All Things Seen & Unseen

Over the last number of posts, we have been examining Watchtower Society (WtS) beliefs and gradually moved towards a defence of Christian orthodoxy. In this polemic, we will examine the happenings surrounding the WtS's critical year of 1919 because in that year, according to the WtS, it gained a unique status. The year, 1919 , is critical for the WtS because it believes that not only did Jesus Christ come invisibly to reign over the earth in 1914 but in 1919 judged the fitness of each earthly organisation to represent Jehovah God on earth according to the terms of Matthew 24.45-47. A WtS publication God's Kingdom of a Thousand Years Has Approached (Frederick W. Franz, 1975, chap. 17 p. 350 par. 40) described this time like this: The serving of food, the right sort of food, at the proper time was the issue. It had to be according to this that a decision must be rendered by the returned master. Well, then, what about that body of Christians internationally hated and perse...

As I mentioned last time, Don Cameron 1 , a one-time Jehovah's Witness (JW) elder, has tabled 48 doctrines which the Watchtower Society (WtS) was teaching from 1876 to 1919 but now no longer teaches. The WtS believes now that Jesus Christ returned invisibly in 1914 and began inspecting the societies, organisations and religions of the world according to various criteria. Four criteria were to be applied to the teachings of these organisations according to the JW historian of the WtS, Frederick Franz, in Jehovah's Witnesses: Proclaimers of God's Kingdom ( Proclaimers ) (1993) * (free pdf download from the Internet) p. 47 : a) teaching must be correct b) teaching must be at the proper time c) teaching must be found in the Scriptures d) teaching must be rejected if found to be based on tradition (as summarised by Cameron). We can't cover all the 48 beliefs cited by Cameron but I will cover 3 of them in some detail below and then list others below these below. ...

A former Jehovah's Witness (JW) elder, Don Cameron 1 , says that the Witnesses are 'captives of a concept': JWs believe that they are connected to the only organisation in this world chosen by God to speak for him!  Is this not a preposterous claim! It's not only a highly inflated view, it's false. But, to testify adequately to JWs, evangelicals need to know that Witnesses believe this lie about the Watchtower Society (WtS) itself because all JWs receive their doctrine and teaching from the Society.   But, how did the WtS come by this preeminence in God's plan you will surely ask?