The Two Reasons Why Jehovah's Witnesses Believe

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[Applause] hello viewers I want to talk to you for a moment about what makes Jehovah's Witnesses believe what they believe this seems may seem like an odd question there are obviously lots of reasons why Jehovah's Witnesses believe what they believe religion is inevitably a very complex issue and there are lots of factors both emotional and intellectual at play when it comes to the reasons the motivations behind someone's religiosity no matter what faith they're in but it just seems that I've by this point in my activism work had the opportunity to speak to a number of believing witnesses granted they didn't always know that I was a so-called apostate but I'm always interested to have these conversations to understand the mindset of a believer and to understand why they actually believe what they believe and it seems to me that there are two main reasons why someone would be a jehovah's witness or at least there are two reasonably justifiable reasons that as it turns out aren't all that justifiable but reason number one or the main reason him in my view should be that it's the one true religion and that may sound simple but for jehovah's witnesses or any organization to be the one true religion there has to be a moment in history where God selects this organization and according to current Jehovah's Witness beliefs there was a period between 1914 and 1919 when Jesus Christ inspected the world's religions and chose the washhouse which at that time was headed by Joseph Rutherford he chose that organization to be his faithful and discreet slave so that from 1919 onwards Jehovah's Witnesses were God's only channel of communication with mankind that's a jehovah's witness belief and that really should be the reason why a jehovah's witness would be a jehovah's witness it shouldn't matter about anything else either it's jehovah's appointed organization or not so that's reason number one and i'll come back to that reason number two why you would be a jehovah's witness as far as I can tell and again from talking to actual believing Jehovah's Witnesses is basically what I like to refer to as the box-ticking exercise with the box-ticking exercise you will you will ask a Jehovah's Witness tell me why you believe it's the truth tell me why you're convinced that this is God's only organization and they will start reeling off a series of boxes that they've been able to tick so they'll say oh well only in this organization do you have true love and Jesus said that his followers would have love among themselves only in this organization do you have pacifists people who will not go to war against one another only in this organization do you find people using the divine name of Jehovah only in this organization do you have true unity and so they will list off all of these boxes that they're ticking many of which are purely kind of ideological for example they might say oh well we're the only organization that refutes the Trinity or refutes hell which isn't necessarily true but they've they've had some leaves chosen for them by a watchtower that make them unique if that makes sense now that there are problems with both reasons for being a Jehovah's Witness and I'm going to come back to the first reason about 1914 to 1919 but the main problem with the second reason with the box-ticking exercise is that anyone can replicate those boxes if they really want to I could if I really wanted to set up a club where we only refer to God as Jehovah where we believe in love for one another and we are strictly pacifist so we don't believe in going to war we could have in this club rules about not believing in Hellfire or the Trinity in other words we could mimic each of those issues each of those boxes in our organization it would only be a small club but it shouldn't be about the size should it because if it's about size then automatically the largest religion wins it should be about who is ticking those boxes and if the club that I set up manages to tick all of those boxes then by default it becomes God's one and only true organization that's manifestly ludicrous if any group is got one true organization it is because it has been chosen by God not because simply because it takes a whole lot of boxes but what's interesting is that I think that the majority of witnesses fall into this way of thinking I think the majority are duped into thinking well it must be Jehovah's true organization because what other organization would do this what other organization would do that of course again all of these criteria are suggested by watchtower it's only gonna suggest criteria that it knows it can meet or at least is perceived as meeting criteria and witnesses fall for it but it's it's manifestly not a reason why it should be considered as God's one true organization it's purely a case of ticking boxes what should matter to Jehovah's Witnesses is that their organization has unequivocally and demonstrably been chosen by God to be his chosen Channel with mankind and that takes us back to the first reason why Jehovah's Witness would believe which is the 1914 to 1919 teaching and they're at there too we have a problem because there's no way anyone can prove it Jesus returns to earth invisibly and invisibly inspects all of the Earth's religions and then invisibly chooses watchtower this is something that cannot be falsified no one can prove that it did or didn't happen you just have to believe and if you can reach a point where you can base your entire life your entire spiritual life on well you've just got to have faith then you might as well be in in any religion seriously if you are going to tell me that Jesus came to earth unselected an organization that was teaching that Armageddon should have come in 1914 and oh but don't worry it's probably gonna come by 1925 and oh by the way Moses Sampson and King David are going to get resurrected any moment now and they're gonna help set up this world government and the teaching of the pyramid which was only dropped in 1928 so when Jesus chose the organization in 1919 apparently it was teaching that the Pyramid of Giza was God's stone witness and that the dimensions of internal chambers were clues about periods in Bible history this is nonsense this is the book the finished mystery which was printed and distributed from 1917 onwards so smack bang in the middle of this invisible inspection period Jesus apparently would have read or at least been familiar with what was written in this book if you're a Jehovah's Witness watching this video I challenge you to look up a copy of this book it's available in PDF form if you just do a google search just read this book and ask yourself the honest question would Jesus have chosen the watchtower organization based on what was being written and distributed by its followers at that time something - something to just challenge yourself on there I guess the point I'm trying to make is that both reason number one and reason number two are terrible reasons reason number two again if you're gonna do a box ticking exercise then any individual or group can start ticking those boxes for themselves it doesn't automatically make them God's one true organization what you need is a divine mandate which takes us to reason number one and it turns out that when you look at the reason that's given by watchtowers - why they are God's one true organization you get given this teaching about 1914 to 1919 that makes no sense whatsoever and actually if you do take but claim seriously then we should all be studying what watched how was printing and publishing in those years because it would have been a very it was basically on the basis of that material but the organization was chosen if you are going to believe the 1914 teaching based purely on faith then what stopping you from believing that Joseph Smith found some golden plates and translated from them The Book of Mormon what's stopping you from believing that because you're already accepting something based purely on faith you might as well join any religion so I just wanted to explore those reasons with you I know that as I said before there are more complex reasons why people don't just have a religion but hold on to it and an example one example I can think of is when you lose someone as a Jehovah's Witness you lose someone who's precious to you and you get told that you're gonna see them again in the future if you'll only attach yourself as closely as possible to the Jehovah's Witness organization and although that's a reason to be a Jehovah's Witness it's a reason this is dependent upon either one or both of the two reasons I've already explained so in other words if a stranger comes up to you and says follow me and I'll reacquaint you with your dead loved one you're not gonna just follow them based on that based purely on that promise you're gonna want to know how they can deliver your dead loved one back from the dead and that takes you back to those first two reasons you you base your belief in the resurrection you base your belief in the paradise either on the theology of 1914 to 1919 or on the box-ticking exercise or on a combination of the two which I think applies to most witnesses I think most witnesses are vaguely familiar with the 1914 to 1919 teaching but predominantly it's about the box-ticking exercise and I actually think this is how crazy it gets I actually think that Watchtower is now in a position where it control where it's control of Jehovah's Witnesses is so powerful through its indoctrination and through its propaganda but it could if it wanted completely get rid of 1914 to 1919 it could ditch basically the 1914 theology and just say to witnesses we are God's one true organization because we say so and because we're taking all these boxes and I think the vast majority of witnesses would go along with that that's how heavy the indoctrination is but again neither of those reasons are good neither of them hold up to scrutiny and if you err Jehovah's Witness watching this I think you owe it to yourself to think about that but those are just some thoughts I'd be interested to know what you think in the comments below I hope you have found this video interesting please don't forget to subscribe for more videos and as always thank you for watching [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you
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Channel: John Cedars
Views: 30,380
Rating: 4.8899803 out of 5
Keywords: jehovah, jehovah's witnesses, christianity, belief, watchtower, faithful slave, bible
Id: 7kpMorsy9X0
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 15min 15sec (915 seconds)
Published: Tue Jun 05 2018
Reddit Comments

There is a book that fleshes out Lloyd's first reason, namely, JWs believe the Borg was chosen by God. I'm reading "Captives of a Concept" by Don Cameron. The concept is the belief that the GB is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Matt 24: 45-47 regarding the "faithful and discreet slave" The author calls this " the most important scripture in Watchtower theology" Once a person is convinced of this, there is nothing WTS can say or do that will not be excused. Many of the posts I've read here and on other forums are proof of that. The 'theyarejustimperfectmenJehovahwilltakecareofitintime" excuse is used to cover the GB's multitude of sins.

👍︎︎ 5 👤︎︎ u/LynnRivers 📅︎︎ Jun 05 2018 🗫︎ replies

Another good one Thanks Lloyd Spot on Will you be back in Vancouver Canada again ?

👍︎︎ 3 👤︎︎ u/outofthelie2 📅︎︎ Jun 05 2018 🗫︎ replies
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