Behind the Watchtower Curtain: The Secret Society of Jehovah's Witnesses [Paperback]

David A. Reed (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 149 pages
• Publisher: Crowne Pubns (October 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0925703087
• ISBN-13: 978-0925703088
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #475,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #39 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Other Denominations & Sects

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5.0 out of 5 stars ANOTHER USEFUL BOOK BY A FORMER JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES, April 4, 2011

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Behind the Watchtower Curtain: The Secret Society of Jehovah's Witnesses (Paperback)

David Reed is a former Jehovah's Witness, which is also the author of books such as: Answering Jehovah's Witnesses: Subject by Subject, Jehovah's Witnesses Answered Verse by Verse, How to Rescue Your Loved One from the Watchtower, Left Behind Answered Verse by Verse, etc.

He wrote in the Preface to this 1989 book, "I would prefer to have written a book on a more positive, uplifting topic. But there is already an abundance of such material available, while the present subject lacks for coverage... Looking back on my thirteen years in the Watchtower organization, including two years as a full-time evangelizer and eight years as an elder, I felt keenly the responsibility to share this warning information with the public... Yes, there is much that could be said about Jehovah's Witnesses in a positive vein... The problem is not with the Witnesses themselves but with their leaders who take decent, ordinary people and marshall them into a menacing force."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"Many of those 'truths' (from JW founder C.T. Russell) are now regarded as 'error' by today's Witnesses---for example, the teaching that the Great Pyramid of Egypt should be viewed as a divinely inspired work on a par with the Bible, and the notion that God resides on the star Alcyone in the Pleiades constallation..." (Pg. 12-13)
"Witness congregations provide no Sunday School classes, youth fellowship, or other programs for children. Instead, little ones of all ages sit with their parents through five hours of adult meetings each week. For many, this means five hours of scolding and slapping." (Pg. 32)
"Nowadays, of course, Witnesses would obey the May 1, 1984 Watchtower's instructions not to read or even accept literature from others..." (Pg. 72)
"Strongly critical of the war effort, the book (The Finished Mystery) quickly aroused much hostility. In February of 1918, the government of Canada banned its circulation, making possession of the book punishable by a $5,000 fine and five years in prison. Caught up in the same war hysteria, federal authorities in the United States issued warrants under the Espionage Act for the arrest of the Watchtower Society's principal officers... Seven ... were sent off to Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. However, they were released after nine months, when the war ended and passions cooled." (Pg. 76)