Glenster's Guide to GTJ Brooklyn
An examination of the credibility of the Jehovah's Witnesses' leaders' claims
My focus is an examination of the credibility of the Jehovah's Witnesses'
leaders' claims:
- that they're picked by Jesus from a literal 144,000 of the most righteous
Christians in Christian history, the only ones
who will go to heaven, to lead
God's sole spirit-led organization on Earth, and
- that the best evidence
and reasoning proves their most distinctive rules
are required by a conservative interpretation of the Bible.
Among those claims I examine are that the Bible bans the transfusion of blood
and major blood components, most government
involvement as too worldly, and
calls for shunning for persistent disagreement with any of the JWs leaders' dis-
tinctive
rules.
I show evidence that in these efforts the JWs leaders' misrepresented research
books as though supportive that
weren't, used forced points, omitted pertinent
evidence, mischaracterized opposing views, misepresented their own bad track
record
on predictions, etc.
I'm particularly concerned when such examples lead to any unnecessary divi-
sions between people or to anyone
being hurt or killed (as has happened when
friends or family have been separated, and when followers have been hurt or
killed
in hospitals, Germany in the 1930's and 1940's, Malawi in the 1960's,
etc.).
I hope anyone, of whatever belief or non-belief choice, feels welcome to check
out this evidence. Anyone
might have JWs come to their door or have a friend or
loved one become a follower of the JWs leaders.
Copyright 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 Glen T. Winstein
All other trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by
their respective trademark and
copyright holders.
Thanks to Valve, the makers of "Half-Life 2" (PC version), 2004, for the game
I used for most of the screenshots,
Kelly Bailey for the song "Tracking De-
vice" (aka "HL1_song25_REMIX3") from the end of HL2 for the song used on the
first
page, the makers of the HL2 mod "SMOD" for a few of the HL2 screenshots
that have extra weapons and a gas can, and Rockstar
North, the makers of "Grand
Theft Auto: San Andreas" (PC version), 2005, for the game I used for a couple
of screenshots.
Thanks to Randall Watters and Free Minds, Inc., for having the freeminds.org
web site give the link to the
freewebs version of this web site.
http://www.freeminds.org/
This web site isn't affiliated with or endorsed by, or associated in any way
with, The Watch Tower Bible and
Tract Society of Pennsylvania, New York, or any other Watch Tower Society affiliate, division, corporation, or entity.
The links to web sites found in this article are intended to help research the
aspects of it I refer to--not
necessarily to endorse all the views found at
those web sites.
Index
Page
1 Introduction
Conformity to exclusiveness is required by
the JWs leaders
How I analyze the JWs leaders' claims of exclusiveness
Prophecy claims intended to reinforce distinctive claims
The ability of the JWs leaders to guarantee meanings of scripture
beyond what context indicates
Providing evidence of a liar that causes harm isn't
editorial intolerance
for sincere belief in being good
My focus
****
1a Actual Jehovah's Witnesses leaders' history (compare to p.9)
Gaining False Profits
JWs leaders' history
Borrowed origin of
some basic doctrines
Another original church is being restored from a Great Apostasy
Charles Taze Russell
John Aquila Brown
William Miller
New light
George Storrs and George Stetson
Joseph Seiss
Pyramidology
Jonas Wendell
Nelson H. Barbour
Sales
Prophecies intended to shore up
a weak case
Prediction: End Times of the Gentiles--1914
144,000
Zionism
Health insurance payments
You don't know hell till you've read Russell
You shouldn't be
superstitious about a war, earthquake, etc., being a sign
of the end
unless there's a war part one
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc., are coming back to run
things
Israel will be recreated in 1914--the millennium will be "Israelitish"
You shouldn't be superstitious about a war, earthquake, etc., being a sign
of the end unless there's a war part two
Armageddon is Biblically, historically,
and scientifically shown to end
the end times in 1914, or Oct. of 1915
or 1914, or at least begin the
end of the end in 1914, and end in 1914...or
1915...or a few years
after 1916, or maybe I just don't know
Nice little pup dogs and flowers are unimportant
Kind understanding
for "inferiors" part one--darker skinned people
Love and money: Miracle Wheat and
Charles' divorce from Maria
Kind understanding for "inferiors" part two--women
Who is this Russell that the winds and the seas don't obey him?
1914
Scientific reasons for predictions about 1914:
"The Photo-Drama of Creation"
You shouldn't be superstitious about a war, earthquake,
etc., being a sign
of the end unless there's a war part three
Joseph F. Rutherford
"The Finished Mystery"
1919 and Theocratic Selective Service
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc., are
coming back to run things, and they're
going to live in one of Rutherford's
mansions and drive one of his Cad-
illac V-16s
Satanic celebration of the birth of Christ
Rutherford shoves Charles
Russell out of the lime"light"
Human governments are led by Satan (Rom.13:1-7?)
Invisible browsing from heaven part one
Intolerance for dissent
The name Jehovah's Witnesses
Satanic Mother's Day
Strict regimentation
The great crowd/the birthday deadline for those
who can go to heaven
Jesus was nailed to a tree
1a
cont. Shun the blight of so-called "love"--only marry for sex
Having
children is discouraged
Nathan H. Knorr
If Jerusalem won't
come to Fred Franz, then Fred Franz will move Jerusalem
Satanic birthday cupcakes
Satanic Christian charity
Satanic efforts for human rights
Satanic fellowshipping
JWs leaders tell followers to stop worshipping their
created Jesus
Satanic fellowshipping with the disfellowshipped
Jesus was blown up
Satanic personality--as in "practically any"
1919 starts to take on the present JWs leaders' definition
Satanic Chubby
Satanic
higher education
Satanic worship of Apollo 11
The beginning of control by the Governing Body
Frederick W. Franz
Satanic sand the
floor, wax on--wax off, paint the fence
Dowsing for evidence
Signs of The End
Satanic birthday cupcakes, Christmas trees, etc.
Satanic higher ed. is for selfish gain and deprives JWs leaders of the
results of JWs' literature sales time
Milton George Henschel
Invisible browsing
from heaven part two
Lemon Pledge
Satanic homosexuality
History rewritten to make it seem like a JWs
leader predicted something
Don Alden Adams
History
rewritten again to make it seem like a JWs leader predicted
something
about 1914 and 1918/1919
Intelligent design
We must preserve the sanctity of our stance on blood--truth and others'
lives, we're not crazy about
The deadline for how late a JW can have been born, 1935,
and be able to
join the 144,000, which the JWs leaders claim to belong
to, is dropped
The GB declares itself the only Faithful
and Discreet Slave
The GB increases marketing and appears on the Internet
The GB requires "theocratic warfare" about child abuse
A few highlights in summary
Playing prophet
badly is harder to pull off on TV
1b How to be a false prophet
1c Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem in 586/587 BC, not 607 BC
as claimed by the JWs leaders, according to secular sources, the Bible,
and even the JWs leaders
Secular sources
The Bible
The JWs leaders
Complaints about
the JWs leaders' use of reference material:
the issue of determining
when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem
****
1d Recordings
1e Photos
****
2 A batch of basics
The big low end of the corporate ladder
The small high end of the corporate ladder
Big G's and little
g's
****
3 You need to hear both sides give their case
and weigh evidence against gossip
before rendering judgment
Disfellowshipping
4 Theocratic warfare
Peer pressure
5 Persecution
The Watchtower outlooks on worldliness
The Watchtower outlooks on neutrality
The Watchtower efforts to
claim the right religion regarding war
The Watchtower outlooks on freedom
of speech
Complaints about the JWs leaders' use of reference material:
the issue of pedophilia
6 Controversies about JWs leaders and the fatalities of followers during
WWII
The Declaration of Facts
Timeline of JWs leaders in regard to human government, war, propaganda,
and persecution
Subservience unto pain of death
6a "Enemies"--a record by Rutherford (see 1937 on the timeline on p.6)
****
6b Translation concerns
The identity intended by the Bible for
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Various issues are covered, the most notable one being that the JWs leaders
change "Lord" to "Jehovah" in a
lot of cases mainly to prevent the reader from
thinking Jesus was prayed to as Lord.
Get a couple of Bibles for reference
Yahweh,
not your way or his way or their way
Honoring a god by falling forward in obesity
Presence
Complaints about the JWs leaders' use of reference material:
the issue of the identity of Jesus and the holy spirit
Context requires it be
the context I require
In other words
Deliberations of translations
God is thy throne
"A god"--Jesus as archangel Michael the Messiah god who was called "Lord"
too much and not called "Michael" at all
How many gods got a good God bod
if a good God could bod gods?
Human judges as gods part one: John 10; Psalms 82:1-8
Human judges as gods part two
Angelic gods part one
Angelic gods part two
Where did gods of nations go?
Sons of a God
God in earliest Christianity
7 The JWs leaders' make a pretense that rationalism decides the case--why it
doesn't.
Forced points
The understandability issue
Omniscience and the ability to create ex nihilo (exnihilation)
8 Stances on verses
Various issues are covered, the most notable being that Jesus was prayed to
and worshipped and referred to
as the Lord of the Shema, even with "My God and
my Lord" (three of the notable ways 1st century Jews indicated belief in
God
were prayer, worship, and the "one God one Lord" Shema, and all three were ap-
plied to Jesus in the NT), the bad
case for Jesus = Michael, etc.
Omission of pertinent evidence and quotes used out of context
to create a different conclusion
Detective work made easy
JWs leaders' literature on the Trinity
Early JWs leaders' literature on the Trinity
"Should You Believe in the Trinity?" Watchtower brochure, 1989 onward
The word "Trinity" is not in the Bible
Monotheism
Firstborn
Beginning
Prov.8:22-31
The Devil tempted/tested Jesus three times
Ransom
The company cuts back on beneficiaries
Only-begotten
The Son of God
No one has ever seen God
Mediator
Mighty God/Almighty God
Is God Always Superior to Jesus?
Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.
Jesus submissive
This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased
My God,
my God, why have you forsaken me?
Crucifixion
What miracles were meant to convey
The time of the second coming
Jesus learned obedience
Jesus at God's right hand
All in all
The Father is greater than I
Holy spirit personal or active force
God
omnipresent or in a location
Proof verses
The threefold formula
I and the father are one
John 5:18
Philippians 2:6
I am
John 1:1
My Lord and my God!
Archangel Michael
Prayer and worship
Prayer to Jesus
Stephen
Prayer and worship for Jesus
Latreuo
Jesus forgave sins
Criticism for JWs leaders and patience
for followers
9 Related history
Where the earliest writers with the best connections indicate which view they
believed in, they indicate the
basic mainstream view.
Jehovah's Witnesses leaders versus early Christian history
(compare to p.1a)
Complaints about the JWs leaders' use of reference
material:
the issue of early Christian history and related research material
Hellenism and Middle Platonism
A few Christians whose writings appeared
early other than the early church
fathers that are brought up in the
Watchtower literature mentioned below
The early church fathers described by
"Should You Believe in the Trinity?"
10 How the two views compare
The mainstream view has the better case because....
Where I stand on the eternal Jesus and personal spirit/created Jesus and
impersonal holy spirit comparison
****
11 Some of the Watch Tower/JWs leaders' history of rulings about blood and
the medical use of it
You can have ham, lettuce, tomato, or bread, but you can't
have a ham
sandwich
Blood
transfusions aren't the only things the Watchtower leaders have had
distinctive
medical ideas or rules about
A brief summary of what a claimed Biblical guarantee
of the JWs leaders'
blood transfusion ban has to contend with
Judging something on its own terms
12 Some information about blood removal
13 A partial history of interpretations of "abstain from...blood"
13a Related history
14 Complaints about the JWs leaders' use of reference material:
the issue of the medical use of blood and major blood fractions
The
children of JWs
14a Some of the medical uses of blood and major blood products
Blood transfusion risks and alternatives
Complications and risks
Blood transfusion substitutes
Blood transfusion safety
Blood transfusions compared to eating blood
15 The scriptures and interpretation choices regarding
the JWs leaders' ban of the medical use of blood and major blood fractions
Pre-Mosaic Law
Gen.9:3,4 and related Genesis
verses
Degree of blood removal
Binding on
the whole world thereafter
Pre-Gen.9:3-6 verses
16 More connections to make with earlier verses and Gen.9:1-6
17 Mosaic law in the Old Testament
18 The pour and bury verses
Animals found dead
19 Related ideas of Mosaic law
21 The conservative theology of the need for offerings and sacrifices
22 The system of offerings and sacrifices
26 Mosaic law continues in Jesus' pre-crucifixion years in the New Testament
Mark 7:1-23; Matt.15:1-20
28 Post-Mosaic law/post-crucifixion (Rom.3:19-26; 10:14; Gal.3:13; Heb.9:13-15;
and others)
31 Acts 10:9-16;25-28,34,35,39-45; 11:1-18
Some related history
about the Gentiles
33 Acts 13:38,39; 14:14,26-28; 15:1-31
34 The Council of Jerusalem
35 The basics of the religious rules deliberated on
at the Council of Jerusalem
The common view and the JWs leaders' view of the four
rules
The common view (aka "the because of the Jews view")
The JWs leaders' view
36 Acts 16:1-5
Acts 21:17-26
Rom.13:13
Rom. 14-15:3, etc.
37 Rom.13:13; Rom.16:27; 1 Cor.6:9
1 Cor.8-11:1,17-34
39 2 Corinthians 6:14-18
Gal.2
Col.2:16-23
Col.3:5
1 Tim.4:1-10
1 Tim.1:10
40 Heb.9, 10, and 12:24
41 Rev.2:12-14
Rev.2:20-22
Rev.2:24,25
Discounting the JWs leaders' blood transfusion ban on the JWs leaders' own
terms
42 Appendix
Saul's army
Cut off
****
43 God's prerogative, human ethics, and a sign of God or of "not God"
People shouldn't be too 'centric
(including about belief
or non-belief in God)
****
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