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B. J. Kotwall (Investigator 63, 1998
November)
We Want Total Compliance The article Living up to Christian Dedication in Freedom in TheWatchtower (WT) of March 15, 1998 says that the liberal Watchtower Society (WTS) allows freedom of choice to Jehovah's Witnesses (J Ws) as "free moral agents". Disfellowshipping
offenses among J Ws include
accepting and donating blood for transfusions, political activity,
performing
military duty, smoking, voting in elections, and questioning WTS
doctrines.
Let's look at what the WTS demands of members: Approved
association
with Jehovah's Witnesses
requires accepting the entire range of the true
teachings of the Bible, including those Scriptural beliefs that are unique to Jehovah's Witnesses... Following such Scriptural patterns, if a Christian (who claims belief in God, the Bible, and Jesus) unrepentantly promotes false teachings, it may be necessary for him to be expelled from the congregation. (WT 1986 April l, pp. 30-31) (Underlining added) To please God, then, one's religion must be in full harmony with the Bible and be applied in every activity of life. – Luke 6:46-49 (The Truth that Leads to Eternal Life 1981 pp. 15, 130)
The March 15 Watchtower says: A Christian follows
his Bible-trained
conscience and relies on God's direction by holy spirit... as a
free moral agent each one has personally decided... to
remain
politically neutral, to abstain from blood, to avoid certain types of
entertainment... These
decisions are not forced upon them. They are decisions
that fall within the framework of a way of life freely chosen by potential Jehovah's Witnesses... (p. 20) (Underlining added) This WTS claim is
extremely
dubious. When children
in a school get identical wrong answers in a test the teacher knows
they
cheated and copied from each other.
If millions of J Ws all get
identical
"wrong answers" then they DID NOT "personally" arrive at them
from
the Bible, the "spirit" or "as free moral agents"!
Previous Investigator
articles have
exposed hundreds of discarded WTS teachings including 26 dates on which
their prophecies failed. (Investigator 56) To get cooperation in
promoting
hundreds of errors and have everyone immediately step into line after
every
revision is proof not of freedom but of control.
We Will Disfellowship Them If They Don't Comply Rejecting
blood
transfusion is forced upon
J Ws by explicit command and under threat of disfellowshipping:
The assertion in the March 15 WT that "political neutrality" is a matter of conscience is also false. WTS publications are clear about maintaining strict "political neutrality": What
identifies
Jehovah's Witnesses as
God's people? First, they accept the entire Bible as God's
Word. (2 Timothy 3:16) Second, they are politically neutral. (WT 1994 June 1, p. 27)
Since the Bible
says
that true Christians
are to be "no part of the world," Jehovah's Witnesses stayed
politically
neutral, a stand taken by Witnesses the world over. John 17:16.
(WT 1989 August 15. pp. 22-23)
And during the
years
of
World War II when
nationalism was rampant, and one who did not line up politically was
viewed
as a hater of mankind, who were the ones to hold faithfully to the Word
of God
and remain neutral? Jehovah's Christian witnesses! (WT 1976 August l, p. 471)
Witnesses'
fundamental
Bible-based beliefs.
These are: (1) Jehovah God is the Supreme Sovereign.
(2) True Christians are politically neutral... (WT 1995 August 22 p. 4) The above quotations expose the following statements in the March 15 WT as misleading: Some may have
been
told that Jehovah's
Witnesses belong to a religious organization that enslaves
its members, exercises authoritarian control over them, unduly restricts their freedom, and throws them out of society as a whole. (p. 11) Having made the truth his own, a Christian follows his Bible trained conscience and relies on God's direction by holy spirit. (p. 20) (Underlining added)
All J Ws are required to complete a Field Service Report Slip of time spent going door to door and conducting so-called Home Bible Studies. (Organized to Accomplish Our Ministry 1983 pp. 100-108) The March 15 WT says: Does the
position of
oversight that the
Scriptures assign the Governing Body mean that each of Jehovah's
Witnesses
must render to it an account of his works? Not according to Paul's
words
to Christians in Rome… (p.
21)
However, the subsequent paragraph says J Ws must report their preaching activity: ...the purpose
of
this
(reporting of preaching
activity) is clearly explained in a Witness handbook which says: "Early
followers of Jesus Christ took interest in reports of progress in the
preaching
work..." (p. 21)
The Bible Teaches Everything
– Not The Society
The WTS advises J Ws: Instead of
saying
"the
Society teaches"
many Witnesses prefer to use such expressions as, "the Bible says" or,
"I understand the Bible to teach." In this way they emphasize the
personal
decision that each Witness has made in accepting Bible teachings and
also
avoid the false impression that Witnesses are somehow bound to the
dictates
of some religious sect. (March 15 p. 19)
That this
"personal
decision" claim is false
is proven – as argued above – by the way millions of J Ws unitedly keep
in
step with the WTS whenever it changes its doctrines and also by the WTS
claim that its books are necessary to understand the Bible:
The Bible Inadequate. WTS Publications Essential For a century the WTS has taught that the Bible cannot be understood without the WTS publications: …if he then
lays
them
[the WTS books] aside
and ignores them and goes to the Bible alone, though
he has understood his Bible for ten years, our experience shows that within two years he goes into darkness. (WT 1910 September 15 p. 298) God has not
arranged
for
the Word to speak
independently or to shine forth life-giving truths by itself.
It is through his organization God provides this light ... The world is full of Bibles... Why then do the people not know which way to go? Because they do not also have the teaching or law of the mother, which is light. (WT 1957 May l, p. 274)
Unless we are in
touch
with this channel
of communication that God is using, we will not progress along the road
to life, no matter how much Bible reading we do.
(WT 1981 December 1, p. 27)
Reading the
Bible does
not in itself guarantee
that a person can properly use the information gained, Justifying Doctrinal Drivel Using The Bible Since J Ws are
supposed
to say "The Bible
says..." how will they defend numerous ludicrous beliefs? For example:
1 The WTS
teaches that
Jehovah closed the
heavenly calling to new converts in 1935 and then started gathering a
secondary
crowd of believers to live forever on earth! 2 The men of
the
Governing Body of the WTS
in New York represent the "faithful and discreet slave" of Matthew
24:45-47! 3 Deceased
anointed J
W
elders who are in
heaven communicate "truth" to the Governing Body! 4 Jesus came
invisibly
in 1914 and appointed
the WTS in 1919 to be in charge of Christ's earthly Kingdom interests! 5 The book of
Revelation
in the Bible reflects
proceedings of WTS assemblies in the 1920s!
(Revelation – Its Grand Climax at Hand 1988 pp. 134, 140, 173; WT 1990 April l, p. 31)
6 Quote: "Does the admission of making mistakes stamp them [J Ws and the WTS] as false prophets? Not at all, for false prophets do not admit to making mistakes."7 Quote: "...if
the
wicked system of this
world survived until the turn of the century, which is highly
improbable
in view of world trends and the fulfillment of Bible prophecy, there would still be survivors of the World War I generation. However, the fact that their number is dwindling is one more indication that "the conclusion of the system of things" is moving fast toward its end." (WT 1980 October 15, p. 31) Bible Verses Distorted
l Corinthians 1:10 in the WTS's New World Translation reads: Now I exhort
you,
brothers, through the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you should all speak in agreement,
and
that there should not be divisions among you, but that you may be fitly
united in the
same mind and in the same line of thought. The WTS uses this
verse
to
keep J Ws in line
and deter them from questioning WTS dictates. Originally the verse
referred
to the Corinth church which was split into rival cliques. The verse
does
not refer to any man-made organization whose dictates Paul wanted
Christians
to follow blindly with conformity. Chapter one of 1 Corinthians makes
that
evident.
William Neil's One Volume Bible Commentary (1973) explains: Paul's concern
for
the
unity of the Body
of Christ, and his horror at any suggestion that a variety of
fallible human readers could possible replace the sole divine authority of Christ is apparent in every word of his rebuke. (pp. 455, 456) The Moffatt
Translation
of
the Bible, though
free and idiomatic, conveys Paul's thoughts in the verse 10 better than
the WTS Bible:
Brothers, for
the
sake
of our Lord Jesus
Christ I beg of you all to drop these party-cries. There must be
no cliques among you; you must regain your common temper and attitude. (1 Corinthians 1:10) If any J W points
out
errors in WTS doctrine
the elders tell him that he should not question WTS publications and
should
not be "running ahead of the slave class"!
To avoid disfellowshipping he is expected to continue believing and teaching what be knows is incorrect: Not keeping
pace
with
Christ could mean
one of two things. Either we try to go faster, running ahead of "the
faithful
and discreet slave" that Jesus is using to accomplish Jehovah's
purpose,
or we lag behind
in following that ‘slave's' direction. (Matthew 24:45-47) As an example of the first, some Christians have in times past become impatient about doctrines or organizational changes or realignments that they felt were necessary and overdue. Becoming disgruntled because they felt things were not moving quickly enough, they withdrew from Jehovah's people. How foolish and how shortsighted. Often the very thing that upset them was later changed in Jehovah's due time: Proverbs 19:2; Ecclesiastes 7:8, 9. (WT 1988 May l, p.13)
The sub-heading to the March 15 WT article quoted 2 Corinthians 3:17: "Where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom." This verse condemns, rather than supports, the WTS since few organizations and religions are more totalitarian than J Ws! JWs would be wise to examine their previous and current beliefs, supposedly
all "revealed" by Jehovah, and see how often "Jehovah" was wrong! https://ed5015.tripod.com/ https://investigatormagazine.net Dictionary of Jehovah's Witnesses at: https://ed5015.tripod.com/jwdictionary/ |
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