Rational Compassionate Living

According to the Watchtower’s game plan, the triggering event of Armageddon will be when the United Nations instigates “the great tribulation” by destroying all religion (all except the Watchtower religion, of course.)

When the U.N. turns its destructive attention to the Watchtower religion, all Armageddon breaks loose, as Jesus intervenes and destroys the U.N. along with all other governments of the world. Then he — along with 144,000 “anointed” Jehovah’s Witnesses (all of whom will then be living in heaven) — will murder every person in the world who is not a Jehovah’s Witness (yes, this includes nearly 2 billion children and babies.)

Finally, once everyone else is dead, the Jehovah’s Witnesses will begin the work of disposing of billions of dead bodies. But in this massive, gruesome undertaking [pun intended] they will have help.

According to the Watchtower’s post-game plan, new bodies will be created into which will be injected the memories and personalities of everyone who ever died (other than those who died at Armageddon.) This is the Watchtower’s version of resurrection. It has never been clear to me why Jehovah is going to create these replicants of long-dead people. It won’t do those dead people any good for surrogates to be running around with their memories; those people will still be dead forever and unaware of these impostors.

Now, if you’re done laughing at the Watchtower’s vision of the future, we can ask: Just how likely is the above scenario?

Let’s start by focusing on the triggering event: the destruction of religion by the United Nations. How, exactly, does one destroy a religion? A religion is a set of beliefs. It doesn’t even matter if anyone currently holds those beliefs; it’s still a religion. For instance, I haven’t met many Druids lately, but Druidism is still a religion; you can’t destroy it anymore than we can destroy alchemy.

Well, what the Watchtower originally meant by “the destruction of religion” was the killing of people:

“…when God destroys the churches wholesale and the church members by millions…”
— The Finished Mystery (WBTS, 1917, p. 485)

But, true to form, the Watchtower has changed its mind on this point, or at least clarified it as far as the role of the UN is concerned. In their 2014 book God’s Kingdom Rules, the Watchtower makes the following major doctrinal change in a footnote [note that “Babylon the Great” is their term for all other religions]:

Who or what will carry out the attack against “Babylon the Great”? A “wild beast” with “ten horns.” The book of Revelation indicates that this wild beast refers to the United Nations (UN).

(Footnote: It seems reasonable that the destruction of “Babylon the Great” refers mainly to the destruction of the religious institutions, not to a wholesale slaughter of all religious people. Hence, most of Babylon’s former adherents will survive that destruction and, at least openly, will then likely try to distance themselves from religion, as indicated at Zechariah 13:4-6.)
–God’s Kingdom Rules (WBTS, 2014) p. 223

The above change may be another deceptive attempt to make their religion appear less cult-like to outsiders. Elsewhere the Watchtower has specified that the “wild beast” of Revelation is “the worldwide political system” and that the “image of the wild beast” is the UN specifically.  The Watchtower’s  New World Translation of the Bible clearly states that this “image of the wild beast” will kill people:

And it was permitted to give breath to the image of the wild beast, so that the image of the wild beast should both speak and cause to be killed all those who refuse to worship the image of the wild beast.
— Rev 13:15 (NWT)

So, the United Nations is due (according to the Watchtower) to start destroying religious institutions any day now (even today!) Though it now sounds like they won’t engage in “wholesale slaughter” it does sound as if they will be murdering at least some people based on their religious affiliation (just not “most” of them.) [Maybe they should refer to this as “retail slaughter”?!] Again we ask: how likely is that?

Well, exactly what kind of an organization is the United Nations? Do they go around engaging in destruction? Do they have an intolerant attitude towards religion? Do they kill people based on their religion?

The United Nations is a peace-keeping organization. Think about that. Here is one of a very few organizations in the world that has been specifically setup to avoid war and its killing.

As for being intolerant towards religion, let us read from the United Nations charter:

Article 1.3.

To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion

Article 2.7.

Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state

Article 13.1.

…assisting in the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.

Article 55.

the United Nations shall promote: …universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.

And, in the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we read:

Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

I feel as though I am cheating you by only quoting the above excerpts from the declaration. It is one of the most important and beautiful documents ever produced by the heart of humankind. Please read all of it here. Then ask yourself if your government (or “theocracy”) violates one or more of the articles. I know my government (U.S.A.) most certainly is a flagrant violator of several articles. I also know the Watchtower organization violates articles 12, 18-21, and 26.

To think for one moment that the U.N. would ever be guilty of destroying religious institutions, or executing people based on their religious affiliations, is beyond absurd: if it hasn’t completely crossed the line, and borders on insanity.

The more I think about it the more I wonder: What part of the Watchtower religion did I ever find believable? [Oh yeah: that there was no hell, and that other religions were ridiculous — things atheists had known long before the Watchtower was ever thought of.] Religion in general is pretty far-fetched stuff, but the Watchtower seems to outdo all others  [well, maybe not the Scientologists and the Mormons] when it comes to stretching our credulity way past the breaking point. They have taken one of the world’s greatest forces for peacekeeping and cast it into the role of the instigator of the greatest war of all time. That’s going some even for a fundamentalist cult.

But back to the Watchtower’s story. After the U.N. destroys all false religious institutions [whilst the more numerous armies of those religious people’s nations evidently sit back and watch] Then the son of the god Jehovah “destroys all government” — this means killing people, not just dismantling governments (since governments lost their right to rule way back in 1914 with the “end of the Gentile Times” — and the son of the god Jehovah has been ruling ever since, at least in heaven don’tcha know.)

At some point in this story the “wholesale slaughter of religious people” does indeed occur, along with everyone else who is not a member of the “right religion.”

Whenever I think about Witnesses burying or burning masses of bodies in their “New Order” I can’t help but call to mind those black and white images of the Nazis with their murdered victims. In fact, the “New Order” of the Watchtower’s vision has several similarities to the new order of the Third Reich. Both look forward to a genocide of all but the “master race” or “members of God’s organization,” after which the survivors will rule the world and everything will just be honky-dory for them for a thousand years. And, of course, both require unquestioning obedience and unswerving loyalty to the leaders of the organization.

Next: Part II. You won’t want to miss the exciting conclusion:

Part II: The Post-Armageddon Blues!

In Part I we looked at just how likely the Watchtower’s scenario is for Armageddon. We saw that they had pegged the world’s foremost peace-making organization as the instigator of the ultimate war! About as likely an event as your getting a date with Nicole Kidman and/or Brad Pitt (depending on your preference.)

But, for the sake of argument, let’s imagine that Armageddon has come and gone. Now we have seven billion dead bodies stinking up the planet. That’s the first job for the surviving eight million or so Witnesses to tackle, according to the Watchtower publication From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained.

That’s not so bad: only about a thousand corpses for each Witness to dispose of. According to the Watchtower, a “prophetic month” is exactly 30 days long. So that means each Witness will have 210 days to bury their thousand bodies. That’s about five per day. The Kingdom Halls should start distributing shovels any day now.

I suppose if you’re a Witness child, disposing of your quota of five bodies a day might prove physically demanding (though your body will be undergoing perfection during this time, so that might help.) I imagine it could also leave permanent psychological scars on a child (or even an adult) to have to deal with brutally murdered corpses. One might be inclined to ask a fellow corpse-dragger: “Are you sure this is paradise?” But such a frank question might get one immediately zapped in the “joyous New Order.” Better to keep your real questioning to yourself if you want to stay a Witness — which is really no different than on this side of Armageddon.

All of this is assuming that the Witnesses are evenly distributed where the dead bodies lie. However, this is certainly not the case. For instance: there are currently 243 Witnesses in Bangladesh, which has a population of over 162 million. That’s 669,934 bodies per Witness, and 3,190 burials per Witness per day! To even-out the workload, they’ll have to rush about 162,000 Witnesses to Bangladesh. Rush them there in a world where all modern means of communication and transportation will have been destroyed. It would probably take the better part of the seven months just to move the Witnesses to “where the need is greatest” much less bury all of the bodies in that time!

Of course, just like everything else the Watchtower has ever said, they’ve also contradicted themselves on the issue of whether or not Witnesses will need to bury the bodies. Elsewhere they have stated that their god will “rain down” antimatter to make all the dead bodies disappear! Here is an example from the book we were studying back in my day: The Nations Shall Know That I Am Jehovah — How?

The only problem with that scenario is, due to the tremendous amount of energy given off when antimatter meets matter, it would result in destroying the planet and probably the entire solar system in an explosion equivalent to over a quadrillion atomic bombs. That’s not really a “highly scientific means” of disposing of the bodies, unless you want to dispose of the planet at the same time (which would rather put a damper on any  hope of living forever on a paradise earth.)

Then comes the “resurrection!”

Sometime after, or during the disposal of the bodies, Jehovah will start creating new, perfect bodies! These new models will have one very defective part, however: their minds. You see, this god is going to inject the brains of these new bodies with the memories of people who died (along with their personalities.)

So, here comes our first new model human: replete with the personality and memories of Genghis Kahn — whose last memory was of a sword fight in the middle of a battle, surrounded by his enemies. You won’t want to be anywhere close by when naked Genghis starts flailing about: intent on killing anyone within reach!

Oh, and here comes Stalin, with a perfect body! Isn’t he attractive, ladies? Watch out, though; he has a penchant for conducting “purges” against “counter-revolutionaries” and tends to suspect everyone (so, he’ll probably make a very good elder.) But don’t waste too much time worrying about him; I hear Hitler just got himself a new pair of perfect testicles, and he’s hunting for anyone who isn’t a blue-eyed blonde.

Won’t it be thrilling to have your children babysat sometime by one of your friendly new-world neighbors: Jeffrey Dahmer or Ted Bundy?

Even those mentioned above may not be the worst of the lot to be resurrected.

What I don’t understand is what good this “resurrection” is supposed to do anyone. Oh, sure, maybe a Witness can look forward to meeting some important historical figure such as Abraham Lincoln. But a new body with Lincoln’s memories and personality is NOT Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln is still dead, and it doesn’t do him a bit of good that there’s now a replicant of him running around in the “New World” pretending to be him.

In Disneyland there has been an animatronic Abraham Lincoln on display for decades. You can watch this marvel gesticulating and verbalizing Lincoln’s speeches to your heart’s content. But it does the original Abraham Lincoln exactly as much good as the Watchtower’s “resurrected” Lincoln would do him: zilch.

I wonder what sort of memories will be injected into the new body of a baby that died during birth, in order to make it the self-same baby? I sure hope Jehovah remembers to resurrect its mother first — still lactating (though in a new body.)

Teaching!

It will be the next job of the Witnesses to teach all of the resurrected ones the Watchtower doctrines. There have been about 100 billion people who have died, so each of the 8 million Witnesses will have to teach 12,500 resurrected ones — some of them in long-dead languages. Good thing their god has given them a thousand years to complete this task! That will give them almost a month to spend on each resurrected one (as they also divide their time in rebuilding the world, growing food, and attending meetings.)

Of course a month will be plenty of time to get a resurrected person up to speed, find them housing and a job, overcome their culture-shock, and induce them to start singing out of the current Kingdom Songbook. {sarcasm}

But I pity the poor young sister who gets assigned an Al Qaeda suicide bomber, and has to convince him not only that the new world he finds himself in is not the Muslim Heaven he expected to be instantly transported to upon death (and where she and the other sisters would be his sex slaves), but also that it simply isn’t the case that “There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.”

But I think the hardest part of all will be explaining to people that they are no longer married to their resurrected spouses, and throughout eternity can never marry again!

The End of Sex and Romantic Love

That’s right: in the “New World” we are told that there will be no marriage: no uniting of couples who have died. The Watchtower has intimated that once the Earth is full (which their “resurrection” will quickly take care of) there will be no more childbirth (and hence, no more sex.) Jehovah will “remove our desire” for sex, and we may all become hermaphrodites (as Adam started out — in “God’s image” — and as Jehovah has evidently remained.)

“Adam possessed originally in his own person the qualities masculine and feminine which subsequently were divided between him and his wife, when she was taken from his side…As Adam originally possessed all the qualities of character, masculine and feminine, so humanity, when fully restored to the image and likeness of God, will re-attain perfection of individuality. Sex divisions will then be no more. Earth will be filled with sufficient population.” — The Photodrama of Creation, p. 9

Children are typically shown frolicking in the Watchtower’s illustrations of their new world. But, unless these are meant to be illustrations of the very first few years after Armageddon, how can there be any children? Don’t they grow up? And what about the elderly? You never see them in these illustrations. Do they age backwards until everyone is in the prime of their life (about 19 years old)?

Life: Neutered!

The world will be a dreary place without children, and when everyone is the same age and the same combined gender. With desire “removed,” what will people live for? Will it even be a life worth living? Most of the world’s great literature and artistic achievements call forth our inherent desires: we are “moved” by them because we relate to the human passion that created them. Who will bother to read Shakespeare’s love sonnets when the underlying longing they speak to has become foreign to us?

Imagine an eternal life consisting of endless days of routine work (houses, food, and clothes don’t make themselves. Even in the Watchtower’s illustration of the new order, shown above, people are hard at work on the roof.) The only breaks from work will be filled with meetings in the Kingdom Hall, consisting of repetitive praising of YHWH. There will be no children to raise, no career to pursue, no retirement to look forward to, no romantic love to fill your heart with ecstasy. You will live a joyless conforming existence in constant fear of being zapped for breaking a rule.

Life in the Watchtower’s new world will lack all of the essential ingredients that make life worth living. It will be life neutered. I’d rather be dead.

The Watchtower’s vision of the future is not a fairy tale; it is too absurd and cruel to qualify even for that genre. Yet this more-absurd-than-a-fairy-tale story is used to wield control over the lives of eight million Jehovah’s Witnesses! I would like to tell them that it is time to Awake!

The new New World Translation, is hot off the press, and you can download it here!
This publication, with its silver cover, has been dubbed by Witnesses: “the Silver Sword.” I see that as very fitting. Because, unless you are into fencing, sword swallowing, or happen to be the queen of England about to knight one of your favorites, swords have but one purpose: to kill people.

The Watchtower religion has long been preoccupied with death. Their favorite images will always be of their future-selves frolicking on their estates in the “New World” : eating grapes and petting lions. But their second-favorite images all center around the mass murder that makes up their longed-for Armageddon (where swords figure prominently.)

Jesus reputedly said that he came “to bring a sword” by setting family members against one another (Mt 10:34-37), and this is certainly something the Watchtower has excelled at with its shunning policies.

Finally, the Bible relates numerous graphic tales of “God’s people” running their swords through all and sundry¹ making the sword appellation all the more apropos.

What’s New?

So, what’s new about this “silver sword:” the new New World Translation? They tell us they’ve replaced the 1950’s language with up-to-date English. I assume they mean American English. So, if we imagine a passage such as the following from one of Paul’s epistles:

“Greetings, brothers. I admonish you to know this truth: sinners are damned, and the fool has said in his heart there is no God. But the family of believers will be saved.”

In the old New World Translation, with its fifties lingo we might’ve seen this translated something like:

“What’s buzzin, cuzzin? Like I got the word from the bird that sinners are nowheresville and atheists are a nosebleed. Believers be crazy cool: like wow, man!”

But in the contemporary American English of the new NWT we’re likely to read:

“Wha’s up, homies? It’s like styll that yo sinners be merked, an’ atheists are like: duh? Such derps, dude. Believers be my mains; real swag! They’re like–. You know what I’m sayin’?”

That’s all well and good, I guess. But, did they “strain out the gnat but gulp down the camel?” (Mt. 23:24) This was their chance to right some major wrongs of the old NWT, and it seems they blew it.

Sorry; We Still Can’t Get God’s Name Right!

Why didn’t they replace “Jehovah” with “Yahweh:” the name that the appendix in the old New World Translation told us was more accurate?² The appendix in the new New World Translation no longer admits that Yahweh is more accurate: it simply excuses the mistranslation by telling us that the name Jehovah is “familiar:” having been known and used for centuries³. When I first read that excuse I have to admit that I called the translators by another familiar name that I won’t repeat here. But if God’s name really was all that “familiar” then I guess the Witnesses oft-repeated claim of being the only ones “making Jehovah’s name known” is false; by their own admission it had been known, used, and “familiar” for centuries!

“Allah” is a more familiar name for God, and was invented way longer ago than the name Jehovah. In addition, it doesn’t have the occult connections of the name Jehovah. So, if we’re going to mistranslate YHWH, then, using Watchtower logic, Allah is a better candidate than Jehovah.

Other Problems with no Solutions

Amongst numerous other problems with the old NWT, which the new NWT did not see fit to mend, here are a few highlights.

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

— Luke 14:26 (NWT, 2013 ed.)

A footnote to the above verse still tells us that “hate” really means “love to a lesser degree.” But then if that’s how we would put it in contemporary American English, why doesn’t the new NWT go ahead and translate it that way? Could it be that the original language really does mean “hate” and they’re not bold enough to over-ride the Bible’s real message in this instance: settling for a mere footnote to try and whitewash its immorality?

Of course, we still have the Watchtower’s insistence on Jesus being “a god” in John 1:1, whilst remaining a “Mighty God” in Isaiah 9:6. Did we even need to bother looking it up?

The new NWT still has the inserted words “sorts of” in Romans 5:18 where equivalent words do not exist in the Greek:

“So, then, as through one trespass the result to men of all sorts was condemnation, so too through one act of justification the result to men of all sorts is their being declared righteous for life.”

This renders the meaning quite different from what was intended, as is shown in the same verse in other translations such as the English Standard Version:

“Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.”

 

In Russell’s day the Watchtower used the above verse as proof that everyone would make it into the Millennium⁴. But since the Watchtower now teaches that everyone except Jehovah’s Witnesses will be destroyed in Armageddon prior to the Millennium (and further: that most of the Bible’s promises to believers only apply to their “anointed class”⁵), they have once again allowed their beliefs to corrupt their Bible translation by changing “all men” to “all sorts of men.”

The first glaring biblical contradiction I ever had pointed out to me was a comparison between the following verses describing the same event:

“And again the anger of Jehovah was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them, saying, Go, number Israel and Judah.”

— 2 Samuel 24:1 (NIV)

“Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel.”

— 1 Chronicles 21:1 (NIV)

[The new NWT says basically the same thing: “Then Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to number Israel.” — 1 Chronicles 21:1 (NWT, 2013 ed.)]

This is revealing, because Chronicles was a rewrite of the Israelites’ history–written after they had been in exile to Babylon. In Babylon at that time the religion was Zoroastrianism: known for its invention of the idea that God was all good, and evil came from an adversary (Hebrew: “Satan”) of God⁶. When the time came around to rewrite their history, the writers of Chronicles evidently used this new idea of an adversary instead of leaving the record to incriminate Jehovah for forcing David into the “sin” of census-taking. This is only revealing, of course, if the translators of your Bible version are honest enough to translate what it actually says. The old NWT failed in this, and so does the new NWT by replacing “he” with “one:”

“The anger of Jehovah again blazed against Israel when one incited David against them, saying: “Go, take a count of Israel and Judah.”

—2 Samuel 24:1 (NWT, 2013 ed.)

Spurious…

The translators of the new NWT have removed some “spurious” passages such as where Jesus says his followers will be known for handling deadly snakes and drinking poison without harm (Mark 16:17-18.) I’m not so sure about the validity of their reasons for removal, but I think removing such nonsense is a good thing; we’ve had enough of Baptists dying from these biblical procedures–not that Baptists are likely to read the new NWT. Though this still leaves an equally bad passage in Luke 10:19: “Look! I have given you the authority to trample underfoot serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing at all will harm you.” [The thing is, though: if we were to remove all of the nonsense from the Bible it would become an extremely thin book and slide right out of our Bible cases.]

…and ‘Spuriouser!’

If they made an effort to remove spurious passages such as the above, then why not remove the spurious addition of the name Jehovah in the Christian Greek Scriptures? This is where the “translators” have become interpreters: allowing their own beliefs to alter what is before them in the source text. That’s the worst thing a translator can do.

According to the Christian Greek Scriptures, Jesus depicts his God as a loving, merciful heavenly father who cares about each sparrow and advocates pacifism. That is not at all how one could honestly describe Jehovah as depicted in the Hebrew Scriptures. Jehovah did not show mercy to the first human couple when they didn’t yet know wrong from right. He instituted a system of massive ritual animal sacrifice to appease himself (and savor the smell of burning flesh), and he ordered his people to show no mercy to their enemies as they ran their swords through every last one of them and their animals⁷. So maybe Jesus purposely avoided calling his God “Jehovah” in order to disassociate him from all of that God’s contrary characteristics; he was introducing a new concept of God very different from the Hebrew’s old God of war.⁸ That is, at least, one viable interpretation of the Christian Greek Scriptures: an interpretation which should not be rendered “out of the question” by translators dishonestly forcing the name Jehovah into the text.

What excuse do they give for allowing their beliefs to influence their translation? In the appendix they stoop to using the childish defense that other people have done it as well. [Though, as far as I can tell,  the other translators have only rendered “Lord” as Jehovah  where a direct quotation is made from the Hebrew Scriptures.] So, next time the elders take you to task for “unclean conduct” be sure to use the “Governing Body Defense:” “Other people are doing it too.”

But not only did they allow their own beliefs to corrupt the translation process, they have also included an introduction that tells their readers how the Watchtower wants them to interpret the Bible in their hands. I know that it’s their publication, and they can put whatever they want in it, but in my opinion it seems unfair to bias a person towards what it all means before allowing them to read it for themselves and draw their own conclusions [something the Watchtower never wants to happen!]

Some highlights from the Introduction:

The Bible contains God’s message, or word, for us today. It shows us how to live our lives successfully and how to gain God’s approval.

Where is the proof for these outrageous statements? The Bible cannot be any god’s message; it is too self-contradictory and loaded with factual errors, impossibilities, and condoned immoral actions. I’ve written an entire book on this point to which I would refer anyone who doubts this.

The Bible doesn’t show you how to live your life successfully. Very few Witnesses are what one could objectively call “successful.” Its advice is to let people walk all over you: turning the other cheek so that the bullies can hit you again more easily; and giving thieves double what they’ve stolen from you; and never suing or standing up for your rights!⁹ The Bible shows us that King David “gained God’s approval” by massacring entire villages¹⁰, lying¹¹, practicing polygamy¹²,  murdering his own step-sons¹³, and enslaving people¹⁴. After which the Bible relates that its God Jehovah said that David “kept my commandments and walked after me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes.” (1 Kings 14:7-8; see also: 1 Kings 15:5) I don’t think that “gaining God’s approval” in this way is a good thing. Emulating David, you’re more likely to wind up in a prison shower facing a large horny man named Bubba than in heaven facing Jehovah.

Under the heading: How Can the Bible Help Your Family? We see this biblical advice for wives:

“You wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as it is becoming in the Lord.”

“Subjection?” Is that word still in use in 21st century America? Certainly not in any positive sense. Women have freed themselves (slightly), after centuries of suffering as second-class citizens, to the point where enlightened men now recognize them as their equals. But here we have the Watchtower imposing the words of the misogynist Paul upon the modern world–as if he had any clue about modern relationships or any real sense of morality after his complicity in the murder of Stephen and others, and having struck a man blind for disagreeing with him! (Acts 7:58-8:1; 9:1; 13:9-11) Thanks, Watchtower, for trying to set the world a hundred years backwards in its moral progress.

From the Foreword:

“The Bible inspires us to reflect Jehovah’s qualities of love, mercy, and compassion.”

We can reflect upon them in shock and disgust. Here is a god that loves the smell of burning flesh. Commands his people to murder children and babies and run pregnant women through their bellies with the sword. He punishes all humankind for millennia for the sin of one couple–when that couple didn’t know right from wrong– and the only way he knows to make himself forgive us for what we didn’t do is by murdering his son! I sincerely hope no one ever reflects these qualities of Jehovah.

From Appendix A3:

“What about the 27 books of the Christian Greek Scriptures? Those books were first penned by some of the apostles of Jesus Christ and by a few other early disciples.”

Where is the evidence for this statement? Scholars are fairly certain that none of the books were penned by the apostles. They would have all been dead by the time these books made their first appearance: please see the Wikipedia article on The Authorship of the New Testament.

Appendix A6: Chart: Prophets and Kings of Judah and Israel.

All 9 discrepancies in the reigns of these kings are deceptively glossed over in the Watchtower’s chart. Please see a truthful version of this chart in my appendix to The Cure for Fundamentalism..

Here is one example:

If Omri’s reign began in the 31st year of Asa’s, and lasted 12 years (as 1 Ki. 16:23 says that it did), and if Ahab’s reign began in the 38th year of Asa’s reign (as 1 Ki. 16:29 states), then the reigns of Omri and Ahab overlapped by 5 years. However, 1 Ki. 16:28 says that Ahab began his reign after his father Omri died, so there could not have been any overlap.

Finally, the NWT chart ends with this statement:

“607 BCE: Jerusalem and its temple are destroyed by the invading Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar.”

As the Watchtower well knows, this is an erroneous date (the event occurred in 587 BCE). But they cling to this date in order to retain their equally erroneous ideas about the year 1914 (which year is also mentioned–to the everlasting shame of the publishers–in this highly biased publication purporting to be the “word of God.”)

Conclusion
The more I think about the above “spiritual food” found in the new “silver sword,” the more apropos seems the sword-swallowing analogy; it’s downright amazing what the Watchtower expects us to swallow!

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References:

1.

“Then Samuel said to Saul: “Jehovah sent me to anoint you as king over his people Israel; now listen to what Jehovah has to say. This is what Jehovah of armies says: ‘I will call to account the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they opposed them along their way coming up from Egypt.  Now go, and strike down the Amalekites, and devote them to destruction along with all that they have. You must not spare them; you are to put them to death, man as well as woman, child as well as infant, bull as well as sheep, camel as well as donkey.'””

— 1 Sam. 15:1-3 (NWT, 2013 ed.);

But King Saul spares King Agag, as well as some of the cattle (in order to sacrifice the latter to Jehovah.) This infuriates Jehovah to the point that he dethrones him, and crowns an even more merciless man in his place: David. Jehovah’s prophet then carries out Jehovah’s instructions: “With that Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before Jehovah at Gilgal.” (1 Sam. 15:33) –A story that you’ll surely want to share with your children! {sarcasm}

2.

“While inclining to view the pronunciation “Yah.weh” as the more correct way, we have retained the form “Jehovah” because of people’s familiarity with it since the 14th century.”
— New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures with References, Revised 1984, p. 23

 

“By combining the vowel signs of ‘Adho.nay’ and ‘Elo.him’ with the four consonants of the Tetragrammaton the pronunciations ‘Yeho.wah’ and ‘Yehowih’ were formed. The first of these provided the basis for the Latinized form “Jehova(h).” The first recorded use of this form dates from the thirteenth century C.E. Raymundus Martini, a Spanish monk of the Dominican Order, used it in his book Pugeo Fidei of the year 1270. Hebrew scholars generally favor “Yahweh” as the most likely pronunciation.”
–Aid to Bible Understanding, pp. 884, 885.

3.

“Why, then, does this translation use the form “Jehovah”? Because that form of the divine name has a long history in the English language. The ?rst rendering of God’s personal name in an English Bible appeared in 1530 in William Tyndale’s translation of the Pentateuch…
Explaining why he used “Jehovah” instead of “Yahweh” in his 1911 work Studies in the Psalms, respected Bible scholar Joseph Bryant Rotherham said that he wanted to employ a “form of the name more familiar (while perfectly acceptable) to the general Bible-reading public.”

— New World Translation, 2013 ed., Appendix A4, pp. 1734-1735

 

4.

“Because the entire race of Adam was in him when he was sentenced, it was condemned with him; and during the six thousand years since, it has been unable, on account of weakness, frailty, sin, to extricate itself from this divine condemnation. God has provided the Redeemer for the very purpose of lifting the death-penalty upon mankind because of the disobedience of Adam, in order that as condemnation has passed upon all because of the disobedience of one, so justification to life, through the obedience of one, might pass upon all.–Romans 5:18, 19.”

—Watchtower, May 15, 1913 p. 151

5.

“Also, it is to the spirit-anointed Christians who will rule in that kingdom that most of the Christian Greek Scriptures is directed, including the promises of everlasting life.”

— Watchtower 1974, June 15 p.376 (emphasis added)

See also: WT Quotes on the Bible being predominately for the anointed.

6.

“Some scholars see contact with religious dualism in Babylon, and early Zoroastrianism in particular, as having influenced Second Temple period Judaism, and consequently early Christianity. Subsequent development of Satan as a “deceiver” has parallels with the evil spirit in Zoroastrianism, known as the Lie, who directs forces of darkness.”

— Wikipedia: Satan

7.

“and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.”

— Deut. 7:2 (NIV)

 

“For it was the LORD himself who hardened their hearts to wage war against Israel, so that he might destroy them totally, exterminating them without mercy, as the LORD had commanded Moses.”

— Joshua 11:20 (NIV)

 

“Whoever is found will be pierced through, And whoever is caught will fall by the sword.  Their children will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, Their houses will be looted, And their wives will be raped.  Here I am raising up against them the Medes, Who regard silver as nothing And who take no delight in gold.  Their bows will shatter young men; They will show no pity on the fruit of the womb Nor mercy to children.”

—Isa:13:15-18 (NWT, 2013 ed.)

 

“The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open.”

— Hosea 13:16 (NIV)

8. (Please see Dispensing with the Hebrew Scriptures.)

9.

“Be quick to settle matters with your legal opponent, while you are with him on the way there, so that somehow the opponent may not turn you over to the judge, and the judge to the court attendant, and you get thrown into prison. However, I say to you: Do not resist the one who is wicked, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other also to him. And if a person wants to take you to court and get possession of your inner garment, let him also have your outer garment; and if someone in authority compels you into service for a mile, go with him two miles.”

—Mt 5:25;39-42 (NWT, 2013 ed.)

10.

“When David would attack the land, he preserved neither man nor woman alive, but he took the flocks, herds, donkeys, camels, and clothing, after which he would return to Achish”

—1 Sam 27:9

11.

“Then Achish would ask: “Where did you make a raid today?” David would reply: “Against the south of Judah” or “Against the south of the Jerahmeelites” or “Against the south of the Kenites.” David did not spare alive any man or woman to be brought to Gath, saying: “That they may not tell them about us and say, ‘This is what David did.'” (And that was his practice the whole time he lived in the countryside of the Philistines.) So Achish believed David, saying to himself: ‘He has certainly become a stench among his people Israel, so he will always be my servant.'”
—1 Sam. 27:10-12

12.

“David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem after he came from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to David.”

— 2 Sam. 5:13

13.

“At that [King David] said: “Whatever you say, I will do for you.”  They said to the king: “The man who exterminated us and schemed to annihilate us from living anywhere in the territory of Israel— let seven of his sons be given to us. We will hang their dead bodies before Jehovah in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen one of Jehovah.” The king then said: “I will hand them over.” … So the king took Armoni and Mephibosheth, the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah whom she bore to Saul, and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite. Then he handed them over to the Gibeonites, and they hung their dead bodies on the mountain before Jehovah.”

— 2 Sam 21:4-9

Michal had been the wife of King David (having paid her father the princely sum of 200 Philistines’ foreskins for her hand: 1 Sam. 18:25-27). So killing five of her children (fathered by Adriel) would have been killing his own step-sons. All of this despite the fact that the Bible elsewhere assures us: “So Saul’s daughter Michal had no children down to the day of her death.” (2 Sam. 6:23) –Just the sort of thing we should expect from the world’s most self-contradictory book.

14.

“And he brought out the people who were in it and put them to work at sawing stones, at working with sharp iron instruments and with iron axes, and at brickmaking. That was what he did to all the cities of the Ammonites. Finally David and all the troops returned to Jerusalem.”

—2 Sam. 12:31