Hi Sandra,
Thank you for writing and expressing your opinions.
What wonderful news that the Watchtower has totally reversed itself on the belief that only those within the organization will survive into the New World! Can you please send me the citation of where they've made this monumental shift in their thinking? They've been teaching that "Ark of salvation" nonsense starting way back in 1917 -- when Rutherford wrote in the Finished Mystery how all those in "the churches" would be destroyed -- up until at least 1976 when I left.
That doctrine is all over their literature throughout the years, but the most succinct quote is from the Watchtower's 1954 book The New World:
"It is solely in brotherly association with the New World Society that we can possibly survive when this old world passes away."
(New Heavens and a New Earth, p. 363)
When I had my discussions with the "committee" of elders at Bethel they asked what my disfellowshipped sister now believed and I said, "She doesn't believe that being in the organization means everlasting life and being out of the organization means being destroyed." They said, "Well, that's what Jehovah's Witnesses believe, so she's no longer a Witness." I didn't believe that either, so they said I was "out of step with the organization and it would be better if I left." I left. But I haven't kept up with their changes. It's funny that they would ask me to leave for believing something that they now believe themselves! I guess I was ahead of my time, and got kicked out for believing the truth instead of their error (an error I pointed out to them in great detail, but which they--being God's spokesmen on Earth--couldn't see at the time!) But please send me the quotes where they've made this critical change at last. Thanks.
Yes, there are "imperfections" to be overlooked. But that refers to people being human: losing their tempers, being petty and selfish, etc... I never believed that it could honestly be used to excuse deliberate, premeditated lies and cover-ups by a group claiming to be "faithful and discrete" and "God's prophet on earth". I never believed that it allowed the Governing Body to practice deceit and double-dealing as part of long-term policy.
I'm thinking of things like how they've secretly been associate members of the United Nations while forcing the friends in Malawi to suffer persecution because they said signing an identity card was being "part of the world".
Or costing people their jobs by refusing to sell cigarettes in a convenience store when the Watchtower owns stock in companies (like the Rand corp.) that manufacture arms for the military.
Or when they rewrite their history several times, telling the facts differently from the historical record (and even different from what they wrote in their previous "history" books!)
Or how they claimed vaccinations were against God's law, and so refused to be vaccinated against small-pox (claiming the serum was "vile pus"), causing children to be refused admitance to public school (while meanwhile the rest of the world knew that the serum was not "pus" and got vaccinated and so erradicated smallpox -- one of the deadliest killers in history -- from off the face of the Earth.) So, how faithful and discrete was that, exactly? Did they really think they had some inner knowledge from God that his "name people" needed to be kept from vaccinations? How is it that "the world" knew better than "God's prophet" that was supposedly faithfully watching over the "flock"?
Or how about when they said organ transplants were "cannibalism " and against God's law? I know a man whose wife died back then when she needed a transplant. A little while later the Governing Body changed their minds and said it wasn't against God's law. But his wife was dead by then: dead due to the "faithful and discrete" slave's mistaken notion that they knew God's law well enough to let people die for it. It turned out, by their own reversal, that they cannot distinguish what is from God and what is from their own imaginations run wild.
Or how about when they disfellowshipped women for failing to scream when they were raped? They've reversed themselves and resinstated that policy several times over the years. How loving is that? Punishing the victim of violence with ostracism from their one remaining "support group"!
How "faithful" were they to the children who were brave enough to report being molested by elders in the congregation when they refused to take action without "two or three witnesses"? I hear they claim to have revised this policy now to catch up with the rest of the enlightened world, but who knows if they're just saying that, and anyway, how can you excuse decades of permitted abuse due to this policy? A few years ago was not the Dark Ages, after all: you can't excuse such blatantly outrageous behavior with "oh, that was old light, and Jehovah set them straight!" They would've known better from the start if they had listened to their hearts instead of the ancient ramblings of anonymous writers.
Or when they boast about how they let children die for their totally bogus stance on blood transfusions (but when in trouble with the law in other countries they back off and say that "oh, it's a matter of personal conscience" as if they never threatened anyone with being disfellowshipped if they'd accept blood -- and meanwhile they really allow all parts of blood if they're taken individually, and they allow cow's blood which is totally contradictory to their interpretation of "abstain from blood".)
These things are not "imperfections of the brothers" they are INEXCUSABLE. Any group of men that wields such influence over millions of people really does need to be faithful to their needs and discrete about not blurting out whatever wild ideas they may dream up as "truth from Jehovah." But they're not; they are far from what they claim to be, and from what Witnesses have been deluded to believe them to be.
The point of my letter was that the doctrine of the "ark of salvation" (that all outside the org will be destroyed by a "loving God" and that those within the org must believe and do exactly what they are told) led to a perversion of "love". How can you love when you think God will destroy perfectly decent people who just don't happen to believe the latest drivel the Watchtower has happened to put out? For instance, when I was a Witness my sister and I spent countless hours going out in service bringing the message that "this generation" would not die before the end of "this system of things". That was a core part of our "kingdom message". If instead I had gone to the doors with my own idea that the "generation" refered to just wicked people rather than a chronological generation, I would've been disfellowshipped for apostasy, even though I would've been preaching the truth as it is perceived today!
When the message goes out "we are the only ones with Christ-like love" and that "love" turns out to be only for members of the org, and includes the command to "rejoice" at the destruction of others, and it includes celebrating the deaths of children and wives who abstained from neccessary medical procedures: then it's a perversion of love and an empty, ironic claim.
By the way, Russell was never "set straight by Jehovah" regarding the pyramid. He didn't believe in "pyramid power" as we know it today, but rather that the pyramid's relative inner dimensions corresponded to his chronology of the "last days" (starting in 1799 and ENDING in 1914.) Russell even chose to be buried under a pyramid (I can send you a picture of this). Followers of Russell today still believe the pyramid is what Russell called "the Bible in stone". It was years later that Rutherford had to discredit this idea when Russell's dates had been proven wrong (the "system of things" didn't end in 1914, and eventually they had to admit it.) So Rutherford did an about-face and said the pyramid was "built by Satan in order to deceive the faithful." Then he was free to START the time of the end in 1914, and give a "generation" as the total time till the end of the old system. Then, of course, recently that had to change again as it became apparent that this was also not going to transpire. So now they've given themselves an open-ended ticket to Armageddon with their new "understanding" of a "generation".
I agree with you that what Jesus supposedly said about it being "like Noah's day" refers to people being wicked: not about people being on or off the "ark of salvation" as the Watchtower has twisted it. People are "on the ark" if they're righteous, and "off the ark" if they're not. It has nothing to do with any organization. Especially not one as unfaithful and indiscreet as the Watchtower.
You may believe that God has work for you to do. I doubt very much that such work would center around attempting to get people to sign their lives away as slaves to this organization. There is much work to be done to make the world a better place: many fine charitable organizations you can volunteer at to make a difference without the blood-guilt of this organization hanging over your head.
--Steve
|
|