Sunday, December 27, 2009

1914 and "Crisis of Conscience"

In defense of the failed watchtower dates set in the past for all those events that they erroneously foretold,all the while attributing them to God in various phraseologies,you will often hear Jehovah's Witnesses defend the society,saying that the organization never said they were infallible or inspired.JW's will absolutely break out a plethora of quotes to prove that these men said they "did not know" and hence are NOT false prophets.I was one of those Jehovah's witnesses.I even wrote a blog defending them pertinaciously in regards to these matters.I was ill informed,however and decided to remove that particular blog.Here's why.And much of this is inspired by or taken directly from the HIGHLY recommended,especially for Jehovah's Witnesses,book "Crisis of Conscience" written by former governing body member Raymond Franz,a meek and well intentioned Christian who wanted to expose the hypocrisy and injustice,having witnessed it closely himself,within the society's operations.I want to make a very serious point for the Jehovah's witnesses reading this..I mean this earnestly& sincerely.You are NOT reading a book that will kill you more quickly then pornography would if you read this book.You are reading something that may save you from "putting your trust in men,in whom no salvation belongs".It is a MUST read.Don't let anyone stop you!And no it didn't cause me to disassociate from the society..I was already resolved to do that before I ever touched this book.What I found when I opened it was a man after my own heart,propagating truth and justice for those who I think he really loves,Jehovah's witnesses.Now I really don't need to go over the various dates that have been set by various men within the society,some of which didn't originate with the WT society or Charles Taze Russell but other men or sects from whom they just borrowed them,changing the meaning of them when their expectations weren't fulfilled after the dates had come and gone(because they had to!)..pushing dates forward or simply redefining what they mean,as they did with 1914.First it meant the absolute end..now it just means "invisible presence" which conveniently for them is impossible to disprove.It's like trying to disprove an imaginary friend.Suffice to say Jesus didn't preach it and if it is the good news of the kingdom then the apostles weren't preaching the good news of the kingdom..No need to add to the bible's succint good news with speculation.No need to keep haughtily setting dates when it reality you should've humbled yourself long ago and ceased from doing so,having been humiliated with falsely proclaiming them over and over in the past.The bible even lets us know it isn't up to us to know these things.

Acts 1:7:He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority."(Really,nothing more even needs to be said as powerful as Jesus's words are..)


Judge Rutherford said of his predictions about 1925,which was when he said Christ's millenial rule would be fully manifest on earth,"I know I made an ass of myself"

And to quote Ray Franz,as I will be doing frequently in blogs if I continue writing on this, as his words are much more eloquent than mine and his wisdom is far more pronounced ..
"It is one thing for a man to make an "ass" of himself because of wanting to see something happen.It is quite another thing for him to urge others to share his views,to criticize them if they do not,even to question their faith or impugn their motives if they do not see the matter as he sees it"..p 174,"Crisis of Conscience"

Now these points Franz makes are still very much relevant today.If you question 1914,you aren't just questioning men or an organization,you are questioning "Jehovah's sole channel of communication","Jehovah's appointed faithful and discreet slave class".You suddenly get to bear titles that would degrade anyone's integrity were they true such as "apostate","spiritually weak","worldy" ,"the walking dead","bad association" etc,especially with no eventual conformity.In other words,to question the society is thought of as the equivalent of questioning God himself,ultimately.The literature encourages this thinking.As will be evidenced later in other blogs as I reveal more realities Franz exposes within the organization.Ray goes on to say,and I think this information is relevant when JW's tell us the apostles had the SAME KINDS of premature expectations as they did.Please keep in mind the apostles ASKED Christ what was going to happen as opposed to claiming it as God's proclamation and proceeding to propagate it to countless people for decades..numerous times.


"It is still more serious for an organization representing itself as God's appointed spokesman to all mankind to do this--and to do it,not for a few days or months,but for years,even decades,repeatedly,on an earthwide basis.This kind of responsibility CANNOT be shrugged off by saying "well..nobody's perfect"..No one is but everyone of us bears a responsibility for what we do.And that is especially so when our actions may dramatically affect something as important and personal as others' relationship with God...No less serious is it when a group of men have DIVIDED views on predictions related to a certain date and yet present to their adherents an outward appearance of UNITED confidence,encouraging those adherents to place unwavering trust in those predictions"..p174 ,"Crisis of Conscience"

From these revelations from a former governing body member himself,we can discern that the WT is far from honest or at least certainly hides information,giving false impressions.We are expected to assume that Christ is working through each anointed member of the governing body and that they would be in full agreement on every matter before they force us to,but no..they are divided..Again,this screams injustice!How can we trust divided opinions to be from God?And why are we expected to adhere to an opinion that the bible isn't clear enough about for a few men to all agree on it because it isn't a succint bible belief,presented indisputably?How in the world could someone justifiably not be considered a real acceptable saved sheep for questioning something that precarious?If God is a God of justice and his sheep in the past have questioned these men's PROVEN lies and were punished in whatever way for it,why would that be acceptable to God?



Observe the following quotes from the WT magazine.I think they are beyond revealing and should be acknowledged by JW's in application to themselves as opposed to being applied to everyone BUT themselves.I repeat :the JW's should not be exempt from their own standards!How would that be fair?Again,God hates hypocrisy and DEMANDS fairness.

from April 1,1972 Watchtower

"Of course,it is easy to see that this group acts as a "prophet" of God.It is another thing to prove it.The only way that this can be done is to review the record.What does it show?"

Well,when I review the record I find men who have falsely made predictions that they said were God's dates while saying that they were acting as God's mouthpiece and God's channel of communication,saying that to question their speculations would be the equivalent of questioning God and Christ(proof below),then when their lies didn't come to pass blaming it again on God.Never truly repenting but instead using propagandist language to make the "rank and file" believe that they never did anything wrong at all.


One example of comparing questioning them to questioning the Lord:

from May 1,1922 WT

"To repudiate him(Charles Russell) is the equivalent to a repudiation of the Lord."


Yikes.Check out this one

May 15 1922 WT

"the Lord has placed the stamp of his seal upon 1914 and 1918 beyond any possibility of erasure."

from May 1 ,1997 Watchtower

"Jehovah God is the Grand Identifier of his true messengers.He identifies them by making the messages he delivers through them come true.Jehovah is also the Great Exposer of false messengers.He frustrates their signs and predictions.In this way he shows that they are self appointed prognosticators,whose messages really spring from their own false reasoning--yes,their foolish,fleshly thinking!"

Wow!That's from 1997.Amazing.And I am seriously not trying to be sarcastic.I am just stunned.

Suffice to say that all the events that supposedly took place in 1914 acc to the JW's today were attributed to DIFFERENT dates in the past .I have no idea at this point why this one lasted at all after "reviewing the record".In 1874 they said the end would come..it didn't .So instead "Christ's invisible presence" did.The end was also supposed to occur in 1914 and since it didn't "Christ's invisible presence" did..Notice a pattern here?"New light" seems to flash usually when a false prediction doesn't come to pass and is forced upon the society as opposed to any honestly genuine enlightening truth from Jehovah through Christ.I would urge anyone to hesitate before presuming this date came straight from God.Remember,do what the WT says and first "review the record" to make sure.What do YOU find?

More on this later.

3 comments:

  1. Peace and grace,
    The only way to God is His onlybegotten: Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the true light forever. And this is suficient. 1914 is not from Him. Adventists teach firs.
    Good blog.
    God bless you!
    John

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm very thankful to the author for posting such an amazing post.

    ReplyDelete