Beroean Pickets – JW.org Reviewer

Shawn has been baptized for six years, but is having issues with some of the teachings of the organization. In situations like this, are the elders interested in helping the sheep, or are they more interested in enforcing compliance?

By Sheryl Bogolin    Email sbogolin@hotmail.com The first congregational meeting of Jehovah's Witnesses that I attended with my family was held in the basement of a home filled with many, many chairs. Although I was only 10 years old, I found it to be rather intriguing. The young woman I sat next to raised her hand and answered a question from the Watchtower magazine. I whispered to her, “Do it again.” She did. Thus began my complete immersion into the religion known as Jehovah's Witnesses. My father was the first one in our family to pursue an interest in the religion, probably because his older brother was already one of Jehovah's Witnesses. My mother agreed to a home Bible study only to prove the Witnesses wrong. We four kids were dragged in from our playtime outside and reluctantly sat in on the weekly study, although the discussions were often beyond our understanding and sometimes we nodded off. But I must have gotten something out of those studies. Because I began talking with my friends about Bible topics on a regular basis. In fact, I wrote a term paper in 8th grade entitled: “Are You Afraid of Hell?” That caused quite a stir among my classmates. It was also when I was about 13 years old that I got into a debate with a householder, who obviously knew more about the Bible than I did. Finally, in frustration, I said: “Well, we might not get everything right, but at least we're out here preaching!” All six of us in the family were baptized within a couple years of each other. My baptism date was April 26, 1958. I was not quite 13 years of age. As my whole family was quite outgoing and gregarious, it was almost easy for us to knock on doors and start up conversations with people about the Bible. My sister and I both started regular pioneering as soon as we graduated from High School in the early '60s. In view of the fact that I would have made the eighth regular pioneer in our home congregation, we decided to go where the “need was greater”. The Circuit Servant recommended that we assist a congregation in Illinois about 30 miles away from our childhood home. We initially lived with a dear Witness family of five, which soon became six. So we found an apartment and invited two sisters from our original congregation to live and pioneer with us. And help us with expenses! We jokingly called ourselves 'Jephthah's Daughters'. (Because we figured we might all remain single.) We had good times together. Though it was necessary to count our pennies, I never felt like we were poor. Back in the early '60's, I think about 75% of the householders in our territory actually were at home and would answer their door. Most were religious and willing to talk to us. Many were anxious to defend their own religious beliefs. As were we! We took our ministry very seriously. We each had a few regular Bible studies. We used either the “Good News” booklet or the “Let God Be True” book. In addition, I tried to include a 5-10 minute segment at the end of each study which was nicknamed “DITTO”.--.Direct Interest To The Organization. Within the congregation, we were also busy. Since our new congregation was small with a limited number of qualified brothers, both my sister and I were assigned to fill positions of “servants”, such as the “Territory Servant”. We even had to conduct the Congregation Book Study sometimes although a baptized brother was present. That was a little uncomfortable. In 1966, my sister and I applied for the special pioneer work and were assigned to a small congregation in Wisconsin. About that same time my parents sold their house and bakery and moved to Minnesota as pioneers. Later they entered the Circuit work. With the last name of Sovereign. they fit right in. Our congregation in Wisconsin was also small, about 35 publishers. As special pioneers, we spent 150 hours a month in the field service and each received $50 a month from the Society, which had to cover rent, food,

When is Nisan 14 in 2020 (Jewish Calendar Year 5780)? New Moon in the Western Sky begins the lunar month. The Jewish Calendar consists of 12 lunar months of 29.5 days each, bringing the “return of the year” in 354 days, falling short by 11 and one-quarter days of the solar year length.  So the first problem in determining the date is to choose which new moon will mark the first month of the sacred year (as opposed to the start of the agricultural year which is 6 months latter). In the 4th century of our common era the rabbi Hillel II established an official Jewish Calendar that has been in use since then.  A 13th lunar month is added 7 times in 19 years to make up the shortfall.  The long years (13 months) occur at the end of years 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17 and 19 in the cycle, which is named for the Greek astronomer, Meton, who first devised it in the fifth century before our common era. This cycle pattern is similar to the black keys on the piano, representing the grouping of long years. Piano Key pattern of 13-month years in 19 year Metonic Cycle This means that by simply observing the calendar, we can determine which years correspond to this pattern of long years.  Since the 20th century the first year on the Jewish calendar in the 19-year groups began in 1902, and again in 1921, 1940, 1959, 1978, 1997, and 2016. The first 13-month year of the current cycle occurred in 2019, corresponding with C# on the piano scales as year 3. Jehovah’s Witnesses have followed this same pattern since the first World War.  However, their first year in the cycle occurs 14 years after the Jewish system, or 5 years earlier in the over-lapping scale of time. So in 2020, the Jewish calendar is at year 5 (12 months), while the Witnesses are at year 10 (also 12 months.)  The mis-matches between the two parallel systems occur in years 1, 9 and 12 of the Jewish system, when those years are short, whereas the Witnesses are observing long years 6, 14, and 17 at the same corresponding time.  Likewise, while the Jews are observing adar-adar, their 13th month in their years 3 and 14, Witnesses are starting Nisan a month earlier. This means that although Witnesses claim to follow the Jewish passover for Nisan 14, in 5 out of 19 years, there is a month difference in setting the date for Nisan 14. According to this for 2020 (5780) both systems have a short year, with Nisan starting with the new moon just after the spring equinox.  That astronomical conjunction  of the moon and the sun will occur at 11:29 am on March 24th (28th day of the Jewish month Adar) Jerusalem time, with the sun setting just before 6 pm. In order for a star or a dark face moon to be visible, the sun must be at least 8 degrees below the horizon, and the body observed must be 3 degrees above the horizon.  Therefore, the new moon will not be visible in Jerusalem that evening, even with the best weather, and the next day will be the 29th of Adar. The moon moves to the left of the sun when the sun is high in the sky in its daily arc, or it appears to rise above it at sunset at the rate of one diameter per hour or 0.508 degrees of arc out of 360.  Therefore to separate from the sun by the required 11 degrees, at least 22 hours of time must elapse after the time of conjunction or point of passing in the observed sky. Sunset the next evening in Jerusalem on March 25th will occur at 5:54 pm local time (GMT+2), when the sun will descend below the horizon. Thirty-two minutes later the sun will be 8 degrees below the horizon, but the lunar month’s astronomical age will be 30.5 hours old, placing the moon about 7 degrees above the horizon, allowing for a visual sighting.  Therefore, Witnesses will start their month of Nisan at sunset on Wednesday March 25th.  This means that Nisan 14 will begin at sunset on Tuesday, April 7th, which is the evening set for the Memorial observance at Kingdom Halls and places of meeting.

After leaving the religion of Jehovah's Witnesses, many lose their faith in the existence of God. It seems that these ones had faith not in Jehovah but in the organization, and with that gone, so was their faith. These often turn to evolution which is built on the premise that all things evolved by random chance. Is there proof of this, or can it be disproved scientifically? Likewise, can the existence of God be proven by science, or is it just a matter of blind faith? This video will attempt to answer these questions.

Review of the November 2018 Study Watchtower article, "Trust in Jehovah and Live".

A review of the November 2018 WT Article, “I will walk in your Truth”

“For God “subjected all things under his feet.” But when he says that ‘all things have been subjected,’ it is evident that this does not include the One who subjected all things to him.” (1Co 15:27)

[Review of ws 11/18 p. 3 December 31 - January 6] "Buy truth and never sell it, also wisdom and discipline and understanding."—Pr 23:23 Paragraph 1 contains a comment with which most, if not all, will agree: “Our most precious possession is our relationship with Jehovah, and we would not trade it for anything.” That sums up the writer’s position. That is why I am here and writing such reviews. I was brought up as a JW and developed a love for truth. I always said to householders that if someone could prove from the Scriptures that some of what I believed was wrong, then I would change my beliefs, as I wanted to serve Jehovah and Jesus Christ in truth. That someone proved to be myself. Hence my presence here. I am not prepared to trade my relationship with Jehovah and Jesus for believing and teaching falsehood. No doubt most, if not all of you, our dear readers, are in a similar situation. Paragraph 2 highlights some ‘truths’ taught by the Organization, but sadly not all are really taught by Jehovah in his word. “He reveals the truth about his meaningful name and his appealing qualities.” “He informs us about the outstanding provision of the ransom, which he lovingly provided for us by means of his Son, Jesus.” “Jehovah also informs us about the Messianic Kingdom,” (All above, true) “and he sets before the anointed the heavenly hope and before the “other sheep” the hope of the earthly Paradise.” The Organization does, but Jehovah and Jesus do not. A short summary showing this to be wrong is as follows: There are only two types of resurrection mentioned, that of the righteous and the unrighteous. Not the super righteous, the righteous and the unrighteous. (Acts 24:15) We can all be “sons of God” not just a small group. (Galatians 3:26-29) Lack of clear Scriptural evidence for a heavenly hope.[i] The little flock was natural Israel becoming one flock with the greater flock of Gentiles. “He teaches us how we should conduct ourselves” (true)  What does it mean “to buy truth” (Par.4-6) “The Hebrew word translated “buy” at Proverbs 23:23 can also mean “acquire.” Both words imply making an effort or exchanging something for an item of value” (Par. 5) Paragraph 6 sets the scene for the next section as it says “let us consider five things that we may have to pay to buy truth.”. We shall examine these 5 things carefully, after all they may be fake goods or unnecessarily expensive from the JW market stall as compared to the producer's stall, that of Jehovah and Christ Jesus. What have you given up to buy truth? (Par.7-17) Clearly the focus of this entire article is not what efforts we should make to acquire truth, but reminding us how much we have given up to become and remain Witnesses. It could be argued that this is a cynical way of blackmailing us into remaining Witnesses as we may have invested so much. When people are reminded of how much they have invested in something that promised so much and now serious questions about its true value are being asked, for many it is too much to contemplate accepting the losses and moving on.  Investors have held on to a stock all the way down to zero rather than get out and take a partial lost, all in the vain hope of a rally that never came. It is likewise with the Organization’s offer of truth. It is very expensive, and it needs careful examination to see if it should be purchased at all. If we have purchased it, as most of us here have, are we prepared to cut our losses now that we are seeing it has been greatly overvalued? Paragraph 7 discusses Time. “Time. This is a price everyone who buys truth must pay. It takes time to listen to the Kingdom message, read the Bible and Bible literature, have a personal Bible study, and prepare for and attend congregation meetings.” This is true as far as it goes. It does take time to do these things. However, reading Bible literature is not a scriptural requirement nor a necessity,

There is a key problem with Jehovah's Witnesses that transcends all the other sins the organization is guilty of. Identifying this issue will help us to understand what is really the problem with JW.org and whether there's any hope of fixing it.

A Elder of over 40 years in Britain relates his story of being found by Christ.

While we may look back on much of our time spent serving the Organization of Jehovah's Witnesses with regret of misspent years, there is ample reason to look at those years in a positive light.

How can we deal with the emotional trauma we experience when awakening from the indoctrination of JW.org? What's it all about? Can we distill everything down to a simple, revealing truth?

In this new series, we will answer the question asked by all those who awaken from the false teachings of JW.org: "Where do I go from here?"

https://youtu.be/1toETj1oh9U I’ve been looking forward to doing this final video in our series, Identifying True Worship. That’s because this is the only one that really matters. Let me explain what I mean.  Through the previous videos, it has been instructive to show how using the very criteria the Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses uses to show all other religions are false also shows that the Witness religion is false.  They don’t measure up to their own criteria.  How did we not see that!?  As a Witness myself, for years I was busy picking the straw out of other people’s eye while being totally unaware of the rafter in my own eye. (Mt 7:3-5) However, there is a problem with using this criteria.  The problem is that the Bible doesn’t use any of it when giving us a way to identify true worship.  Now before you go, “Whoa, teaching truth isn’t important?!  Being no part of the world, not important?!  Sanctifying God’s name, preaching the good news, obeying Jesus—all not important?!” No, of course they are all important, but as a means of identifying true worship, they leave much to be desired. Take, for example, the criterion of adhering to Bible truth.  By that measure, according to this individual, Jehovah’s Witnesses fail. Now I don’t believe the Trinity represents Bible truth.  But say you are looking to find Jesus’ true disciples.  Who are you going to believe? Me?  Or the fellow?  And what are you going to do to figure out who’s got the truth? Go into months of deep Bible study? Who has the time?  Who has the inclination?  And what about the millions who simply lack the mental capacity or educational background for such an arduous task? Jesus said that the truth would be hidden from “wise and intellectual ones”, but ‘revealed to babes or young children’.  (Mt 11:25)  He wasn’t implying that you have to be dumb to know the truth, nor that if you’re smart, you’re out of luck, because you just won’t get it.  If you read the context of his words, you’ll see he is referring to attitude.  A young child, say a five-year-old, will run to his mommy or daddy when he has a question.  He doesn’t do that by the time he reaches 13 or 14 because by that time he knows all there is know and thinks his parents just don’t get it.  But when he was very young, he relied on them.  If we are to understand truth, we must run to our Father and through his Word, get the answer to our questions.  If we are humble, he will give us his holy spirit and it will guide us into truth. It’s like we’ve all given the same codebook, but only some of us have the key to unlock the code. So, if you’re looking for the true form of worship, how do you know which ones have the key; which ones have broken the code; which ones have the truth? At this point, maybe you’re feeling a little lost.  Maybe you feel you’re not that intelligent and fear you might be easily deceived.  Maybe you have been deceived before and are afraid of going down the same path again.  And what about the millions around the world who cannot even read?  How can such ones distinguish between the true disciples of Christ and the counterfeit ones? Jesus wisely gave us the only criterion that will work for everyone when he said: “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples—if you have love among yourselves.”” (John 13:34, 35)[i] I have to admire how our Lord was able to say so much with so few words.  What a wealth of meaning is to be found packed into these two sentences.  Let’s start with the phrase: “By this all will know”. “By this all will know” I don’t care what your IQ is; I don’t care about your level of education; I don’t care about your culture, race, nationality, sex, nor age—as a human, you understand what love is and you can recognize when it is there, and you know when it is missing.

In the August, 2018 Broadcast on JW.org, Governing Body member, Stephen Lett, utilizes a questionable rendering of Ephesians 4:8 to promote the idea that we should obey the elders submissively and without question. Is this a Scriptural view?

Is the Cry of Peace and Security a final sign before the end, or have Witnesses gotten this wrong? There is real danger in not understanding the true meaning of Paul's words.

Hello everyone. My name’s Eric Wilson. Welcome to Beroean Pickets. In this series of videos, we have been examining ways to identify true worship using the criteria laid down by the Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Since these criteria are used by Witnesses to dismiss other religions as false, it seems only fair to measure the Organization known as JW.org by the same yardstick, wouldn’t you agree? Oddly enough, in my experience, I’ve found that when dealing with true-blue Witnesses, failure to meet these criteria doesn’t change anything.  The rule seems to be, if other religions fail these criteria, that proves they are false, but if we do so, it only proves that there are things which Jehovah has yet to correct.  Why do they feel that way?  Because, we are the true religion. There really is no reasoning with this type of thinking because it is not based on reason. Please understand that the criteria we are using are those established by the Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses.  We’re using their measuring stick, and so far, we’ve seen they fail to measure up. Jesus said, “Stop judging that you may not be judged; for with the judgment you are judging, you will be judged, and with the measure that you are measuring out, they will measure out to you.” (Matthew 7:1, 2) From here on out, we’ll be using the criteria that Jesus gave us to determine who are his disciples? Who are true worshipers? Witnesses believe that truth in worship is of prime importance, but really, who has all the truth?  And even if we did, would that make us acceptable to God?  Paul told the Corinthians, “if I…understand all the sacred secrets and all knowledge…but do not have love, I am nothing.”  So, 100% accuracy in truth is not, in and of itself, a mark of true worship.  Love is. I will grant you that truth is important, but not the having of it, but rather the desiring of it.  Jesus told the Samaritan woman that the true worshipers would worship the Father in spirit and in truth, not with spirit and with truth as the New World Translation mistakenly renders John 4:23, 24. In this simple sentence, Jesus says so much.  First, that worship is of the Father.  We don’t worship the universal sovereign—a term not found in Scripture, but our heavenly Father.  Thus, true worshipers are children of God, not simply friends of God.  Second, the spirit is “in” them.  They worship “in spirit”.  How could true worshipers be anything other than spirit anointed ones?  God’s spirit guides and motivates them.  It transforms them and produces fruitage that is pleasing to the Father.  (See Galatians 5:22, 23) Third, they worship “in truth”.  Not with truth as if it were a possession—something apart of them—but in truth.  Truth dwells in the Christian.  As it fills you, it pushes out falsehood and deceit.  You will seek it out, because you love it.  Real disciples of Christ love truth.  Paul, speaking of opposers, said that such ones “are perishing, as a retribution because they did not accept”—notice—"the love of the truth in order that they might be saved.” (2 Thessalonians 2:10)  “The love of the truth.” So now, finally, in this series of videos, we come to the one criterion that Jesus gave as a means for all to discern who his true disciples really are. “I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples—if you have love among yourselves.” (John 13:34, 35) Love for one another identifies us as true disciples; but not just any love, but rather, the type of love Jesus showed for us. Notice that he didn’t say that all will know you have the true religion by your love.  You might have experienced a truly loving congregation in your lifetime.  Does that mean the worldwide Organization is loving?  That the worldwide Organization is true? Can an Organization be loving?  People—individuals—can be loving, but an Organization?

JackSprat made a comment under the recent post on Christian neutrality and the Organization's involvement in the United Nations that I'm grateful for, because I'm sure he raises a view that many share.  I would like to address that here. I agree that the chance for change from the letter writing campaign I'm asking everyone to share in is vanishingly small.  Additionally, the impact of any individual letter is miniscule.  However, the field doesn't get wet from a single drop of rain, but every drop contributes to watering the crop.  The question is, what crop are we expecting to reap?  Some, evidently, think I'm going for a positive change and believe that is futile.  I wouldn't disagree, though I wouldn't be a good Christian if such a thing were not to make me happy.  However, being practical, I don't anticipate that. What I anticipate is something else; something more in the nature of the results from the two past campaigns JackSprat points to.  In both Russia and Malawi, the targets of the letters only became more angry and more entrenched in their course of action. Jehovah is always right, but he doesn't lead with that. He leads with kindness.  Consider this Bible direction: “. . .If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; If he is thirsty, give him water to drink, For you will be heaping burning coals on his head, And Jehovah will reward you.” (Proverbs 25:21, 22) In ancient times, they would heap hot coals on mineral rock to melt it and if there were precious metals, they would run off and be collected.  If the mineral rock was worthless, that would also be revealed. So this command is a way of seeing what is hidden in a person's heart.  They will inevitably expose themselves to the world, as good, or as bad. Consider the case of Moses with Pharaoh.  Jehovah led with a simple harmless miracle, but Pharaoh didn't listen.  With each subsequent miracle, he gave Pharaoh a way out, but the man's pride blinded him to the course of action which was in his own best interest.  Eventually, his nation was devastated, and his powerful army wiped out, and he became an historical pariah—an object lesson for generations to come. If enough of us write in and there is no gold or silver in the hearts of the men leading the Organization, then their anger at being called on the carpet publicly for wrongdoing will move them to even greater blunders which will in turn help awaken even more of our brothers and sisters. They love to quote Proverbs 4:18 as applying to them, but the verse they should be applying is the next one: “The way of the wicked is like the darkness; They do not know what makes them stumble.” (Proverbs 4:19) Clearly, the Governing Body does not know "what makes them stumble".  Someone commented to me that they did us all a great service by coming out with the overlapping generations doctrine.  Had it not been for that, I would not have woken up in 2010.  They keep stepping on their own feet and stumbling over things they cannot see.  Pride is a great blinding force.  By doing the right thing and calling them out on it, we are obeying God and furthering the cause of righteousness which always seeks to restore the sinner to the path of truth. I would like to ask you all a favor. If you go on other sites, please share a link to this article as a means to promoting this campaign.  The more rain, the bigger the crop. http://beroeans.net/2018/06/01/identifying-true-worship-part-10-christian-neutrality/      

[From ws4/18 p. 3 – June 4 – June 10] “If the Son sets you free, you will be truly free.” John 8:36   Liberty, equality, fraternity was the slogan of the French Revolution of 1789. The ensuing two centuries have shown how elusive those ideals are. This week’s article is setting the groundwork for the study article for next week. However, this article is unusual in that it, for the most part, sticks to the scriptures and common sense understanding.  However, it will be beneficial to evaluate how the organization compares to the principles highlighted by the scriptures. Paragraph 2 says: “This once again testifies to the truthfulness of King Solomon’s inspired observation: “Man has dominated man to his harm.”​ (Ecclesiastes 8:9)” King Solomon well knew the truth of this matter. Around 100 years before, Samuel had warned the Israelites that having a King to dominate them would be harmful, as he prophesied in 1 Samuel 8:10-22. Today, men in general and especially including students of God’s word who should have read Samuel’s warning from Jehovah, have ignored this. As a result they have been willing to place over themselves ‘kings’ without realising the full import of their actions. As a consequence, the freedom of conscience and thought and action brought by Christ has been rejected in favour of organizational dictates. This has happened regardless of what religion one professes, but especially so amongst Jehovah’s Witnesses. When we read the accounts of first century Christianity do we see evidence that the early Christians were afraid to discuss the scriptures? Do we see a rigid framework of formal meetings and organised preaching? Do we see any wielding of authority by elders or apostles? The answer is no to all of these questions. In fact the Bible Students association in the early 1900’s was much closer to the first century model of Christianity because the loosely affiliated local study groups had far more freedom than exists under the centralised control exerted by the organization today. When Humans were truly free “Adam and Eve enjoyed the kind of freedom that people today can only hope for – freedom from want, from fear, and from oppression.” (par. 4)  Should not the organization, if it is truly God’s organization, be the best at helping and allowing its members to be free from want, from fear and from oppression in comparison to political systems and other religions? Of course it should be the best as far as it is possible with imperfect men. What is the reality? Freedom from want What about ‘Want’ or hunger for truly helpful spiritual food? Food that will help us act in the manner of Christ? For the most part it is missing. We are told to be Christians, but not helped to be Christians except in the narrow field of preaching to others. When was the last in-depth article on practising self-control for example? Can you remember? Many in the world have anger management issues, and that is increasingly so amongst even appointed men. Where is the help for that? By and large it is missing. That is just one fruit of the spirit picked at random. Freedom from fear Are those who no longer agree with some teachings or even just one teaching of the organization free from fear of the consequences of voicing that disagreement, either in the congregation or by writing to the organization or even personally to an elder? No, these ones are in fear of being called into the back room and likely summarily disfellowshipped for ‘not having faith in the governing body as God’s appointed and spirit-guided representatives’ and being labelled as ‘apostates’ just for questioning anything, let alone disbelieving it.[i] Fear of being cut off from all one's family and friends just because of no longer wanting to jump through all the hoops the organization gives us. Freedom from oppression Are those still in the organization free from being oppressed by proud,

Joining a non-neutral entity, like a political party, results in automatic disassociation from the congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. Have Jehovah's Witnesses maintained strict neutrality? The answer will shock many faithful Jehovah's Witnesses.

[From ws3/18 p. 28 – May 27 – June 3] “My sons, … listen to discipline and become wise.” Proverbs 8:32-33 This week the WT study article continues the theme of discipline from last week. It starts off well. We are gently reminded that “Jehovah has our best interests at heart” (par. 2) and then we are asked to read Hebrews 12:5-11, the passage of scripture missing from last week's article. But notice how no opportunity is taken to show why Jehovah would bother to discipline us.  The entire passage of Hebrews 12:5-11 as well as the theme text of Proverbs 8:32-33 addresses us as "sons" or "children of God".  This element which conflicts with the "friends of God" theology of Witnesses is glossed over.[i] Rather the focus is on how being disciplined is good for us. The four areas to be discussed in the article are then highlighted which are “(1) self-discipline, (2) parental discipline, (3) discipline within the Christian congregation, and (4) something that is worse than the temporary pain of discipline.” (par. 2) Self-Discipline This is covered in paragraphs 3-7 and all is fine until paragraph 7 where it starts by saying “Self-discipline helps us to reach spiritual goals. Consider the example of a family man who felt that his zeal was waning somewhat.” Nothing wrong here you may say. The previous paragraph was discussing using self discipline to study God’s word more, so the reader might think in context the brother’s zeal had waned for studying God’s word. But no. His zeal had waned for the organization’s view of “spiritual goals”. The suggested cure; Was it to make a more determined effort to study God’s word and find hid treasures? (Proverbs 2:1-6). No, “he set the goal of becoming a regular pioneer and read articles on that topic in our magazines”. (par. 7) So the cure for his lack of zeal is an artificial goal set by the Organization, and using artificial spiritual food (the magazines) to strengthen himself to do it. Prayer comes in as an afterthought. Romans 10:2-4 comes to mind, “For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God; but not according to accurate knowledge;  for, because of not knowing the righteousness of God but seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the Law, so that everyone exercising faith may have righteousness.” Parental Discipline This is covered in paragraphs 8-13. This section also starts off well until we get to paragraphs 12 and 13. This is where it discusses disfellowshipped family members. It says “Consider the example of a mother whose disfellowshipped daughter left home. The mother admits: “I looked for loopholes in our publications so that I could spend time with my daughter and my granddaughter.” There are a number of issues to discuss here, setting aside the important issue of whether the disfellowshipping arrangement as practiced by the Organization is scripturally accurate. Who was disfellowshipped? The daughter, so why were any loopholes required to spend time with the granddaughter? The granddaughter was not the one disfellowshipped, so why should she suffer? To treat the granddaughter as disfellowshipped would be going against the principle in Deuteronomy 24:16 where it states that fathers should not be punished because of the sins of their children and children should not be put to death because of the sins of their father. If she wanted a loophole, the mother should have checked the Official JW.org website under “About us/Frequently Asked Questions/Do Jehovah’s Witnesses shun former members of their religion?” There it says “What of a man who is disfellowshipped but whose wife and children are still Jehovah’s Witnesses? The religious ties he had with his family change, but blood ties remain. The marriage relationship and normal family affections and dealings continue.” However, this clashes with what the God’s Love book (lv p 207-208 para 3) says regarding a disfellowshipped f...

Having shown in our last episode that the Other Sheep doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses is unscriptural, it seems approrpiate to pause in our examination of the teachings of JW.org to address the real Bible hope of salvation--the real Good News--as it pertains to Christians.

My experience of being an Active Jehovah’s Witness and leaving the Cult. By Maria (An alias as a protect against persecution.) I started studying with Jehovah’s Witnesses over 20 years ago after my first marriage was breaking up. My daughter was only a few months old, so I was very vulnerable at the time, and suicidal. I didn’t come into contact with the Witnesses through the preaching work, but through a new friend I had made once my husband had left me. When I heard this Witness speak about the last days and how men would be, it sounded very true to me. I thought she was a bit weird, but was intrigued. After a few weeks, I bumped into her again, and we had another discussion. She wanted to visit me at home but I was a bit reluctant to have a stranger come to my house. (What I haven’t mentioned is that my dad was a devout Muslim, and he didn’t have a very good view of the Witnesses.) This lady eventually won my trust and I gave her my address, but I remember regretting that because she lived nearby, and because she had started to auxiliary pioneer, she took every opportunity to call on me, so much so that I had to hide from her on a couple of occasions, pretending I wasn’t home. After about 4 months, I started to study and progressed really well, attending meetings, answering up and then becoming an unbaptised publisher. In the mean time my husband would come back and give me grief over my contact with the Witnesses.  He became violent, threatening to burn my books, and even trying to prevent me from going to meetings. None of that stopped me as I thought it was part of Jesus’ prophecy at Matthew 5:11, 12. I made good progress in spite of this opposition. Eventually, I had enough of his treatment towards me, his temper, and his taking of drugs.  I decided to separate. I didn’t want to divorce him as the elders had advised against it, but they said a separation would be okay with a view to trying to reconcile things. After a few months, I filed for divorce, writing a letter to my solicitor detailing my reasons. After about six months, my solicitor asked if I still wanted to get a divorce. I still hesitated as my study of the Bible with the Witnesses taught me that we should try to remain married unless there are scriptural grounds for divorce. I hadn’t any proof that he had been unfaithful, but it was quite likely as he was often gone for two or more weeks at a time, and now had been away for six months.  I believed it was very likely that he had slept with someone else. I again read the letter that I had written to the solicitor with my reasons for wanting a divorce. After reading it, I had no doubt that I could not stay with him and filed for the divorce. A few months later, I was a single mum.  I got baptised. Although not looking to remarry, I soon started dating a brother and got married a year later. I thought my life was going to be wonderful, with Armageddon and Paradise just around the corner. For a while I was happy, I was making new friends, and was enjoying the ministry. I started to regular pioneer.  I had a beautiful little girl and a loving husband. Life was good. So different to what life had been like and the depression I had suffered over the years. As time went on though friction built between me and my second husband. He hated going out in the ministry, especially on weekends. He wasn’t keen to answer up or attend meetings whilst on holiday; yet to me it was normal.  It was my way of life! It didn’t help that my parents were very opposed to my new life and religion. My father didn’t talk to me for over five years. But none of this put me off, I kept pioneering and threw myself into my new religion. (I had been raised a Catholic). The Problems Start What I didn’t mention is the problems that started soon after attending the book study, when I was new to the religion. I used to work part time and had to collect my daughter from my parents, then had less than an hour to eat and make the h...

An Analysis of the 2018 Position Paper on Handing Child Sexual Abuse within the community of Jehovah's Witnesses.

[From ws3/18 p. 14 – May 14 – May 20] “Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.” 1 Peter 4:9 ““The end of all things has drawn close,” wrote Peter. Yes, the violent end of the Jewish system of things would come in less than a decade (1 Peter 4:4-12)” - par. 1 True, with Peter writing sometime between 62 and 64 CE, the start of the end of all things relating to the Jewish System of Things was only 2 to 4 years away in 66 CE when the rebellion against Rome resulted in a Roman invasion of Judea that culminated in the complete eradication of the Jews as a nation by 73 CE.  “Among other things, Peter urged his brothers: “Be hospitable to one another.” (1 Pet. 4:9)” - par. 2 The full verse adds “without grumbling” and the prior verse talks about having “intense love for one another”. In context then this would suggest the early Christians were having love for one another and showing hospitality to one another, but the love needed to be stronger, more intense; and the hospitality provided without grumbling. Why was this necessary? Let us briefly consider the context of Peter’s letter. Were there any events that occurred around the time of writing that might have contributed to Peter’s counsel? In 64 CE, Emperor Nero caused the Great Fire of Rome which he blamed on Christians.  They were persecuted as a result, with many being put to death in the arena or burnt as human torches. This had been prophesied by Jesus in Matthew 24:9-10, Mark 13:12-13, and Luke 21:12-17. Any Christians who were able, would doubtless have fled Rome to surrounding towns and provinces.  As refugees, they would have needed accommodation and provisions. So, it was likely that it was hospitality to these refugees—these strangers—that Paul was referring to, rather than to local Christians. Of course, there was risk involved.  Offering hospitality to persecuted ones, made the resident Christians even more of a target themselves. These were indeed “critical times hard to deal with” and those early Christians needed reminders to display their Christian qualities amid those stressful, turbulent times. (2 Ti 3:1) Paragraph 2 then goes on to say: “The word “hospitality” in Greek literally means “fondness for, or kindness to, strangers." Note, however, that Peter urged his Christian brothers and sisters to be hospitable to one another, to those whom they already knew and associated with.” Here, the Watchtower article is claiming that despite the use of the Greek word for hospitality referring to “kindness to strangers”, Peter was applying it to Christians who already knew one another. Is this a reasonable assumption, given the historical context? If Peter's focus had been on showing kindness to those already known to one another, he surely would have used the correct Greek word to ensure that his readers understood him properly. Even today, English dictionaries define hospitality as “friendly, welcoming behaviour towards guests or people you have just met.” Note, it does not say “friends or acquaintances”. We should, however, concede that even in a congregation of Christians, both then and today, there will those who may be closer to the definition of strangers than friends to us.  Hence, showing hospitality to such ones, so as to get to know them better, would be an act of Christian kindness. Opportunities to Show Hospitality Paragraphs 5-12 then discuss different aspects of how we can show hospitality within the congregation. As you will see, it is very organization-centric. Not once is showing hospitality to a new neighbour or new workmate who perhaps is having a difficult time even hinted at. “We welcome all who attend our Christian meetings as fellow guests at a spiritual meal. Jehovah and his organization are our hosts. (Romans 15:7)”. - par. 5 How interesting that it is not Jesus, the head of the congregation, nor even the local congregation members, who are the hosts, but "Jehovah and his organization.

This video, podcast and article explore the unique JW teaching of the Other Sheep. This doctrine, more than any other, affects the salvation hope of millions. But is it true, or a fabrication of one man, who 80 years ago, decided to create a two-class, two-hope system of Christianity? This is the question that affects all of us and which we will answer now.

[From ws2/18 p. 18 – April 16 - April 22] “May [God] grant you to have among yourselves the same mental attitude that Christ Jesus had.” Romans 15:5 In summary, this is another shallow examination of the Scriptures using eisegesis (having one’s own prepared interpretation and looking for support in the Scriptures for this however slim and out of context.) As an extreme example, let us assume (very wrongly of course) for one moment that we wanted to prove Jesus was not humble and instead was proud. How could we support our erroneous idea? What about when Jesus was tempted by the Devil? We could quote Matthew 4:8-10 and say the following “Here Satan wanted a small favour in exchange for an extraordinary gift, something that Jesus’ Father had promised would one day be his. So instead of pleasing Satan, Jesus proudly refused and told him to "Go away”. “ Now we know that this is contrary to the rest of scripture and doesn’t even agree with the rest of the context, but everything above in quotes is accurate except for one word “proud” which is my eisegetical addition for the sake of illustration. So now let us examine the following: Would we consider Noah a spiritual person? Yes. Why? Because Genesis 6:8-9,22 says Noah found favour in God’s eyes, was righteous and did all that God commanded him. The account in Genesis does not mention preaching, rather it focuses on his making of the Ark. 2 Peter 2:5 is often used to try and prove Noah was a preacher, however, it is interesting that God’s Word Translation says, “Noah was his [God’s] messenger who told people about the kind of life that has God's approval.” This understanding fits well with the account in Genesis. Would we consider Abraham was a spiritual person? Yes. Why? James 2:14-26 discussing faith and works highlights, among others, Abraham as a righteous man due to his faith and works. Did Abraham preach? There is no record of him doing so. But Hebrews 13:2 reminds us that some faithful ones of old,unknown to them, entertained angels.  In other words, they were hospitable even if they put their own family in danger as a result (e.g. Lot). Would we consider Daniel was a spiritual person? Yes. Why? According to Daniel 10:11-12, he was a highly desirable man to Jehovah, because he gave his heart to understanding and humbled himself before God. Also Ezekiel 14:14 links Noah, Daniel and Job as righteous people. But did he do God's will as a door-to-door preacher?  The answer is no! There are many others we could mention. What was the commonality among them? They did God’s will as they were directed by Him, and put their faith in Him. So in the light of these faithful examples, how would you understand the following statement? “Are we like Jesus, ever ready to show compassionate concern when we meet people who need help? In addition, Jesus devoted himself to the work of preaching and teaching the good news. (Luke 4:43) All such feelings and actions are marks of a spiritual person.” (Paragraph 12) Did you notice the eisegetical conclusion? I am sure you would agree that it was the last sentence. We have just established by exegetical study (letting the Bible interpret itself) that what defines whether one is a spiritual person is doing God’s will, not whether one preaches or not. Both statements about Jesus are true but the conclusion is unsupported. To reason on this, all three faithful ones of old we considered (and we could have considered more with the same conclusion) are ones we all would consider as spiritual people, yet by the standards set in this article when discussing Jesus, no faithful ones before Jesus and his disciples would be counted spiritual since they did not preach.  That clearly doesn’t make sense in the light of how Jehovah viewed: Noah (faultless among his contemporaries), Abraham (uniquely called God’s friend), Job (no one like him in the earth, blameless and upright), and Daniel (a very desirable man).

One of our forum members relates that in their memorial talk the speaker broke out that old chestnut, "If you are asking yourself if you should partake or not, it means you have not been chosen and so do not partake." This member came up with some excellent reasoning showing the flaw in this common statement often made by those trying to dissuade sincere Christians from obeying Jesus' instructions on partaking. (Note: While the premise for the above statement is flawed from the get-go, it can be helpful to accept an opponent's premise as valid, and then take it to its logical conclusion to see if it holds water.) Moses got a direct call from God. Nothing could be clearer.  He heard God's voice directly, recognized who was calling, and got the message of his appointment. But what was his reaction? He displayed doubt. He told God about his unqualified status, his impediment.  He asked God to send someone else. He asked for signs, which God gave him. When he brought up the issue of his speech defect, it seems God got a little angry, telling him he is the one who made the dumb, the speechless, the blind, then He assured Moses, "I will be with you". Did Moses self-doubt disqualify him? Gideon, who served in collaboration with Judge Deborah, was sent by God.  Yet, he asked for a sign.  When told that he would be the one to deliver Israel, Gideon modestly spoke of his own insignificance. (Judges 6:11-22)  At another occasion, to confirm God was with him, he asked for a sign and then another (the reverse) as proof. Did his doubts disqualify him? Jeremiah, when appointed by God, replied, "I am but a boy". Did this self-doubt disqualify him? Samuel was called by God.  He did not know who was calling him.  It took Eli to discern, after three such incidents, that it was God calling to Samuel for an assignment. An unfaithful high priest helping one called by God.  Did that disqualify him? Isn't that a nice bit of scriptural reasoning?  So even if we accept the premise of a special individual calling—which I know most of us, including this contributing member, do not—we still have to acknowledge that self-doubt is not a reason not to partake. Now to examine the premise for that Kingdom hall speaker's line of reasoning.  It comes from an eisegetical reading of Romans 8:16: "The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children." Rutherford came up with the "Other Sheep" doctrine in 1934[i] using the now-disavowed antitypical application of the Israelite cities of refuge.[ii]  At some point, in search of scriptural support, the Organization settled on Romans 8:16.  They needed a scripture that seemed to support their view that only a tiny remnant should partake, and this is the best they could come up with.  Of course, reading the entire chapter is something they avoid, for fear that the Bible might interpret itself in a way contrary to the interpretation of men. Romans chapter 8 speaks of two classes of Christian, to be sure, but not of two classes of approved Christian.  (I can call myself a Christian, but that doesn't mean Christ thinks of me as one of his own.) It does not speak of some who are anointed and approved by God and others who, while also approved by God, are not anointed with spirit.  What it speaks of are Christians who are fooling themselves by thinking they are approved while living in accordance with the flesh and its desires.  The flesh leads to death, while the spirit leads to life. “For setting the mind on the flesh means death, but setting the mind on the spirit means life and peace…”  (Romans 8:6) No special midnight calling here!  If we set our mind on the spirit, we have peace with God and life. If we set our mind on the flesh, we have only death in view.  If we have the spirit, we are God’s children—end of story. “For all who are led by God’s spirit are indeed God’s sons.” (Romans 8:14) If the Bible were speaking about a personal calling at Romans 8:16,

[From ws2/18 p. 8 – April 9 - April 15] “Evil men cannot understand justice, but those who seek Jehovah can understand everything” Proverbs 28:5 [mentions of Jehovah: 30, Jesus: 3] “Do you ‘understand everything’ necessary to please Jehovah? The key is to have accurate knowledge of him.” This is the question raised in paragraph 3 of this week’s article, so as we examine the article let us see what accurate knowledge we are provided with and what inaccurate knowledge we are provided with. “While Noah may not have grasped the details of the prophecy recorded at Genesis 3:15, he no doubt saw in it the hope of deliverance.” (Paragraph 7) So did Noah have accurate knowledge of Jehovah, understanding everything necessary to please Jehovah? The answer is no. Noah did have accurate knowledge of what was required to please Jehovah at that time, but only at that time. If Noah were resurrected today he would have to be taught additional accurate knowledge. Acts 16:31 records a big part of the accurate knowledge required since Jesus' death and ransom, when it says ”Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will get saved”. Knowledge provided by the article is misleading and inaccurate. Noah had great faith and obedience, but not all the accurate knowledge as revealed by Jesus Christ. “the message proclaimed by Enoch, who also foretold God’s judgment of the wicked. (Jude 1:14-15) Enoch’s message, which will have its final fulfillment at Armageddon, surely reinforced Noah’s faith and hope.” (Paragraph 7) According to the Bible Teach book page 213-215 in the appendix section under “Judgement Day – What is it?” says the following: “The book of Revelation shows that Judgement Day begins after the war of Armageddon...Judgement Day...lasts a thousand years. During that thousand-year period, Jesus Christ will ‘judge the living and the dead’ (2 Timothy 4:1). Jude 1:3 states “put up a hard fight for the faith that was once for all time delivered to the holy ones.” This would imply that there is no need for additional “accurate knowledge” from any other persons or organizations because all we need was delivered once for all time in the first century. Additionally, it implies that when we read the Bible we need to try to understand it as they would have understood it. Knowledge provided by the article is misleading and inaccurate. It even contradicts its own primary teaching book. “Accurate knowledge gave Noah faith and godly wisdom, which protected him from harm, especially spiritual harm.” (Paragraph 8) Yes, accurate knowledge is the key. Its application can protect us from harm, especially spiritual harm. Actually obtaining the accurate knowledge of the Scriptures is of vital importance. Spiritual harm can quickly result by taking in and following inaccurate knowledge. However as mentioned above, Noah only had limited accurate knowledge. The full accurate knowledge only became possible with Jesus Christ according to Colossians 2:2,3. Knowledge provided by the article is misleading and inaccurate. “It may even move the spiritually weak to ignore the evidence of the closeness of God’s great day.” (Paragraph 9) The article writers have the audacity to cite Matthew 24:36-39 in support of this statement. As we all know it says: “Concerning that day and hour nobody knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son”. Maybe the organization and in particular the Governing Body don’t think of themselves as “nobody” but rather ‘somebody special’ that the Father should indicate to them “the closeness of God’s great day”, something that even his Son was not privy too? We cannot ignore that the Lord’s day (Matthew 24:42) is coming, but only the spiritually weak would dare to think they know better than Jesus Christ, our Lord. Knowledge provided is inaccurate, in fact grossly misleading and misapplied; contradicting scripture. “Note that when Jesus compared our time with Noah’s,

In the April Broadcast on tv.jw.org, there is a video given by Governing Body member Mark Sanderson at about the 34-minute mark, wherein he relates some encouraging experiences of brothers under persecution in Russia back in the 1950s, showing how Jehovah provided the support they needed to endure. When we become disillusioned with the organization, it is very easy for us to see everything that comes forth from it in a negative light. This can be caused by our own disillusionment, by the sense of betrayal we feel by men in whom we invested the utmost trust. Anger may cause us to lose sight of the many good things that we gained from our association with Jehovah’s Witnesses. On the other hand, when we hear about such positive experiences, we may become confused. We may question our own decision, thinking that there is in fact evidence that Jehovah has blessed the organization. What we have here are two extremes. On the one hand we dismiss all that is good, utterly rejecting the Organization; while on the other hand, we might see these things as proof of God’s blessing and be drawn back into the Organization. When a brother like Mark Sanderson uses examples of Christian faith under persecution (the organization often uses the faithful example of the Earnest Bible students in Nazi Germany who did not call themselves Jehovah’s Witnesses, but were affiliated with the Watchtower Bible and Tract society in New York) he does not do so to build our faith in Jehovah God as the rewarder of individuals who love him (Heb 11:6), but rather to build our faith in the Organization as the one place where such rewards from God are dispensed.  We are not expected to watch this video and conclude that this is yet another example of Jehovah helping Christians in any and every denomination who are undergoing persecution for the name of the Christ.  Witnesses will be inclined to believe that this type of thing happens only to them. Yet, there are many cases of Christians undergoing persecution around the world, many far worse off than what JWs are experiencing.  A simple google search will reveal this.  Here is a link to one such video. We can be seduced by such stories and read into them far more than is intended.  I think Peter expressed it best when he said about the Gentile Cornelius: “Now I truly understand that God is not partial, 35 but in every nation the man who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. (Acts 10:34, 35) It is not our religious affiliation that counts in the end, but whether or not we fear God and do what is acceptable to him.  Sooner or later, that fear (reverent submission) will lead to obedience when those in our church, synagogue, temple, or Kingdom hall ask us to do something that conflicts with what our Father tells us to do.        

You have to accept over 20 assumptions to believe in 1914 as the start of Christ's invisible presence. One failed assumption and the doctrine comes crashing down.

My name is Ava.  I became a baptized Jehovah’s Witness in 1973, because I thought I had found the true religion that represents Almighty God.  Unlike so many of you raised in the organization, I grew up in a home that had no spiritual direction whatsoever, except being told I was a Catholic, because my non-practicing father was one.   I can count on one hand the number of times our family even attended a Catholic Mass.  I knew nothing of the Bible, but at age 12, I began my search for God within organized religions.   My search for purpose, meaning, and why there is so much evil in the world, was relentless.  By age 22, married, and the mother of twins—a boy and girl—I was a clean slate to indoctrinate, and JWs had the answers—so I thought.  My husband didn't agree and was able to get access to the published works of Russell and Rutherford through an elderly JW sister at that time, and so he challenged the brother and sister that studied with me. I remember, at that time, questioning them about those many failed prophecies, but was met with an attempt to divert and frighten me by the idea that Satan and his demons were at work interfering with my receiving of the truth—grieving the spirit so to speak.  They ordered me to throw our whole collection of music into the garbage, since they were convinced those records were the problem; those and a small number of other items that may have come into our home from people possibly involved with spiritism.  I mean, what did I know?! They seemed so knowledgeable.  That was the first time I heard of Satan and his demons.  Of course, with such convincing scriptural backup, why would I challenge them further. A year later, I was attending all meetings and participating in service.  I remember well the 1975 fiasco.  Everything—the book study material we covered, our magazines The Watchtower and Awake—focused on that date.  I remember hearing Fred Franz at the first convention I attended.  I was an outsider listening in at that time.  To say now that the organization did not teach and indoctrinate the rank and file with that belief is an unconscionable lie. Being new, I was easily swayed into their mindset of that time, even though I was not completely convinced.   Because I was a babe in the truth, they instructed me to shelve it until the spirit gave me the true understanding.  I trusted that, on the premise I would be given insight as I progressed in the truth. I blindly obeyed. I was trying to fit into an organization that seemed centered around established families.  I was different and felt I just didn't fit in, and I used to believe if only my husband would see the 'truth' and make it his own, my prayers for happiness would be answered.  I could enjoy the close relationships that these families had with their inner circles of other dedicated families. I remember feeling like an outsider wanting to have that warm fuzzy, secure feeling that I thought others had. I wanted to belong to my new family, since I left my own family for the truth. (Mine wasn’t particularly warm and fuzzy) Somehow, I was always struggling—never measuring up.  I believed I was the problem.  Also, I had a serious problem that I never revealed to anyone at that time.   I was terrified of doing the door-to-door work. I was in a panic until that door opened, not knowing what was behind it. I dreaded it. I really thought there must be something seriously wrong with my faith, since I could not control the panic that set in when I was expected to take a door in service. Little did I know this problem had an extreme trauma-based origin that stemmed from my childhood.  One very unkind elder noticed it and mocked me for my inability to overcome my fear.  He visited me and suggested the Holy Spirit was not operating in me, and that I may be evil, under the influence of Satan.    I was so devastated.  He then told me not to speak of his visit to others.  This ignorant elder was elderly and extremely judg...

I would like to introduce a new feature to our web forum intended to help many of us as we deal with the strong, conflicting emotions of a traumatic awakening to the truth. It was back in 2010 that I began to awaken to the reality that is the Organization of Jehovah's Witnesses, when they released the silly Overlapping Generations doctrine and started what has become a self-destructive downward spiral.  They seem oblivious to this trend, which fulfills—in my humble opinion—the words found at Proverbs 8:19. "The way of the wicked ones is like the gloom; they have not known at what they keep stumbling. (Proverbs 4:19) Many of the teachings and direction coming from the Organization, particularly from their broadcasts, are so ill-advised and counter productive to their own goals as to make one wonder what is really going on in their high level discussions. I find it hard not to apply these words of Jesus to the JW generation of our day. “When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it passes through parched places in search of a resting-place, and finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will go back to my house out of which I moved’; and on arriving it finds it unoccupied but swept clean and adorned. 45 Then it goes its way and takes along with it seven different spirits more wicked than itself, and, after getting inside, they dwell there; and the final circumstances of that man become worse than the first. That is how it will be also with this wicked generation.” (Matthew 12:43-45) While it is true that we have never been entirely free from false doctrine, at least during my lifetime, there was a good spirit in the days of my youth.  I feel that Jehovah gave those leading us many an opportunity to correct the doctrinal mistakes of the past, but, for the most part, they took the wrong fork in the road on every such occasion.  Even now, it is not too late; yet I doubt they are in a mental frame of mind disposed to repentance and a "turning around".  It seems that the spirit God invested in men has been withdrawn, and with the space empty, but clean, other spirits have come in and the 'final circumstances of the organization have become worse than the first.' The Lord is 'patient with us because he does not desire any to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance.' (2 Peter 3:9)  It has taken time, but eventually things which were hidden have been exposed, and these are giving many sincere ones reason to engage in some serious self-examination. For there is nothing hidden that will not become manifest, neither anything carefully concealed that will never become known and never come into the open. (Luke 8:17) Those with good hearts are been called out by our loving Father.  Nevertheless, the journey is one fraught with strong emotion.    When someone close to us dies, we go through five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.  We vary by personality type as to how we go through these stages, of course. We are not all the same.  Some stay in the anger phase for a long time; others breeze through it. Nevertheless, we start out by denying there really is a problem; then we feel anger at being deceived and misled for so many years; then we start to think that there is still a way to keep what we had, by making adjustments ("Maybe they will change. Wait on Jehovah to fix things.");  then we go through some level of depression, some even to the extent of contemplating suicide, while others lose all faith in God. The stage we want to reach quickly, for our own mental and spiritual health, is that of progressive acceptance.  It is not enough just to accept the new reality.  Rather, we want to avoid ever falling back into a mindset that allows us to be controlled by others.  Further, we don't want to waste what we've been given.  We now have the opportunity to progress.  To change the person we have been into something worthy of God's love.  So we want to reach a state of being where we...

[From ws1/18 p. 27 – March 26-April 1]  “You will . . . see the distinction between a righteous person and a wicked person.” Malachi 3:18 The very title of this Watchtower study article is worrying once we begin to read its contents. Its thrust seems to cause us to separate ourselves from any contact with individuals deemed unworthy due to their traits. Indeed, why do we need to examine the difference in people? If we concentrate on improving our own Christian qualities, does it really matter how others are different?  Does it affect us? Please read Malachi 3 if you have time before continuing with this review, as it will help you better understand the context of the verses that are being used by this WT article, so that you can discern the true context of what the Bible is saying. Paragraph 2 opens with: “These last days are a time of moral chaos. The apostle Paul’s second letter to Timothy describes the characteristics of people who are alienated from God, characteristics that will become more pronounced in the days ahead. (Read 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 13.)” The Apostle Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy around 65 C.E.  Consider the time.  These were the last days of the Jewish system of things. Starting one year later (66 C.E.) the first Roman invasion came.  By 70 C.E., the city lay in ruins, and by 73 C.E. all revolt had been quashed. Now turning back to Malachi 3. Malachi 3:1 is clearly a prophecy about Jesus coming as the Messiah, the Messiah awaited by Israel. Malachi 3:5 talks about Jehovah coming to judge the Israelites. The next verses record God’s plea to his people to return to him so they might not get destroyed. Malachi 3:16-17 is clearly talking about spiritual Israel, “a special property”, becoming Jehovah’s possession as a replacement for the wicked natural nation of Israel. These ones would be shown compassion (by being saved from the destruction of the nation of Israel). All these events occurred in the first century from the time of the ministry of Jesus starting in 29 C.E. to the destruction of the Jews as a nation in 70 C.E. and the escape of the early Christians to Pella. Therefore, the theme scripture from Malachi 3:18 had its fulfillment during that time period. The distinction between a righteous person and a wicked one resulted in the salvation of the former (Christians) and the destruction of the latter (faithless Jews).  There is therefore no basis on which to claim a modern antitypical fulfillment.  More accurately, the paragraph should have read “Those last days were a time of moral chaos.” How we view ourselves Paragraphs 4 thru 7 give good Bible-based counsel on avoiding such traits as being puffed up with pride, haughty eyes and a lack of humility. How we relate to others Paragraphs 8 thru 11 again contain good Bible-based counsel. However, we need to examine the final part of paragraph 11 where it says “Jesus also said that love for one another would be the quality that would identify true Christians. (Read John 13:34-35.) Such Christian love would even be extended to one’s enemies.​—Matthew 5:43-44.” Over the years, I have been a member of a few congregations and have visited many others. Very few have been happy, most have been riven by problems of one kind or another, including cliques, gossiping, slandering, and abuse of power by the elders.  The latter often used the platform to launch tirades against congregation members who had stood up to them. I have seen, and continue to see, love, but usually on an individual basis, only rarely has it proven to be congregation-wide. Certainly, I have not witnessed this love on a wide enough basis to claim the Organization as a whole is the true Christian congregation chosen by God because of its members' love for one another.  (Admittedly, this is one man's perception.  Perhaps your experience is different.) Now what about love being extended to one’s enemies?

This article started out as a short piece intended to provide all of you in our online community with some details into our use of donated funds.  We have always intended to be transparent about such things, but to be honest, I hate accounting and so I kept pushing this off for other more interesting topics.  Nevertheless, the time has come. Then, as I started to write this, it occurred to me that another topic I’d been wanting to write about might dovetail nicely into the discussion of donations.  They may seem unrelated, but as I've asked before, please bear with me. Over the past 90 days, this site—Beroean Pickets – JW.org Reviewer—has had over 11,000 users opening 33,000 sessions.  There were almost 1,000 page views of the most recent article on the Memorial.  Over the same period of time, the Beroean Pickets Archive has been visited by over 5,000 users opening over 10,000 sessions.  Of course, numbers are not a measure of God's blessing, but it can be encouraging, as it was to Elijah, to learn that you are not alone. (Romans 11:1-5) As we look back on where we have been, the next logical question is, where are we going? Jehovah’s Witnesses—and members of most other religions, whether Christian or otherwise—cannot conceive of any form of worship being acceptable to God unless made within the framework of some religious group.  Such thinking stems from the idea that worship of God is achieved through works, formal practices, or ritualistic procedures.  This overlooks the fact that for about half of human existence, the only form of organized religious worship involved the worship of demons.  Abel, Enoch, Noah, Job, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did very nicely on their own, thank you very much. The Greek word most translated as "worship" in English is proskuneó, which means “to kiss the ground when prostrating before a superior”.  What this refers to is complete and unconditional obedience.  Such a level of obedience should never be granted to sinful men, as they are unworthy of it. Only our Father, Jehovah, merits such worship/obedience.  That is why the angel rebuked John when, overcome with awe at what he saw, he performed an inappropriate act of proskuneó: At that I fell down before his feet to worship him. But he tells me: “Be careful! Do not do that! All I am is a fellow slave of you and of your brothers who have the work of witnessing to Jesus. Worship God; for the bearing witness to Jesus is what inspires prophesying.” (Revelation 19:10) There is little from J.F. Rutherford's body of work with which I can agree, but the title of this article is one notable exception.  In 1938, "The Judge" launched a new preaching campaign with the theme: “Religion is a snare and a racket.  Serve God and Christ the King.” The moment we subscribe to some particular brand of Christianity, we are no longer worshipping God.  We must now accept the commands of our religious leaders who claim to speak for God.  Who we hate and who we love, who we tolerate and who we eradicate, who we support and who we trample on, is all now determined by men with their own sinful agenda.  What we have is the very thing that Satan sold to Eve: Human rule, this time clothed in the robes of piety.  In the name of God, man has dominated man to his injury.  (Ecclesiastes 8:9) If you want to get away with doing something that is wrong, one successful tactic has proven to be: to condemn the very thing you practice, while extolling the very thing you fail to do.  Rutherford condemns religion as "a snare and a racket" while urging people to "serve God and Christ the King".  Yet this campaign was launched after he had carefully worked to craft a religion of his very own.  In 1931, he created it under the brand name “Jehovah’s Witnesses” by consolidating the Bible Student Associations still affiliated with the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society into a single entity with himself as their leader.[i] Then in 1934,

[From ws1/18 p. 22 – March 19-25] “Happy is the people whose God is Jehovah.” Psalm 144:15 This can be summed up as yet another attempt to imply that one cannot be truly happy unless one is totally compliant with all the directions from the Organization—particularly, by giving up any semblance of a normal life and practicing self-denial so that we can propagate the teachings of the Organization by pioneering and relying on others to help us make ends meet. That having been said we will now examine the detail of the article. The opening paragraph starts with the usual claim of being God’s people based on circular reasoning. It runs thus: We are God’s people because he foretold he would gather a great crowd. We as an Organization are a great crowd, therefore we fulfill this prophecy. Because we as an Organization fulfill this prophecy, we therefore must be God’s people. Did you spot the logic flaw? What proof is there that: the prophecy was intended to be fulfilled in the 21st century? the Organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses is the group (great crowd) that God views as fulfilling the prophecy, as opposed to the Organization claiming it does. As discussed in previous articles, there are other religions which also started around the same time as the Organization, yet currently have grown to be considerably larger "great crowds" than have Jehovah’s Witnesses. Paragraph 5 describes self-love with these words: “People who love themselves excessively think more of themselves than it is necessary for them to think. (Read Romans 12:3.) Their main interest in life is themselves. They care little about others. When things go wrong, they tend to blame others rather than accept responsibility. One Bible commentary likens those who are lovers of themselves to “the hedgehog which . . . rolls itself up in a ball, keeping the soft, warm wool for itself . . . and . . . presents the sharp spines to those without.” Such self-centered people are not truly happy.” Is there a group of men within the Organization to whom these words might aptly apply? When doctrinal points have been changed, did the leadership of the Organization accept responsibility?  Some now-abandoned doctrinal teachings had severe, adverse effects on the lives of others—teachings such as our old prohibition against organ transplants, or the prohibition of certain blood treatments, or the condemnation of vaccinations.  Then there is the great harm caused by failed prophetic interpretations such as 1925, 1975, and the "this generation" calculation.  The faith of many was damaged, even destroyed. When you have caused great harm to your brothers and sisters, love for others will compel you to apologize; to accept responsibility for your mistakes; to repent; and where possible, to make amends?  Historically, has the Governing Body ever—EVER—done this? Paragraph 6 says: "Bible scholars suggest that love of self is put at the top of the apostle Paul’s list of negative qualities that would be prevalent during the last days because the other qualities result from it. In contrast, people who love God produce a much different kind of fruitage. The Bible associates godly love with joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, and self-control."  Look around you in the congregation.  Does joy abound? Do you feel free of judgment, or are you compelled to explain yourself constantly? Why did you miss the last meeting?  Why were your hours in field service down?  Can joy truly exist in such a controlling atmosphere?    What about kindness and goodness?  When we hear of so many bringing and winning lawsuits against the Organization for abuses and negligence suffered when they were being sexually abused as children, do we feel that these fruits of the spirit have been missing? As you consider paragraphs 6 thru 8 of the study, you will likely agree with the sentiments expressed.  That is fine, but what about the application? Is it valid?

The first time I partook of the emblems at the memorial in my local Kingdom hall, the elderly sister sitting next to me remarked in all sincerity: “I had no idea we were so privileged!”  There you have it in a single phrase—the problem behind the JW two-class system of redemption.  The sad irony is that the Governing Body, while claiming to have done away with the clergy/laity distinctions of Christendom[i], has joined its fellow denominations in creating one of their very own, and a particularly pronounced distinction it is. You might think I’m overstating the problem. You might say that this is a difference without a distinction—this sister’s comment notwithstanding.  Yet, in a way, the JW class distinction is greater than is currently practiced in Catholicism.  Consider the fact that, potentially, anyone can become Pope, as this video demonstrates. This is not the case with Jehovah’s Witnesses.  According to JW theology, one must be specifically selected by God as one of an elite group of anointed before he can have any hope of rising to the top of the JW ladder.  Only those so chosen can claim to be adopted children of God.  (The rest can only call themselves “God’s friends.”[ii])  Additionally, within the Catholic Church, the clergy/laity distinction does not affect the reward each Catholic is said to receive.  Whether priest, bishop, or lay person, all good people are believed to go to heaven.  However, among Witnesses this is not the case.  The clergy/laity distinction persists after death, with the elite going to heaven to rule, while the remainder—about 99.9% of all those considered to be true and faithful Christians—having another 1,000 years of imperfection and sin to look forward to, followed by a final test, only after which they can be granted everlasting life in the fullest sense of the term. In this, the non-anointed Jehovah’s Witness who is allegedly declared righteous by God gets the same prospect as an unrighteous resurrected one, even one who has never known the Christ.  At best, he can look forward to a “head start” in the race toward perfection over his non-Christian or false-Christian counterpart.  Apparently, this is all God’s declaration of righteousness amounts to in the case of a member of the Other Sheep. Now it becomes clear why that dear elderly sister was moved to make her heartfelt expression about my newly acquired exalted status. If you feel that something doesn’t feel quite right about all this, you are not alone.  Thousands of still-practicing Jehovah’s Witnesses are struggling with the question of whether they should partake of the bread and the wine at this year’s memorial.  A member of almost any of Christendom’s churches would find this struggle perplexing.  They would reason, “But didn’t our Lord Jesus command us to partake of the symbols representing his flesh and blood?  Didn’t he give us a clear, unequivocal command: “Keep doing this in remembrance of me”? (1 Co 11:24, 25) The reason that many JWs are hesitating, afraid to obey what seems to be a simple, straightforward command, is that their minds have become confused by “artfully contrived false stories.” (2 Pe 1:16)  By a misapplication of 1 Corinthians 11:27-29, Witnesses have been led to believe that they are actually committing a sin if they partake of the emblems without having received the special notification from God that they are members of this elite group.[iii]  Is such reasoning valid?  More important, is it scriptural? God Didn’t Call Me Our Lord Jesus is a remarkable Commander-in-Chief.  He does not give us conflicting instructions nor vague directives.  If he only wanted some Christians, a tiny minority, to partake of the emblems, then he would have said so.  If partaking in error would amount to a sin, Jesus would have spelled out the criteria by which we would know whether or not to participate. Given that, we see that he unambiguously told us to partake of the emblems signifying his flesh...

[From ws1/18 p. 17 – March 12-18] “O our God, we thank you and praise your beautiful name.” 1 Chronicles 29:13 The whole of this article is based on the premise that the organization is really what it claims to be, God’s organization. (See Jehovah has always had an organization for a recent discussion on this topic.) Without this premise the entire reasoning presented in this article is groundless and without substance. The entire thrust of the article is another plea for money. This plea for money is becoming a regular theme in literature and videos. See Seeking Riches that are True WT review (Aug 28-Sep 3 2017). See Clam Review of September 18-24 2017 under the Congregation Book Study discussing the Kingdom Rules book Chapter 18 para 1-8. See Clam Review of October 16-22, 2017 under Local Needs. Jehovah wants us to be Generous (video) in Clam meeting for Nov 20-26, 2017. These are just the most recent. The opening paragraphs remind us quite rightly that Jehovah not only owns all resources, but also “uses them to provide what is needed to sustain life.” Also that both our Father and Jesus our Lord have miraculously “provided food and money when needed.” As is usual a Pre-Christian example is quoted to support a Post Early Christian ‘need’, rather than providing an early Christian era example. So because the Israelites were invited to support Jehovah’s specific arrangement for the Nation of Israel, somehow we are expected to support those who claim to be Jehovah’s organization today. Since virtually all Christian religions claim to be God’s one true church or organization, (as opposed to just the Nation of Israel in the past) we surely need some undisputable way of identifying if Jehovah has an organization today, otherwise we would at best be wasting our money, and at worst supporting an organization backed by Satan the Devil, God’s opposer. There are three questions raised: “Why does Jehovah expect us to use our valuable things to give back to him? How did faithful ones in the past support the activities of Jehovah’s representatives financially? How does the organization use the money that is donated today?”  “Why does Jehovah expect us to use our valuable things to give back to him?” The real question should be ‘Does Jehovah expect us to use our valuable things to give back to him today? And if so, How?’ Then they give the unsupported statement (in paragraph 5) “Giving is also an expression of our worship of Jehovah”. Perhaps attempting to support this statement they quote Revelation 4:11 but that does not substantiate their claim. They then attempt to apply the pressure to donate by again using a Israelite example (presumably because no first century Christian example exists in the Scriptures), to highlight that as “the Israelites were not to appear before Jehovah empty-handed”, and so by implication we must not be empty handed in supporting their man-made organization and thereby attempt to guilt trip us into contributing. Paragraph 6 continues this theme of giving support to organization goals with the following “A son or a daughter who may be pioneering and living at home may rightly give the parents some funds to assist with household expenses.” Should not Bible principles govern all decisions and actions? So how does Ephesians 6:2-3, 1 Timothy 5:8 and Mark 7:9-13 affect the matter? According to Ephesians a son or daughter should show honour to their parents regardless of their age, otherwise it will not go well with them in God’s eyes. 1 Timothy clearly says “Certainly if anyone does not provide for those who are his own, and especially for those who are members of his household, he has disowned the faith and is worse than a person without faith” His own would be in particular his or her parents. Finally Mark 7 emphatically shows that no-one can hide behind the excuse that they are ‘serving Jehovah’ to avoid the responsibilities clearly laid out in the scriptures.

A second look at 1914, this time examining the evidence the Organization claims is there to support the belief that Jesus began ruling in the heavens in 1914. https://youtu.be/M0P2vrUL6Mo Video Transcript Hello, my name is Eric Wilson. This is the second video in our subset of 1914 videos. In the first one, we looked at the chronology of it, and now we're looking at the empirical proof. In other words, it's all well and good to say that Jesus was installed as king in the heavens invisibly in 1914, sitting on throne of David, ruling in the Messianic Kingdom, but we have no proof of that unless, of course, we find proof directly in the Bible; but that's what we're going to look at in the next video. Right now, we want to see if there is evidence in the world, in the events that surrounded that year, that would lead us to believe that something invisible in the heavens happened. Now the organization says that there is such proof.  For example, in the June 1st 2003 Watchtower, on page 15, paragraph 12, we read: Bible chronology and world events coincide in pinpointing the year 1914 as a time when that war in heaven took place.  Since then, world conditions have steadily worsened. Revelation 12:12 explains why saying: "On this account be glad you heavens and you who reside in them!  Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the devil has come down, having great anger, knowing that he has a short period of time." Okay, so that indicates the 1914 was the year because of the events that happened, but exactly when did this happen?  Exactly when was Jesus enthroned?  Can we know that? I mean how much precision is there in understanding the date?  Well, according to the July 15th 2014 Watchtower pages 30 and 31, paragraph 10 we read: "Modern day anointed Christians pointed in advance to October 1914 as a significant date. They based this on Daniel's prophecy about a large tree that was cut down and would go again after seven times. Jesus referred to this same period as "the appointed times of the nations" in his prophecy about his future presence and "the conclusion of the system of things." Ever since that marked year of 1914, the sign of Christ's presence as Earth's new king has become clear for all to see." So that definitely ties it down to the month of October. Now, the June 1st 2001 Watchtower, page 5, under the title “Whose Standards Can You Trust” says, "Woe for the earth came when World War 1 broke out in 1914 and brought to an end an era of standards very different from those of today. "The Great War of 1914 to 1918 lies like a band of scorched earth dividing that time from ours," observes historian Barbara Tuchman. Okay, so we know that it occurred in October, and we know that World War 1 is a result of the woes, so let's just go again through the chronology:  Revelation 12 talks about the enthronement of Jesus Christ.  So, we say Jesus Christ was enthroned as a Messianic King in October of 1914 based on the belief that in 607 BCE—October of that year—the Jews were exiled. So it's exactly, to the month, 2,520 years to get to October, 1914—possibly the fifth or sixth by some of the calculations you'll find in the publications, early October.  Okay, what was the first thing Jesus did?  Well, according to us, the first thing he did was to wage war with Satan and his demons, and he won that war of course and Satan and the demons were thrown down to the earth. Having great anger then, knowing that he has a short time, he brought woe to the earth. So the woe to the earth would have started in October at the earliest, because prior to that, Satan was still in the heavens, wasn't angry because he hadn't been thrown down. Okay.  And it mentions that the great difference that happened between the pre-1914 world and the post-1914 world as stipulated by historian Barbara Tuchman as we've just seen in the latest, or the last of the quotes. I happen to have read Barbour Tuckman's book,

[From ws1/18 p. 12 for March 5 – March 11] “How good and how pleasant it is...to dwell together in unity!”​—PS. 133:1. We find immediate issues with accuracy in the first sentence of the opening paragraph where the claim is made that “'God’s people' will assemble for the memorial." That expresses an opinion of the organization rather than a fact.  It would be accurate to say “Jehovah’s Witnesses” instead of "God's people". The final sentence then states “Each year, this observance is the most amazing unifying event that takes place on planet Earth.” According to Wikipedia at least, “The Arba'een Pilgrimage is the world's largest public gathering that is held every year in Iraq.  And last year was estimated at between 20 and 30 million.” Perhaps what is more important to our discussion here though is the claim that the observance is unifying. At this point, we would invite comments from our readers. Does the highly formalized way the emblems are passed with no one partaking create a sense of unity?  And how about the ritualistic manner in which the emblems are passed between the servers and the speaker?  Does this evoke images of the loving manner in which Jesus introduced the "Lord's Evening Meal"? Paragraph 2 opens by saying “We can only try to imagine how Jehovah and Jesus must rejoice as they observe hour after hour millions of earth’s inhabitants attending this special event until that day ends.” So let us examine this thought. What happens at the memorial? There is a talk, then a prayer and the bread is passed round, and then another prayer and the wine is passed round. But, except in very rare instances, no one partakes. Are Jehovah and Jesus happy with this? Let the words of Jesus himself answer. “Most truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He that feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I shall resurrect him at the last day;” (John 6:53-54). From this would you conclude Jesus is happy at the symbols of his body and blood just being passed round, rather than eaten and drunk? Or does it sadden him to see so many turning down the opportunity to obey his command. The article then goes on to discuss the following four questions:r How can we individually prepare for the Memorial and benefit from attending it? In what ways does the Memorial influence the unity of God’s people? How can we personally contribute to that unity? Will there ever be a final memorial? If so, when? This year we are not even treated to a flawed discussion on "Should we or shouldn't we partake?" and on what Jesus death means for us. No, it seems the most important point to take away from the memorial this year is “unity”. So in paragraph 4 discussing question (1) they immediately try to guilt us into attending. “Remember, congregation meetings are part of our worship. Surely Jehovah and Jesus take note of who makes the effort to attend this most important meeting of the year.” The subtext to this sentence is: You are being watched from above. If you don’t attend, then you may go into Jesus' black book. Then they take off the cotton gloves: “Frankly we want them [Jehovah and Jesus] to see that unless it is physically or circumstantially impossible, we will be present at the Memorial....When we show by our actions that meetings for worship are important to us, we give Jehovah added reason to keep our name in his ‘book of remembrance’ – ‘the book of life’“. How this message from the organization contrasts to the message given by Jesus in the Scriptures. In John 4:23-24 Jesus says “the true worshipers will worship the Father with spirit and truth”. James wrote under inspiration in James 1:26-27 “If any man seems to himself to be a formal worshiper [going to 2 meetings a week, and the assemblies and memorial every year] and yet does not bridle his tongue, but goes on deceiving his own heart,

https://youtu.be/BYaWgwakaVA Video Script Hello. Eric Wilson again.  This time we're looking at 1914. Now, 1914 is a very important doctrine for Jehovah's Witnesses.  It is a core doctrine.  Some might disagree.  There was a recent Watchtower about core doctrines and 1914 wasn't mentioned.  However without 1914, there can be no generation teaching; without 1914 the whole premise of us living in the last days goes out the window; and most important, without 1914, there can be no Governing Body because the Governing Body takes its authority from the belief that it was appointed by Jesus Christ as the faithful and discreet slave in 1919.  And the reason they were appointed in 1919 is based on another anti-typical application coming from Malachi which derives from the start of Jesus’ rule—so if Jesus began to rule in 1914 as king, then certain things went on—we'll discuss those in another video—but certain things went on which then brought him to choose Witnesses out of all the religions on earth as his chosen people and to appoint over them a faithful and discreet slave; and that occurred in 1919 based on the chronology that gets us to 1914. So no 1914…no 1919…no 1919…no faithful and discreet slave, no Governing Body.  There is no basis for the authority structure under which all Jehovah's Witnesses today function.  That's how important this doctrine is and those who disagree with the doctrine will attack it by challenging the start date. Now when I say start date, the doctrine is based on the premise that in 607 BCE the Israelites were taken into exile in Babylon and Jerusalem was destroyed and thus began 70 years of devastation and exile; and also began the appointed times of the nations or the appointed times of the Gentiles.  This is all the understanding that you have as Witnesses, all based on the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream and an antitypical application of that, because there was a typical application evidently or obviously from what we find in the Bible…but as Witnesses, we take the position that there is an anti typical application and the seven times in which Nebuchadnezzar was crazed, acting like a beast, eating the vegetation of the field. Those seven times correspond to seven years each year measuring 360 days, for a total of 2,520 days or years.   So counting from 607, we get to 1914—specifically October of 1914 and that's important—but we'll get to that in another video, okay? So if 607 is wrong, many reason then the application of this interpretation can be challenged. I would disagree and I'll show you why in a minute; but basically there are three ways in which we examine this doctrine: We examine it chronologically—we examine whether the start date is valid. The second way is we examine it empirically—in other words, it's all well and good to say that something happened in 1914 but if there's no empirical evidence then it's just conjecture. It's like me saying that, “You know Jesus was enthroned last June.” I can say that, but I have to give some proof.  So there should be empirical proof.  There should be something that we can visibly witness that gives us reason to believe that something invisible happened in the heavens. The third way is biblically. Now of these three ways, as far as I can see, the only valid way to examine this doctrine is biblically.  However, since so much time has been spent specifically on the first method of chronology, then we're going to deal with that briefly; and I would like to explain why I don't feel that is a valid method for examining the validity of this doctrine. Now, there are a lot of people who spend a lot of time researching it.  As a matter of fact, one brother in 1977 submitted his research to the Governing Body, which was subsequently rejected and then he published a book himself called Gentile Times Reconsidered. His name is Karl Olof Jonson.  It's a 500-page book.  Very well done; scholarly; but it's 500 pages!

Treasures from God’s Word and Digging for Spiritual Gems – Carefully avoid Stumbling Yourself and others (Matthew 18-19) Matthew 18:6-7 (stumbling blocks) (nwtsty) The Greek word translated “stumbling block” is skandalon. The study notes say about this word “In a figurative sense, it refers to an action or circumstance that leads a person to follow an improper course, to stumble or fall morally, or to fall into sin.” Interestingly, this word is the basis for the English word, “scandal”, used to refer to the situation when someone is caught acting in a manner considered sinful or unacceptable to the general populace. The verses warn against stumbling even little ones who have put faith in Jesus Christ. Virtually all witnesses without exception have put faith in Jesus otherwise they would not have made the effort to study the Bible and get baptized. This fact makes the warning all the more powerful. Sadly, many have been stumbled by the treatment they have received while within the organisation, becoming agnostics, and even atheists.  Why might this be the case? It is so, because witnesses are taught to put faith in the organisation. For example: w02 8/1 Loyally Submit to Godly Authority How has reviewing the account of Korah strengthened your faith in Jehovah’s visible organization? When such ones find that what they believed to be the truth has been, in fact, falsehood, and that the Organisation cannot therefore be directed by God, they have nothing left in which to put faith.  The Organisation has made itself into the channel or mediator between God and men.  Take that away and no perceived path to God remains.  Feeling tricked, made out to be the fool, they turn away from all religion and even God himself. The Bible speaks of a heavier judgment upon those who teach others falsehoods. "They are the ones devouring the houses of the widows and for a pretext making long prayers; these will receive a heavier judgment.” (Mark 12:40) Matthew 18:10 (their angels in heaven) (nwtsty) (w10 11/1 16) This verse is best understood in the light of the following scriptures : Genesis 18, Genesis 19, Exodus 32:34, Psalm 91:11, Job 33:23-26, Daniel 10:13, Acts 12:12-15, Hebrews 1:14. The Watchtower reference appears to be correct when it says “Jesus did not necessarily mean that each of his followers has a guardian angel assigned to him.” The above cited scriptures suggest that according to need, Jehovah and possibly Jesus, assign an angel to protect and guide a particular person, group, kingdom or country. However, there is no support for an individual guardian angel being assigned to each human as some believe. It seems that Jesus was strongly counselling those listening to treat the little ones, which would include children, with care and respect; the idea being that were such ones harmed, Jehovah would be made aware, and on judgement day it would not go well for their victimizers. This would clearly apply to those who practice child sexual abuse, but would by extension also apply to those who condone, or turn a blind eye to such terrible actions, hiding behind misapplied scriptures. Never be a cause for Stumbling - Video The video makes several points: (1) Pushing someone could cause them to stumble. The Watchtower Study review for this week highlights an experience of how due to other organization videos, the witnesses now push away those considered ‘weak’. The video then makes the point that Jehovah could push us, but doesn’t force us to serve him, but rather encourages. How different from the organization which attempts to coerce us into following its particular way of worship. Stephen Lett (GB member) highlights how parents should not coerce their children into serving Jehovah, but the previous two Watchtower Study articles on baptism have been strongly influencing parents to put pressure on children to get baptized, all without one scriptural precedent to justify this course of action.

[From ws1/18 p. 7 – February 26-March 4] “Those hoping in Jehovah will regain power.” Isaiah 40:31 The first paragraph lays out the problems many Witnesses are now facing: Coping with serious illness. Elderly caring for elderly relatives. Struggling to provide basic necessities for their families. Often several of these problems at once. So what have many witnesses done to cope with these and other pressures? The second paragraph enlightens us and effectively gives us the reason for this article. “Sadly, some of God’s people in our day have concluded that the best way to cope with the pressures of life is to ‘take a break from the truth’, as they say, as if our Christian activities were a burden rather than a blessing. So they stop reading God’s Word, attending congregation meetings, and engaging in the field ministry – just as Satan hopes they will do.” Reading between the lines, there we have it in a nutshell. Many are giving up and so the organization needs to guilt-trip us into continuing, ‘not tiring out’. But before we continue reviewing the rest of the article let us take a few moments to review the situation presented to us here. What about the problems highlighted? Without making light of the situation any one of us may currently be enduring, we should bear in mind that, according to Ecclesiastes 1:9, “there is nothing new under the sun”.  For instance, serious illness has afflicted mankind since Adam and Eve sinned.  Their sin is the reason that throughout time, elderly ones have had to care for even more elderly ones. And has there ever been a time in history when the majority of people were not struggling to provide the basic necessities for their families? So this begs the question, why in the 21st century when many countries have state hospitals, state care for elderly, the poor and the unemployed, have “some of God’s people in our day... concluded that the best way to cope with the pressures of life is to ‘take a break from the truth’ “? Could it possibly be due to a recurrence of the situation Jesus highlighted in Luke 11:46 where he said “Woe also to you who are versed in the Law, because you load men with loads hard to be borne, but you yourselves do not touch the loads with one of your fingers!” Could it be that too heavy a load has been put upon Jehovah’s Witnesses? Let us briefly examine this subject. What loads have been placed upon Witnesses during the 20th and 21st Centuries? At the current time there are many elderly ones who have no children to care for them, because they were told that it would be very unwise to have children given that Armageddon was just round the corner.[i] For many, the constant expectation that the end was only a few years away, caused them to put off having children until it was too late. Witnesses also have one of the lowest retention rates for children brought up in a religion.[ii] What could be factors in this statistic?  For at least the last 50 years there has been pressure for young witnesses not to get further education and therefore many have not been able to get a job that pays sufficient to support a family. When I was a teenager, so many of my fellow teenage witnesses left school as soon as they were legally able to do so, without qualifications and skills to be employable, feeling obliged to engage in pioneer service. Today, little has changed. When recessions hit as they do regularly, the low-paying menial service jobs are often the first to go.  When jobs are scarce, will the employer go for the uneducated worker if he has many educated ones vying for the same job? Add to this the financial burdens the organization puts on Witnesses. Contributions are ‘requested’ for: Paying for the Circuit Overseers accommodation, living expenses and car. (Car replaced at least every 3 years) Paying for the Circuit Assembly Halls rentals (an amount that seems in excess of what is required for maintenance)

It's all well and good to tear down a false doctrine like the JW overlapping generations interpretation of Matthew 24:34—as we did in a previous video—but Christian love should always move us to build up.  So after clearing away the debris of false teachings that have been built on sand, let us build a structure that is solid, founded on the rock of the teachings of the Christ. (Mt 7:24-27)  With this in view, the next video in our series attempts to provide an exegetical interpretation of what Jesus meant when he referred to a generation that would not pass away until all the things he'd spoken of had occurred. https://youtu.be/2cyueAtH8Hg

In 2008, Jehovah's Witnesses were introduced to what was then thought of as new light.  The understanding that the generation Jesus spoke of at Matthew 24:34 was changed from referring to the wicked people of his day to anointed Christians in our day.  As it turns out, this wasn't new light at all, but a return to an 80-year-old understanding put forward by J.F. Rutherford in the Feb 15, 1927 Watchtower.  Two years later, further changes to the doctrine resulted in what has been called the Overlapping Generations doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses in which two distinct generations could be counted as a single generation based on the overlapping of their lifetimes.  Four years passed when, in 2014, a further "refinement" to the doctrine was introduced in which it was not the lifetimes that overlapped, but the periods of their anointing. The question is: Is this doctrine based in Scripture, or is it the fabrication of men trying to engender a false sense of urgency in the faithful?  We will attempt to answer that question in this video. https://youtu.be/lCIykFonW4M

https://youtu.be/r3kLWgYC-X0 Hello, my name is Eric Wilson. In our first video, I put forward the idea of using the criteria that we as Jehovah's Witnesses use to examine whether other religions are considered to be true or false on ourselves. So, that same criteria, those five points—six now—we're going to use to examine whether we also meet the criteria that we expect all other religions to meet. It seems like a fair test. I'd like to get right down to it and yet here we are in the third video still not doing that; and the reason is that there are still things in our way. Whenever I bring these subjects up to friends, I get a litany of objections that is so consistent across the board that it tells me that these aren't really their own thoughts, but thoughts that have been implanted through years of—and I hate to use the word—indoctrination, because they almost come out word for word in the same order. Let me give you some examples. It might start off with: 'But we are the true organization...We are Jehovah's organization...There is no other organization...Where else will we go?' It then follows with something like, 'Shouldn't we be loyal to the organization?...After all, who taught us the truth?...and 'If something is wrong, well we should just wait on Jehovah...We shouldn't run ahead for sure...Besides, who is blessing the organization? Is it not Jehovah? Is it not evident that his blessing is upon us?...And when you think about it, who else is preaching the good news earthwide? There's no one else doing that.' It kinda comes out in this form, just in a stream of consciousness. And I realize that no one has really sat down and thought this through. So let's do that. Are these valid objections? Let's see. Let's consider them one at a time. Now, one of the first ones that comes up besides, 'This is the true organization'—which is really just a statement—is the question: 'Where else would we go?' Usually in line with that, people will then quote Peter's words to Jesus. They'll say, 'Remember when Jesus told the crowd that they had to eat his flesh and drink his blood and they all left him, and he turned to his own disciples and he asked them, 'Do you want to go too?' And what did Peter say?' And almost without exception—and I've had this discussion over the years with different ones—they will say the same words Peter said, 'Where else will we go?'" Isn't that what you think he said? Well, let's look at what he actually said. You'll find it in the book of John chapter 6 verse 68.  "Whom", he uses the word, "whom." Whom will we go to? Not, where will we go? Now, there's a big difference there. You see, no matter where we are, we can go to Jesus. We can be all by ourselves, we can be stuck in the middle of a prison, the only true worshiper there and turn to Jesus, He is our guide, he is our Lord, he is our King, he is our Master, he is Everything to us. Not "where." "Where" indicates a place. We have to go to a group of people, we have to be in a place, we have to be in an organization. If we're going to be saved, we have to be in the organization. Otherwise, we we won't be saved. No! Salvation comes by turning to Jesus, not by membership or affiliation with any group. There is nothing in the Bible to indicate that you have to belong to a particular group of people to be saved. You have to belong to Jesus, and indeed that's what the Bible says. Jesus belongs to Jehovah, we belong to Jesus and all things belong to us. Reasoning that we shouldn't put our trust in men, Paul told the Corinthians, who were doing that very thing, the following in 1st Corinthians 3:21 to 23: "So let no one boast men; for all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things now here or things to come, all things belong to you; in turn you belong to Christ; Christ, in turn, belongs to God." (1 Co 3:21-23) Okay, so that's point 1. But still you have to be organized right?

I e-mailed all my JW friends with a link to the first video, and the response has been an resounding silence.  Mind you, it's been less than 24 hours, but still I expected some response.  Of course, some of my deeper thinking friends will need time to view and think about what they're seeing.  I should be patient.  I expect most will disagree.  I'm basing that on years of experience. However, it is my hope that some will see the light.  Unfortunately, most Witnesses when confronted with a contrary argument to what they've been taught will dismiss the speaker by calling him an apostate.  Is this a valid response?  What is an apostate according to Scripture? That is the question I'm attempting to answer in the second video of this series. Video Script Hello.  This is our second video. In the first, we discussed examining our own teachings as Jehovah's Witnesses using our own criteria as we got originally from the Truth book back in '68 and from subsequent books such as the Bible Teach book. However, we also discussed a few problems that stood in our way. We referred to them as the elephant in the room, or since there's more than one, the elephants in the room; and we needed to dispense with those before we could really move on in our research of the Bible. Now one of elephants, perhaps the biggest one, is fear. It is interesting that Jehovah's Witnesses go fearlessly from door to door and never know who's going to answer the door—it could be a Catholic, or Baptist, or a Mormon, or a Moslem, or a Hindu—and they're prepared for whatever comes their way. Yet, let one of their own question a single doctrine and suddenly they're afraid. Why? For example, if you're watching this video now, I would guess that a few of you are sitting there privately waiting till everybody's gone away…you're all by yourself…now you're watching…or if there's others in the house, maybe you're looking over your shoulder, just to make sure nobody's watching you watch the video as if you are watching pornographic movies! Where does that fear come from? And why is it that rational adult people will react in such a way when discussing Bible truth? It seems to be very, very odd to say the very least. Now, do you love truth? I would say that you do; that's why you're watching this video; and that's a good thing because love is the key factor in arriving at truth.  1 Corinthians 13:6—when it defines love in the sixth verse—says that love does not rejoice over unrighteousness.  And of course falsehood, false doctrine, lies—they're all part of unrighteousness.  Well, love does not rejoice over unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth. So when we learn truth, when we learn new things from the Bible, or when our understanding is refined, we feel joy if we love truth...and that's a good thing, this love of truth, because we don't want the opposite…we don't want the love of the lie. Revelation 22:15 talks about those who are outside the kingdom of God. There are different qualities such as being a murderer, or a fornicator, or an idolater, but among those is “everyone liking and carrying on a lie”. So if we like a false doctrine, and if we carry it on and perpetuate it, teaching it to others, we're guaranteeing ourselves a place outside of the kingdom of God. Who wants that? So again, why are we afraid? 1 John 4:18 gives us the reason—if you want to turn there—1 John 4:18 says:"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts fear out, because fear restrains us (and the old version said “fear exercises a restraint”) indeed the one who is fearful has not been made perfect in love." So if we're afraid, and if we're letting fear restrain us from examining the truth, then we are not perfect in love. Now, what are we afraid of?  Well, it may just be we're afraid of being wrong. If we've believed something all our lives, were afraid of being wrong. Imagine when we go to the door and we meet someone of another religion—who has been in...

I started my online Bible research back in 2011 under the alias Meleti Vivlon.  I used the google translation tool available back then to find out how to say "Bible study" in Greek. At the time there was a transliterate link, which I used to get English characters. That gave me "vivlon meleti".  I thought that "meleti" sounded more like a given name and "vivlon", a surname, so I reversed them and the rest is history. Of course, the reason for the alias was that at the time I wanted to hide my identity because the Organization does not look kindly on those who do their own Bible research.  My goal back then was to find other like-minded brothers around the world who, like myself, were troubled by the obvious fabrication of the "overlapping generations" doctrine and who thus were motivated to do deeper Bible research.  At the time, I believed that the Organization of Jehovah's Witnesses was the only true religion.  It wasn't until sometime in 2012-2013 that I finally resolved the growing cognitive dissonance I'd been laboring under for years by acknowledging that we were very much like all other false religion.  What did it for me was the realization that the "other sheep" of John 10:16 were not a separate class of Christian with a different hope.  When I realized that all my life they had been messing with my salvation hope, it was the final deal breaker.  Of course, the presumptuous claim made at the 2012 annual meeting that the Governing Body was the faithful and discreet slave of Matthew 24:45-47 did nothing to mitigate my awakening to the true nature of the Organization. Our goal here and on the other BP websites has been to rise above the anger and recriminations that are a natural reaction to the realization that one has spent one's life in a misguided attempt to please God.  So many sites on the internet are full of vituperative mocking.  So many have turned away from God and Christ, stumbled by these men who have claimed to be God's channel. I never doubted the love of God and through study I have come to appreciate the love of the Christ, despite the Organization's best attempts to relegate him to observer status.  Yes, we have been travelling in the wrong direction as Jehovah's Witnesses, but that's no reason to drive the car off a cliff.  Jehovah and his Christ have never changed, so our goal is to help our fellow Witnesses—and anyone else who will listen for that matter—to turn the car around and head in the right direction: toward God and salvation. While the use of an alias has its place, there comes a time when it can become a hindrance.  One does not seek persecution, nor to become some sort of martyr.  However, things are changing rapidly in the land of JW.org.  There are more and more brothers and sisters who are what is known as PIMOs (Physically In, Mentally Out).  These are ones who go to meetings and out in service to maintain a facade that allows them to continue to associate with family and friends.  (I am in no way criticizing such ones.  I did the same for some time.  Each must travel his or her own path and at a pace that is sensitive to individual needs.)  All I'm saying is that it is my hope that by coming out of the theological closet, I can perhaps help others who are not as far down the path as I am to find comfort and a means to resolve their own conflicts.  These may be ripples now, but soon I believe we will be seeing waves that will sweep through this moribund organization. Should that happen, it will only bring more glory to the Christ and what could be wrong with that? To this end, I have started a series of videos which I believe—in this day of sound bites, social media, and instant gratification—will appeal to a wider audience.  Of course, I can no longer hide behind my alias, though I intend to continue using it for my Bible ministry.  I've grown fond of it as it represents my awakened self.  However, for the record, my name is Eric Wilson and I live in Hamilton,

[From ws17/12 p. 18 – February 12-18] “From infancy you have known the holy writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation.” 2 Timothy 3:15 At least the organization is more upfront with their purpose with this article than with many. It is not primarily to “help your children be wise for salvation“, but rather, as alluded to by the question for paragraphs 1 & 2, to help “children wanting to take the steps of dedication and baptism.”  It would be more truthful if they added “because of strong emotional pressure from peers, parents and the Organization”. This is aside from the issue of whether a formal dedication is required (discussed at length here) since Matthew 28:19b says nothing about vows and dedication but instead speaks only of baptism followed by actions to observe Jesus' commandments. We then find another tweak in the NWT which changes the meaning of the verse. Matthew 28:19 should read “make disciples of all the nations“, not “make disciples of people of all the nations”. Why is this subtle change wrong? Because it changes the emphasis with which most witnesses read this scripture. The focus goes on “disciples of people” instead of “disciples of all the nations”.  The Greek word here translated “nations” is ‘ethnos’ which means “gentiles, people joined by similar customs and culture.” Children are still learning customs and culture; only adults can be said to be truly joined by similar customs and culture. Did John the Baptist baptise any children? The baptism of children is not mentioned in Scripture. Only the baptism of adults fits the context. (See Luke 3:21; Matthew 3:13; Mark 1:4-8; John 1:29.) When did Jesus, the Son of God, get baptised?  Not as a child, but as a full-grown man of 30. (Luke 3:23)  If baptism is so important at such an early age, then why did Jesus Christ not set the example and get baptized when he was a child?  Why did he not encourage the baptism of children? What is the difference between infant and child baptism? Very little. Both have little to no understanding of the gravity of the step they are taking. An infant is not even aware he is being baptized.  He has no say in the matter.  Does a child make the decision of his or her own free will?  Usually, a strong emotional persuasion is exerted by parents, either wittingly or unwittingly, to motivate the child whose natural, inborn desire is to please his mother and/or father.  Most children change their outlook on life drastically during their teen years. The Insight book makes the following comment on Baptism: “That Christian baptism required an understanding of God’s Word and an intelligent decision to present oneself to do the revealed will of God was evident.”  -- (it-1 p253 par. 13) Most countries of the world do not consider a child to be old enough to make important decisions in life until aged 16, 18, or 21, depending on the nature of the decision. Why should becoming a member of a religion with its requirements be any different?  We should bear in mind that Jehovah's Witnesses are not baptising their children in the Christ, but rather, in the Organization.  JW Baptism means being willing to conform to all the rules, tenets and policies of the Organization, whether these conform to Scripture or not.[i]  Few children will realize what they are getting into.  (Indeed, few adults do either.)  The same things said about infants in the Insight book article on baptism (it-1 p253 para 18) apply to children and most teenagers.  How many under the age of say, 16, understand God’s word (let alone organization policy) enough to make an intelligent decision? Finally Acts 8:12 clearly states that “they proceeded to get baptized, both men and women.” Note the absence of children. Paragraph 2 attempts to dismiss any concerns on the part of parents. It does this in part by implying that concerns that the children may later leave ‘the way of truth’ should not stop them getting baptized. However,

In 2003 Jason David Beduhn, at the time an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Northern Arizona University, released a book called Truth in Translation: Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament. In the book, Professor Beduhn analysed nine words and verses[1] (often disputed and controversial around Trinitarian doctrine) across nine[2] English translations of the Bible. At the end of the process, he rated the NWT as the best and the Catholic NAB as the second best with the least bias from the translating team. He explains why it worked out this way with supporting reasons. He further qualifies this by stating that other verses could have been analysed and a different outcome might have been reached. Professor Beduhn clearly makes the point that it is NOT a definitive ranking as there are a set of criteria that needs to be considered. Interestingly, when he teaches NT Greek to his undergraduate students, he uses the Kingdom Interlinear (KIT) as he highly rates the interlinear part. The book is very readable and fair in its treating of the translation points. One cannot determine his faith position when reading his arguments. His style of writing is not confrontational and invites the reader to examine the evidence and to draw conclusions. In my personal opinion this book is an excellent piece of work. Professor Beduhn then provides an entire chapter[3] discussing the NWT practice of inserting the Divine Name in the NT. He carefully and politely demonstrates why this is a theologically biased approach and breaches guidelines for good translating. In this chapter, he criticises all the translations that translate the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) as LORD. He is also critical of the NWT for inserting Jehovah into the New Testament when it does not appear in ANY of the extant manuscripts. In pages 171 paragraphs 3 and 4, he explains the process and the associated problems with this practice. The paragraphs are reproduced in full below (italics for emphasis in original): “When all the manuscripts evidence agrees, it takes very strong reasons to suggest that the original autographs (the very first manuscripts of a book written by the author himself) read differently. To suggest such a reading not supported by the manuscript evidence is called making a conjectural emendation. It is an emendation because you are repairing, “mending,” a text you believe is defective. It is conjectural because it is a hypothesis, a “conjecture” that can only be proven if at some future time evidence is found that supports it. Until that time, it is by definition unproven. The editors of the NW are making conjectural emendation when they replace kurios, which would be translated “Lord”, with “Jehovah”. In an appendix to the NW, they state that their restoration of “Jehovah” in the New Testament is based upon (1) a supposition concerning how Jesus and his disciples would have handled the divine name, (2) the evidence of the “J texts” and (3) the necessity of consistency between the Old and New Testaments. These are three different reasons for the editorial decision. The first two may be handled here quite briefly, while the third requires more detailed examination.” The position of Professor Beduhn is absolutely clear.  In the rest of the chapter, he dismantles the arguments put forward by the NWT editors for the insertion of the name. In fact, he is adamant that the role of the translator should not be to repair the text. Any such activity should be confined to the footnotes. Now the rest of this article is inviting the readers to make a decision on the new Appendix C added to the New Study Edition of the revised NWT 2013. Making Informed Decisions In the new Study Edition Bible post-2013 revision, Appendix C tries to justify the reason for adding the name. There are currently 4 sections C1 to C4. In C1, titled “The Restoration Of The Divine Name In The “New Testament,”” reasons are given for the practice.

[From ws17/12 p. 8 – February 5-11] “The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”​—1 Cor. 15:45 What a pity that after last week’s delightful review of the Bible resurrection accounts, this week’s study wastes no time in getting off on the wrong foot: IF YOU were asked, ‘What are the key teachings of your faith?’ what would you say? Surely you would stress that Jehovah is the Creator and Life-Giver. You would likely mention your belief in Jesus Christ, who died as a ransom. And you would happily add that an earthly paradise is ahead, where God’s people will live forever. But would you mention the resurrection as one of your most cherished beliefs? – par. 1 We might stress that Jehovah is the Creator and Life-Giver, but only mention Jesus as the one who died as a ransom?!  “Oh, yes, there was also this nice fellow named Jesus who died for us.  Isn’t that just peachy keen?  He did some other stuff too.  A really fine, all around chap.” Having critically reviewed every Watchtower study for several years now, I can attest to the fact that Jesus is viewed as our exemplar—i.e. someone to imitate—and as our ransom—i.e. our ticket into paradise.  That pretty much says it all.  We don’t like to focus on him, as that takes away from our focus on Jehovah.  We seem to think we can gain access to God without going through the door that is Jesus. In the last paragraph of the study, we come back to the idea that Jehovah is doing all the resurrecting with this statement: “Proving that Jehovah is capable of resurrecting the dead…” – par. 21 Of course, Jehovah is the ultimate source of life, but given that we're quoting from John 5:28, 29 in the paragraph, maybe we should consider what it actually says. “Most truly I say to you, the hour is coming, and it is now, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who have paid attention will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted also to the Son to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to do judging, because he is the Son of man. 28 Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice 29 and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, and those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.” (Joh 5:25-29) Does this sound like Jehovah is doing the resurrecting?  Is it God’s voice they hear and respond to? If so, then why has He granted the Son to have life in himself and why is Jesus called “a life-giving spirit” in 1 Corinthians? Shouldn’t food at the proper time be accurate and give honor where honor is due? The other expression in this first paragraph that is off-putting may not be so quickly apparent: “you would happily add that an earthly paradise is ahead, where God’s people will live forever.”  Not God’s children, not God’s family, but God’s people.  We don’t live forever because we are God’s people.  The Israelites were God’s people, for instance, but not his children.  The subjects of a ruler may benefit from being governed by a benevolent king, but the children of a father inherit, which is far better.  As children, we “inherit everlasting life” and much more.  (Mt 19:29; 20:8; 25:34; Mark 10:17; Heb 1:14; Re 21:7)  So why does the Watchtower constantly focus on friendship with God, not a family relationship?  Why does it always speak of Christians as God’s people, but not his children?  That is not the message of the good news. It is a foreign good news. (Gal 1:6-8) Timing Issues The Organization has a long history of getting the timing of things wrong.  They do this by supposing that there are exceptions and loop holes to the prohibitions God imposes.  For instance, paragraph 13 states: “Jesus did tell his apostles that there were things they did not and could not know. There are details about “the times or seasons that the Father has placed in his own jurisdiction.” (Acts 1:6, 7; John 16:12) However,