|
1. For
Jehovah’s Witnesses and others, as caring Christians we wish to reason on matters in a respectful, loving fashion.
For example the Watchtower Society of JWs has JWs teach as Good News that "many now living will never die and live
forever on paradise earth” but at 1 Corinthians 15:22, Paul says that we all sin and therefore we will all die.
The Good News is we have the resurrection hope thanks to Christ's ransom sacrifice. So, which is correct: A.
the Bible saying we all die, or B. Watchtower saying many will never die?
2. The idea of living on
a paradise sounds great, but isn't living with Christ in the beautiful starry heavens where he says the Father has “many
mansions” (Jn 14:2) more appealing? Eyes of a fleshly human cannot see all the wondrous things that a human resurrected
as a spirit in heaven can see. (1Cor 2:9) Ecclesiastes 1:4 says “the earth will remain forever,”
which Watchtower emphasizes, but Matthew 24:35; Luke 21:33, and Revelation 21:1 counter-balance by saying earth will pass
away but a new earth will come. So in the long run earth remains forever as it passes away but is re-created.
3. Watchtower teaches JWs to teach people that only a “Little Flock” literally numbered 144,000 go to heaven,
but read Revelation 19:1 which says the “great crowd” is in heaven. Watchtower stresses that Ecclesiastes 9:5
says "the dead are conscious of nothing at all," and Watchtower says all who die are either resurrected as a reward
on earth or to heaven, but the wicked just keep sleeping peacefully forever. God is just, so contrary to what Watchtower mis-states
there will be some kind of punishment, not just letting the wicked sleep.
4. Yes, dead bodies are conscious of
nothing, but since human spirits become as angels in heaven (remember the 144,000 humans going to heaven), spirits or souls
(spirits once with a body) do survive death of the body. Watchtower calls survival of souls (spirits come from bodies) a teaching
from pagans like the Greeks but in fact it’s also a Bible-based teaching. Read and reflect upon 1 Corinthians 15.
5. Watchtower misteaches that the trinity belief is that there are three persons who are the same God, but instead
the belief teaches that there are three persons who are different but who form what Romans 1:20 calls “godship”
in the New World Translation. Most other Bibles translate the word as “divine essence” or “godhead.”
The trinity teaching says the Father is relatively greatest. Very few churches teach the Father morphs (changes) into Christ,
a teaching called modalism, not trinitarianism. Watchtower’s own New World Translation at Titus 2:13 says our
God and Savior is Christ Jesus meaning he's absolutely holy and so equal to God on that account, but speaking relative
to the Father, the Father is greatest. 6. The Watchtower
(WT) (Jan 1, 1954; p 31) said don’t worship God, and WT's then new New World Translation changed the word
translated as "worship" instead to "obeisance." The 1945 Yearbook gave Watchtower Society's
legal Charter which said one purpose for the Society was the "public Christian worship of Almighty God and Christ Jesus."
WT's Nathan Knorr had said in the WT (Oct 15, 1945; p 313) whosoever worships God must “worship and bow”
to “Christ Jesus." WT's Joseph Rutherford in WT (Nov 15, 1939; p. 339) said Jehovah “commands all
to worship Christ Jesus” who is “the express image of his Father, Jehovah, and because he is the Executive Officer
of Jehovah always carrying out Jehovah's purpose (Heb. 3-6)." WT's Charles Taze Russell in Zion's
Watch Tower (July 15, 1898; p 216) wrote: "Yes, we believe our Lord Jesus while on earth was really worshiped."
7. As you know JWs
are allowed to use wedding bands, money, names of days of the weeks, all from pagans, but Watchtower says don’t celebrate
Christ’s birth, Christmas, although angels and shepherds did. Job’s kids also celebrated birthdays. (Proof: read
Job 1:3 then Job 3:1, 3) God had a harvest festival for Israel like Thanksgiving. (Proof: Lev 23:33, Deu 16:13) Germany, Canada,
many lands have one. Leviticus 23 tells of celebrating New Years. Easter eggs and rabbits began and stay as symbols of new
life by resurrection, never were, as Watchtower say, part of sex rites for Christians.
8. Watchtower teaches a
cross is a horrible murder weapon you need to shun, but Paul says BOAST of the cross for in Christ’s case it symbolizes
resurrection victory over death. (Ga 6:14, 1 Cor 1:17-18) The word "stauros" in the original Greek language in the
New Testament can mean either cross or stake, but never just mean stake. First century pictures including on ossuaries show
crosses not stakes. Forensic research by Dr. F. Zugibe has proved suffocation would be in “minutes” if Christ
died on a stake but in “hours” if with arms outstretched on a cross even as Luke 23:44 and Matthew 27:45-46 say
it was. The cross is not a mark of “false” Christians as Watchtower says, but of true Christians.
9.
Watchtower points to its Governing Body men as if “the Faithful and Discreet Slave” put over all true Christians
and what they have, but the MOST faithful and discreet slave ever of God is Christ himself! Paul says there’s “one
faith” at Ephesians 4:5, and the one faith then and now is general Christianity which has branches that are good, average
and bad. Watchtower has wrongly mispredicted and hinted at Armageddon for the Generation alive in 1914, the same for 1975
etc even though Christ says only the Father knows the hour of the end. (Read Matthew 24:36) 2014 is almost here, the 100th
anniversary of 1914!
10. JWs are told if everyone in a group doesn’t believe the same thing, it’s a
lack of unity, but Colossians 3:14 says the one true bond of unity is Love, not robotic same beliefs on everything. Christ
says he is gentle and his yoke is light (Mt 11:30), but JWs well know being a JW is actually a very heavy, rough yoke. Read
Romans 14 and John 8:32 thoughtfully about the great freedom that Christians are supposed to enjoy.
11. At Luke
17:2 Christ says put the protection of our Little Ones over any man who would abuse them. As JWs know Watchtower has all JWs
deemed “in good standing” (and all includes so-called “repentant” pedophiles) to preach at doors,
thus putting them around kids of JWs and the public! When JW elders or others molest kids, the kids’ parents have been
told to “wait on Jehovah” (code for shut up) to protect the Watchtower organization, but Roman 13:1 says to obey
the government officials who say to turn pedophiles in.
12. The Bible shows conversions took place quickly, no
long “Bible study” needed. Please contrast Watchtower’s door-after-door method with how Christ at
Luke 10:1-7 told early Christians to go from a house in one location or city to a house in another, to not go "transferring,"
the very word used in Watchtower’s New World Translation.
13. As the New World Translation also shows at
1 Samuel 14:31-35, God forgave Saul’s men who ate unBLED meat to stay alive, yet Watchtower orders that JWs and their
kids not even take an emergency blood transfusion to stay alive. At Matthew 12:7 Christ says God wants Mercy over Sacrifice.
Since 1945 an estimated 200,000 JWs have bled to death senselessly; even one senseless death like this is an
apostacy against the will of God. Watchtower calls those who point these things out "apostates," has them
harshly shunned, and keeps telling people to die senselessly.
14. Christ and Paul at Matthew 6:9, Mark 14:36, Romans
8:15, and Galatians 4:6 say to call God “our Father,” not just formal names like Jehovah or Yahweh. Think about
this: if you were Mark or Suzie Jones would you call your father Charles Jones, Charles Jones, Mr. Jones, or simply lovingly
say dad, daddy, father? Calling on God's name to be saved (Ro 10:13) does not mean pronouncing a guessed at formal name,
but it means calling on God as a powerful, caring Father in heaven to save us.
15. John 8:32 says the real truth
sets us free so isn’t it contrary to Christian freedom when Elders enforce bedroom rules on intimacies between married
couples? JWs who go by all the many guilt-trip rules can never feel truly “free,” and it has a major effect
on their lives and families. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says the scriptures themselves teach and guide Christians, not a human
organization headed by busybody men who go beyond the scriptures.
16. Watchtower is a corporate business operating
as a religious organization that puts its own existence over the happiness and safety of rank-and-file members. Christ says
he himself is the Truth, Way and Life at John 6:68 and 14:6. Do you really think Watchtower gives you the real Truth,
actual Life or a Way of lasting happiness? No, and the sheep know the real Master’s bell.
17. When people
leave Watchtower it orders JW family and friends to shun them harshly, rigidly, but Christ promises those who do will get
new and truer friends. (Mt 5:11) Although at 2 Corinthians 2:6 Paul says a "Majority" had cut ties with a serious
wrong-doer as he had suggested, the word "majority" means a minority did not do as he had suggested, so it proves
they had the Christian freedom to decide who to associate with or not. Paul could "order" Timothy in their relief
work, but in Christian matters all sincere Bible-trained Christians then and now have freedom to differ some, not have to
be robots.
18. Watchtower says JWs must use
it itself as the “sole channel of truth;” but Christians say the only true “channel of truth” is Jesus
Christ. Watchtower says it is the sole organization representing God on earth. In fact
“God’s organization” is in heaven ruling over true Christians on earth. Watchtower misclaims
the right to usurp the power of God’s true and perfect organization. 19. Did you know Watchtower disfellowshipped three branch elders and a ministerial servant
in late 2009 for saying what the Bible itself says at 1 Timothy 2:5: ”For there is one God, and there is one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Watchtower’s view is that Christ is not the mediator
for “all” people or all Jehovah’s Witnesses, but only for anointed JWs, particularly those on Watchtower’s
Governing Body in Brooklyn. They also believe the Bible was directly written for the anointed not all JWs.
Every congregation has JWs who differ with Watchtower about these things, and if anyone doubts it just
clearly ask each adult JW if Christ is the mediator for them too or just the 144,000 anointed.
19. It’s important to get
out of such a high control group mentally, emotionally -- and, prayerfully, also as soon as possible totally! (Re 18:4) You
may start fading out slowly now or handle it however you know is best for your own situation. If you have to stay in a while
you can use the time to get lots of new names and addresses to mail copies of this to.
20. The real anointed brothers
and sisters of Christ believe in Christian freedom and ask you to help more starting this second. The lives and happiness
of the littlest JW kids, the elderly, and others are endangered by the Governing Body misleadership destroying Watchtower.
They have squandered members' donations, sending Bethelites of 20 to 40 years away across the U.S., Europe, Latin America
and Japan. This does not show they are either wise or faithful, does it.
21. Even if you feel you must attend Watchtower
at least once in a while for the sake of family ties, remember you don't have to donate to it so much of your time, money
and energy. If you outright totally quit Watchtower, for example, you may find a satisfactory alternative church as many exJWs
have done or else start your own in-the-home house-church as the earliest Christians had (example Ro 16:1), which Ray Franz
and many other exJWs also speak of highly.
22. Christ says where even 2 or 3 Christians are, he is too. (Mt 18:20)
Such groups enjoy UNITY by the strongest bond which is love and freedom to differ. (Col 3:14) It's as easy as agreeing
to allow others freedom to differ. (Romans 14) Use the Bible instead of Watchtower magazines. It's also easy to
form new groups if you want. Hebrews 6:1 gives what it says are the essential beliefs for Christians. Just stay focused on
showing genuine Christian love, especially hands-on loving-kindness and Christian freedom to differ.
23. Please
freely make and share copies of this. Feel free to translate it into other languages too. Watchtower has told people
other JWs won't read it, but that's false, most do read it so long as it comes in the mail or by email. Human nature
is curious; told not to read something often makes even more people want to read it.
24. If you still don't
think this works, then mail a whole bunch then sit back and watch what happens. For some change will be slow, for others faster.
Knowledge is power but now you have what it takes to fight fire with fire, that is scriptures with scriptures. This is here
ready to be copied and sent now. The real truth sets you free and it will set others free! (Jn 8:32)
|
