While I was in the midst of my “home Bible study,” I also attended some Watchtower study sessions at the local Kingdom Hall. What was studied wasn’t the Bible itself but articles from The Watchtower magazine. Like the study book, they consisted of Watchtower teachings with brief scripture quotations or citations references interspersed as if they taught and emphasized exactly what The Watchtower was saying. (p. 21) Continue reading
Tag: Matthew 24:45-47
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In his 1983 book, Crisis of Conscience, Ray Franz stated his belief that members of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Governing Body are “captives of a concept.” By that, he meant the concept that the Watchtower organization is a separate entity, “bigger and grander than themselves.” (p. 296) “Perhaps because of this illusory view of ‘the organization,’” Franz said, “a man can be a Member of such a Body that has virtually unrestricted power and authority, and yet not feel a keen sense of personal responsibility for what the Body does, for whatever hurt or whatever misleading and consequent misdirection results.”
Cameron, a former Watchtower elder, picks up on the phrase, but he means something different by it. He focuses, not on the Governing Body, but on the average Jehovah’s Witness.
He says, “The concept that holds Jehovah’s Witnesses captive is their belief that the Watchtower Society is God’s organization.” (p. 11). He adds, “This concept blocks Jehovah’s Witnesses from noticing anything wrong no matter how wrong it is. And in case anyone does think they notice something wrong, they are warned that they must never try to do anything about it, but simply wait for God to do something about it, because, after all, ‘It is his organization…’” (p. 13)
The key to Cameron’s approach is to show Jehovah’s Witnesses that the Watchtower is not God’s organization through a study of the history of the organization and applying the Watchtower’s own criteria.
The book contains the following chapters: Continue reading
The July 2017 Watchtower article, “Winning the Battle for Your Mind,” warns Jehovah’s Witnesses that Satan is attacking them with propaganda. It defines the term as “the use of biased or misleading information to manipulate the way people think and act.”
It advises that Satan “uses his system of things to discourage Bible reading and study.”
But look at what the Watchtower itself said on August 15, 1981: Continue reading
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