah, in A.D. 29; and the resurrection of his body, the Church, we have seen, was due in the year 1878, three and a half years after his second advent, in October 1874." Thy Kingdom Come p. 305
It was only in 1927 that that the date for the first resurrection was changed to 1918
"One of the many enlightening truths that God now gave his witnesses was about the members of God's spiritual nation who had died physically. This was in 1927. In that year the witnesses understood that the dead spiritual Israelites had been raised in 1918 to life in heaven with Christ Jesus. It was an invisible resurrection, of course." From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained p.192
So WTS leaders classified Hymenaeus and Philetus as apostates for exactly the same error….promoting a false date for the resurrection of the saints which they committed for over 50 years.
To be fair, the only conclusion I can unhypocritically come to is that the Watchtower Organization is apostate along with Hymenaeus and Philetus.
i don’t understand how jehovah’s witnesses can rightly claim:.
that less than 150,000 faithful christians existed prior to the 20th century....when allegedly millions were martyred during the first 3 centuries of the common era alone.
unique ability to interpret scripture...when interpretation of prophecy has been 100% wrong for over 130 years.. .
Fisherman,
Do you admit that the Watchtower is guilty of prophetic speculation?
If not consider the hype around 1925 and the millions campaign and who was guilty for this obvious speculation.
1922 “We have no doubt whatever in regard to the chronology relating to the dates of 1874, 1914, 1918, and 1925. It was on this line of reckoning that the dates 1874, 1914, and 1918 were located; and the Lord has placed the stamp of his seal upon 1914 and 1918 beyond any possibility of erasure. What further evidence do we need? Using this same measuring line…. it is an easy matter to locate 1925, probably in the fall, for the beginning of the antitypical jubilee. There can be no more question about 1925 than there was about 1914.” (Watchtower, p. 150, May 15, 1922)
1922 “This chronology is not of man, but of God. Being of divine origin and divinely corroborated, present-truth chronology stands in a class by itself, absolutely and unqualifiedly correct….” (Watchtower, July 15, 1922 p. 217)
1922 ‘1914 ended the Gentile Times…The date 1925 is even more distinctly indicated by the Scriptures…by then the great crisis will be reached and probably passed’ (Watchtower Sept. 1, 1922, p. 262)
1923 ‘1925 is definitely settled by the Scriptures…the Christian has much more upon which to base his faith than Noah had (so far as the Scriptures reveal) upon which to base his faith in the coming deluge’ (Watchtower April 1, 1923, p. 106)
1924 “No doubt many boys and girls who read this book will live to see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Daniel, and those other men of old come forth in the glory of their better resurrection, of perfect in mind and body. It will not take long for Christ to appoint them to their post of honor and authority as his earthly representatives. The world and all the present conveniences will seen strange to them at first, but they will soon become accustomed to the new methods. They may have some amusing experiences at first; for they never saw telephones, radios, automobiles, electric lights, aeroplanes, steam engines, and many other things so familiar to us. (The Way To Paradise, 1924, p. 226)
1924 “Surely there is not the slightest room for doubt in the mind of a truly consecrated child of God that the Lord Jesus is present and has been since 1874.” (Watchtower, Jan. 1, 1924, p5)
1924 “The year 1925 is a date definitely and clearly marked in Scriptures, even more clearly than that of 1914. (Watchtower 1924, p. 211)
1925 “It is to be expected that Satan will try to inject into the minds of the consecrated, the thought that 1925 should see an end to the work.” (Watchtower, Sept. 1925, p. 262)
1925 “The difficulty was that the friends inflated their imaginations beyond reason; and that when their imaginations burst asunder, they were inclined to throw away everything.” (Watchtower 1925, p. 56)
1925 “The year 1925 is here. With great expectation Christians have looked forward to this year. Many have confidently expected that all members of the body of Christ will be changed to heavenly glory during this year. This may be accomplished. It may not be. In his own due time God will accomplish his purposes concerning his people. Christians should not be so deeply concerned about what may transpire this year.” (Watchtower, Jan. 1, 1925, p. 3)
1926 “Some anticipated that the work would end in 1925, but the Lord did not state so. The difficulty was that the friends inflated their imaginations beyond reason; and that when their imaginations burst asunder, they were inclined to throw away everything.” (Watchtower 1926 p. 232.)
JWs were told that they would be able to call Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Jerusalem in 1926 and ask that Granny be raised. And they were encouraged to add on an extra room or two to accommodate the new arrivals.
i don’t understand how jehovah’s witnesses can rightly claim:.
that less than 150,000 faithful christians existed prior to the 20th century....when allegedly millions were martyred during the first 3 centuries of the common era alone.
unique ability to interpret scripture...when interpretation of prophecy has been 100% wrong for over 130 years.. .
Talking about interpretation. Here is another one to add to the list
I don't understand how anyone can legitimately say
That the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses is biblical when every doctrine which is original and unique to Jehovah's Witnesses is extra-biblical.
Every last unique doctrine is established by eisegesis not exegesis.
