DECEPTIVE APOLOGIA

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)
 
J Ws Are Free Moral Agents

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:

Questions from Readers

In view of the seriousness of taking blood into the human system by a transfusion, would violation of the Holy Scriptures in this regard subject the dedicated, baptized receiver of blood transfusion to being disfellowshipped from the Christian congregation?

The inspired Holy Scriptures answer yes… God's law definitely says that the soul of man is in his blood. Hence the receiver of the blood transfusion is feeding upon a God-given soul as contained in the blood vehicle of a fellow man or of fellow men. This is a violation of God's commands to Christians, the seriousness of which should not be minimized by any passing over of it lightly as being an optional matter for the conscience of any individual to decide upon… According to the law of Moses, which set forth shadows of things to come, the receiver of a blood transfusion must be cut off from God's people by excommunication or disfellowshipping… As a rebellious opposer and unfaithful example to fellow members of the Christian congregation he must be cut off therefrom by disfellowshipping .
(WT January 15,1961 pp. 63-64) (Underlining added)
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)

Fluent in Double-talk

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, any more than reading a book about the human brain qualifies him to be a brain surgeon.
(Awake! 1991, October 8 p. l2)


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!
(WT 1985 March l, p. l4; 1982 February 1, p. 28)

2 The men of the Governing Body of the WTS in NewYork represent the "faithful and discreet slave" of Matthew 24:45-47!
(WT 1992 May l, p. 31; 1993 February 1, p. 16)

3 Deceased anointed J W elders who are in heaven communicate "truth" to the Governing Body!
(Revelation – Its Grand Climax at Hand! 1988 p. 125)

4 Jesus came invisibly in 1914 and appointed the WTS in 1919 to be in charge of Christ's earthly Kingdom interests!
(WT 1960 August l, p. 462; 1960 July 15, p. 435-436; God's Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached 1973 p. 350)

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." (WT 1972 November l, p. 644)
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 1Corinthians 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 be 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)

Conclusion

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!


Why is it wise to examine your religion?
http://ed5015.tripod.com/

Dictionary of Jehovah's Witnesses at:
http://ed5015.tripod.com/jwdictionary/