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Contradictions
in Watchtower Literature.
The watchtower says it is God's
only true organization: "Only this organization functions for
Jehovah's purpose and to his praise. To it alone God's Sacred Word,
the Bible, is not a sealed book," (The Watchtower; July 1, 1973, page
402.). It claims to speak for God, yet it has
produced numerous contradictory statements. Therefore, it is not
God's organization.
- Who is the Faithful and Discreet Slave, the Watchtower Organization or Charles Taze Russell?
- Watchtower Organization is
Faithful and Discreet Slave:
- "Jesus
foretold that among his people there would be a "faithful and
discreet slave" class who would be providing the spiritual
food to God's family of devoted servants on earth, acting as his
channel of communication and overseeing the carrying out of the
Kingdom interests world wide. (Matt.
24:45-47)
These anointed overseers serve as though being guided in their
activities by the right hand of Christ." (Watchtower
1/15/1969, pages 51).
- Russell is Faithful and
Discreet Slave:
- "Thousands of the readers of Pastor Russell's writings
believe that he filled the office of 'that faithful and wise
servant,' and that his great work was giving to the household of
faith meat in due season. His modesty and humility precluded him
from openly claiming this title, but he admitted as much in
private conversation," Watchtower
12/1/1916, page. 357.
- Watchtower Denies Russell ever claimed to be
Faithful and Discreet Slave:
- "From
this it is clearly seen that the editor and publisher of Zion's
Watch Tower disavowed any claim to being individually, in his
person, that "faithful and wise servant." He never did
claim to be such. (God's
Kingdom of a thousand years has approached, 1973, p.346).
- Watchtower claims to be only
organization to find scriptural guidance, yet condemns the Vatican for
doing the same thing.
- Watchtower is only
organization able to interpret the Bible:
- "We
all need help to understand the Bible, and we cannot find the
Scriptural guidance we need outside the ‘faithful and
discreet slave' organization." (The Watchtower, Feb. 15,
1981.)
- Vatican is only
organization able to interpret the Bible:
- "The
Vatican belittles Bible study by claiming it is the only
organization authorized and qualified to interpret the
Bible." (The Watchtower, 7/1/1943, p. 201.)
- Is Jesus supposed to be worshipped or
not?
- Yes, Jesus is supposed to
be worshipped:
-
"Question: The fact that our Lord received worship is
claimed by some to be an evidence that while on earth he was God
the Father disguised in a body of flesh and not really a man. Was
he really worshiped, or is the translation
faulty? Answer: Yes, we believe our Lord Jesus while
on earth was really worshiped, and properly so...It was proper for
our Lord to receive worship in view of his having been the only
begotten of the Father, and his agent in the creation of all
things, including man." (The Watchtower, 7/15/1898, page
216.)
- New Heavens and a
New Earth, on pages 27-28, published in 1953,
"For example, to which one of the angels did he ever
say: 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father'? And
again: 'I shall be a Father to him, and he will be a Son to
me'? But when he again brings his Firstborn into the
inhabited earth, he says: 'And let all God's angels worship
him.'"
- No, Jesus is not
supposed to be worshipped:
- "He taught men, not to worship him, but to worship Jehovah
his Father ... "I am ascending to my Father and your Father, and
to my God and your God." (Make Sure of All Things p. 283)
- "What I learned was so different from what I had heard at
the "Christian" school I had attended. Jehovah's Witnesses
do not worship Jesus. Rather, they worship Almighty God,
the One that Jesus himself worshipped." (Awake, 12/22/87,
page 22.).
- The sower in the Matt. 13
parable is Satan or Jesus?
- The sower of the mustard seed is Satan
- "It is the fake “kingdom of the
heavens,” the counterfeit, namely, Christendom, that is
filled with these symbolic birds, “the sons of the wicked
one.” Today it is big enough to hold them all. In the
parable, the “man” that sowed the mustard grain pictures the
“wicked one,” Satan the Devil. Outstandingly in the
fourth century C.E. Satan the Devil planted or specially
cultivated this symbolic “mustard grain” of contaminated,
adulterated, imitation Christianity." (Man's Salvation Out Of World
Distress, 1975, p. 208).
- The sower of the mustard seed is Jesus
- "In the days of Jesus Christ and his
apostles the nation of Israel was just as apostate as in the
days of Jeremiah and Hosea. In fact, it was the generation
of Israel that brought about the death of Jesus the Messiah
and that persecuted his apostles and first-century
disciples. Such Israelites especially were the ones to whom
Jesus, as well as Isaiah, referred as having their eyes
plastered shut, their ears unresponsive and their hearts
unreceptive so that there was no spiritual healing for them.
(Isa. 6:9, 10; Matt. 13:13-15; Acts 28:24-28) Hence that
apostate generation suffered national calamity in 70 C.E.
So, now, does anyone ask the question, How could Jesus as
the Sower of the parable plant the symbolic mustard grain
and yet have it become a tree of a foreign kind, the corrupt
counterfeit called Christendom? The experience of
Jehovah God with the ancient nation of Israel gives the
divine answer to such a questioner!" (Watchtower,
10/1/1975, p. 600).
- A Jehovah's Witness has sought
to point out that the first quote where the sower of the
mustard seed is Satan is referring to the fake kingdom of
God and the second sower is referring to Jesus in the true
kingdom of God and that this removes the contradiction.
In response, I have expanded the length of each quote
above and italicized the contextual information so we can
examine them.
- Quote A: "the “man” that
sowed the mustard grain pictures the “wicked one,” Satan
the Devil."
- Quote B: "Jesus as the
Sower of the parable plant the symbolic mustard grain"
- Each statement declares specifically who the sower
OF THE PARABLE'S MUSTARD SEED IS! The first quote
says it is the devil in the fake kingdom and the second
says that it is Jesus. Of course the "true
kingdom" is not referenced in the second quote.
What IS REFERENCED is that the mustard grain that JESUS
PLANTED planted became corrupt. In other words,
the true became the fake (see underlined section in "B"
above). It would seem that there is only one
action of planting the mustard seed in the parable, not
two (not one of the fake and another of the true).
To say that the parable can be taken to mean two
different sowings (one by the devil and another by
Jesus) when it references the SAME MUSTARD seed has its
obvious problems: Here is the parable
- “The kingdom of heaven is like a
mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his
field; 32 and this is smaller than all
other seeds; but when it is full grown, it is larger
than the garden plants, and becomes a tree, so that
the birds of the air come and nest in its branches,”
(Matt. 13:31).
- Therefore, we can make the case that they are
speaking of the same seed.
- On the other hand, can we say that one is speaking
only of the fake kingdom and the other only of the true
kingdom? Is the Jehovah's witness making a
distinction that isn't there especially since B says it
is the work of Christ that became corrupt implying it is
the same seed?
- If someone wants to conclude that the Watchtower
organization is alluding to the symbolism of the sowers
in the implied kingdom of light AND darkness as two
separate events, then it would alleviate the weight of
the contradiction.
- I will leave it up to you to decide if this is a
contradiction or not.
- Armageddon will be in 1914 or 1941
- Armageddon will be in 1914
- "...the Kingdom of God is already begun, that it is pointed
out in prophecy as due to begin the exercise of power in A.D.
18789, and that the "battle of the great day of God Almighty
(Rev. 16:14), which will end in A.D. 1914, with the
complete overthrow of earth's present rulership, is already
commenced." (The Time is at Hand, 1889. - Emphasis added).
- Armageddon will be in 1941
- "Receiving the gift, the marching children
clasped it to them, not a toy or plaything for idle pleasure, but
the Lord's provided instrument for most effective work in the
remaining months before Armageddon." (The Watchtower,
9/15/41, page 288.)
- Armageddon will be in 1914 or 1915
- Armageddon is in 1915
- "...the Kingdom of God is already begun, that it is pointed out
in prophecy as due to begin the exercise of power in A.D. 18789, and
that the "battle of the great day of God Almighty (Rev. 16:14),
which will end in A.D. 1915, with the complete overthrow of
earth's present rulership, is already commenced." (The Time is at
Hand, 1881. - Emphasis added - Date was changed to 1914 in a later
edition).
- Armageddon is in 1914
- "...the Kingdom of God is already begun, that it is pointed out
in prophecy as due to begin the exercise of power in A.D. 18789, and
that the "battle of the great day of God Almighty (Rev. 16:14),
which will end in A.D. 1914, with the complete overthrow of
earth's present rulership, is already commenced." (The Time is at
Hand, 1889. - Emphasis added).
__________________
The contradictions were acquired from a variety of
sources from my own study, books, and the internet.
7 So Jesus Christ well knew that
true Christianity, “the kingdom of the heavens,” was not to become a
figurative “tree,” on the branches of which the birds could lodge or
under which they could find ample shadow. In the earlier parable on
the four types of soil upon which the fine seed, picturing the “word
of the kingdom,” is sown, Jesus brought birds into the picture. Whom
did he explain those “birds” to be like? “The wicked one,” “the
Devil.” That is to say, the earthly agents of the wicked Devil.
(Matthew 13:1-8, 18-23; Luke 8:4-8, 11-15) Mark 4:15 calls him
Satan. Reasonably, then, birds mentioned in the same context, in the
same series of parables, would picture similar things. So the birds
that find lodging in the mustard tree would picture the agents of
the “wicked one,” “Satan the Devil.” They would correspond with the
“weeds,” the imitation wheat, in the parable of the wheat and the
weeds. They are the “sons of the wicked one.”
8 It is the fake “kingdom of the heavens,” the counterfeit, namely,
Christendom, that is filled with these symbolic birds, “the sons of
the wicked one.” Today it is big enough to hold them all. In the
parable, the “man” that sowed the mustard grain pictures the “wicked
one,” Satan the Devil. Outstandingly in the fourth century C.E.
Satan the Devil planted or specially cultivated this symbolic
“mustard grain” of contaminated, adulterated, imitation
Christianity. He did so by then using a man who became the leading
politician of the Roman Empire, namely, Constantine the Great. In
312 C.E. this bloodstained army man professed to be converted to
Christianity, really, though, to the apostate Christianity of his
day as professed by soldiers in the army. This ambitious man
conquered his political rivals and gained the position of emperor of
the Roman Empire. In this capacity he acted as the Pontifex Maximus
or chief priest of the pagan Roman religion. He held onto this pagan
religious title and position and authority despite claiming to be a
Christian.
9 As Pontifex Maximus, Emperor Constantine acted as if he were the
visible head of the Christian Church and called a council of
so-called “bishops,” the presiding overseers of congregations of
professed Christians, at Nicea, Asia Minor, in 325 C.E. At that
Council the Pontifex Maximus Constantine settled the episcopal
wrangling over who and what God is by taking the trinitarian side
and decreeing that God is a triune God, a God in three indivisible
persons, namely, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy
Spirit. To this day the unscriptural doctrine of the “Trinity” is
the fundamental doctrine of the sectarian churches of Christendom.
To this trinitarian mustard “tree” all the trinitarian “birds” flock
to roost thereon. They all expect to go to heaven, like “sons of the
kingdom,” and to see this mysterious, unexplainable triune God.
Truly in Christendom, the mock “kingdom of God,” is fulfilled the
parable of the “mustard grain.”
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