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Wednesday, 16 March 2005 00:00 |
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Early in the decade of the 70s, all JWs were notified (in the tobacco-growing district) of a special meeting at the Kingdom Hall. Three representatives from WTS, a District Overseer and two Circuit Overseers delivered a symposium that brought an abrupt end for all JWs working in the tobacco industry (whether selling cigarettes, manufacture, tobacco machinery, etc.) or farmers producing tobacco.
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Sunday, 18 January 2009 10:20 |
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Can you imagine being brutally beaten by government officials because you believed that God would rather have you beaten than vote in a political election? Jehovah’s Witnesses can, because this is exactly what happened in the spring of 1970 in Cameroon, Africa.
In the Oct. 15, 1970 issue of The Watchtower, we learn about this awful persecution in an article entitled "Cameroon says ‘No!’ to Freedom of worship." The article describes how JWs in Cameroon were beaten, starved, arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and consigned to slave labor because of their refusal to vote in political elections. It explains that "the witnesses refrain from participation in political affairs in all countries of the world" because of their "Bible-trained consciences" and their "Bible-based stand."
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Friday, 24 October 2008 12:11 |
Once upon a time the Watchtower Society recognized that Christians are not dedicated to an organization:
... when we dedicate our lives to Jehovah. We do not dedicate ourselves to a religion, nor to a man, nor to an organization. No, we dedicated ourselves to the Supreme Sovereign of the Universe, our Creator, Jehovah God himself. [Oct. 1, 1966 Watchtower, pp. 603-4]
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Written by Randall Watters
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Saturday, 21 February 2009 22:08 |
 Note: This is an early interpretation, published in 1993, of the changes that were later altered and finalized in the October 15 and November 1, 1995 issues of the Watchtower magazine. You can jump to an article summarizing the final changes (as if any doctrines are final in this organization!) at the end of this section.
Two special talks, "What Will Be The Sign of Your Presence?" and "Tell Us, When Will These Things Be?" were given on Saturday afternoon of the Divine Teaching District Conventions of Jehovah's Witnesses this year, apparently to prepare the way for "new light" on the teaching that we are living in the generation that will see the end of the world, with a view to overturning such understanding. These are a few notes regarding this new position.
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Written by Alan Feuerbacher
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Thursday, 21 May 2009 10:59 |
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The Watchtower Society has often been accused of sidestepping issues of fundamental importance, leaving Witnesses unprepared for charges that God is unloving or that the Society is a charlatan. Apparently the Society feels that by never discussing contrary evidence, it avoids inducing doubts in the faithful. It almost always mentions only the virtues of a position it has taken. Where a problem exists, it is only mentioned if a good argument can be given in explanation.
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Friday, 24 October 2008 13:21 |
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Note the following change in the baptismal questions made in 1985 to further attempt to isolate their members from Christianity by promoting loyalty to the Watchtower organization, rather than to the "elusive" Christ: WT (The Watchtower) 1973 5/1 page 280 Baptizing Follows Discipling
(1) Have you repented of your sins and turned around, recognizing yourself before Jehovah God as a condemned sinner who needs salvation, and have you acknowledged to him that this salvation proceeds from him, the Father, through his Son Jesus Christ?
(2) On the basis of this faith in God and in his provision for salvation, have you dedicated yourself unreservedly to God to do his will henceforth as he reveals it to you through Jesus Christ and through the Bible under the enlightening power of the holy spirit?
Change to:
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Written by Trevor Scott
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Tuesday, 12 May 2009 07:22 |
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It is a serious matter to represent God and Christ in one way, then find that our understanding of the major teachings and fundamental doctrines of the Scriptures was in error, and then after that, to go back to the very doctrines that, by years of study, we had thoroughly determined to be in error. Christians cannot be vacillating - 'wishy-washy' - about such fundamental teachings. What confidence can one put in the sincerity or judgment of such persons? –The Watchtower, May 15, 1976, page 298.
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Monday, 13 April 2009 12:42 |
 We all crave a degree of certainty in our everyday lives. We like to know our alarm clock is going to ring at the time we set it; the car is going to start and that our paycheck isn't going to bounce. Beyond that, we also want to know whether something we are told is true or not. If a doctor presribes a medicine; we want to have confidence that it will hurry along the healing process. If the weatherman tells us the weekend will be filled with sunshine; we don't want our outdoor picnic ruined by hail and thunder.
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Thursday, 29 April 2010 16:54 |
Cults have many problems to explain away. Among them are changes in doctrines which result from end of the world predictions that fall flat and embarrass them. Honest persons admit error and move on. Cults lack honest persons and must resort to "spin".
Jehovah's Witnesses have their share of problems explaining why Armageddon, while being ever so close.....never seems to come within "one generation", the generation Jesus spoke of with the words:
"This generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur."
The details of such matters are, frankly, very boring! In fact, Jehovah's Witnesses lose track of the process which they call “new light”. (7th Day Adventists invented the term and the Watchtower "borrowed it") To avoid boring you we offer a simple template for understanding the process of how new light is applied to changing doctrines:
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