3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Personal Search, January 20, 2011
This review is from: The Watchtower's Coming Crisis (Paperback)
It is true that Jehovah Witnesses have no knowledge of the history and inner workings of the governing body in Brooklyn. Reading "Crisis of Conscience" by Ray Franz who was a member of that governing body for many years and was a third generation member of the Jehovah Witnesses has been eye opening and disturbing. The Bible says two things that are extremely important to us. (One) is that we must seek salvation through faith (in Jesus Christ) and not works and (two) with "fear and trembling". Why? Because if we follow a false doctrine, we will be judged and "go down" with the deceivers and false prophets. So it is the responsibility of all souls to be thorough in checking just what we are believing and following and the JWs have really discouraged this and put members and enlightened family members who wish to save them in a catch 22 situation due to the lack of freedom of listening to outsiders.
The next fact is that when Russell said he was a prophet and had a direct line to God, he was following the standard doctrine of Christianity and not the doctrines JW's follow today such as the deity of Jesus Christ, the Trinity, The Holy Spirit being a Person and not an electrical force, that Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross vs a torture stake, that each person has an immortal soul, that every one of us can seek heaven instead of a "select class of anointed ones," that hell actually exists and that judgement of those who are wicked will suffer the eternal pain of the lake of fire and not nonexistence which they call annihilation, that Jesus Christ is coming back in glory and every man will see Him vs he is already here and invisible, that Jesus is really Michael the Archangel. Russell celebrated Christmas as well as other "human traditions" and was connected to the Seventh Day Adventists. There are documentations and photos that prove this.
It is also true that Jehovah Witnesses succeed in increasing their membership with poor lost souls who are searching for God but have no grounding whatever in Bible scriptures which makes them easy prey. It is true that JW's do no charity works, release no financial statements and that fifty percent of ALL custody issues in the whole nation are JW related. It is true that honest and conscientious JWs have suffered rape, molestation, death, loss of every material thing, imprisonment, etc unnecessarily because they followed the rules and regulations of the governing body (mere mortal men) which later changed their policy or didn't when it could have saved people and even blamed God for it and never acknowledged or took responsibility for the devastating affect they had on the lives of the people who followed their edicts. Disfellowshipping has had devastating and painful separations of family and friends that are too numerous to state. The stories are heartrending. This is Godly? This is what Jesus wants? Jesus surrounded Himself with all kinds of sinners as they were the ones that needed saving, yet JWs warp the Word and cause all manner of destruction with this lack of accountability and apathetic and "ivory tower" blindness to it all.
The New World Translation bible that the JWs follow was made by men who had absolutely no education in Hebrew, Latin and Greek, except for one who had two semesters in Greek. This has been documented in a Scotland court case. The transcripts of that case and the Sedition case here in the US of Rutherford and a few others were quite interesting and eye opening as well.
All Bibles previous to these modern times were in unison on doctrine and that only the man made religions with man made bibles are cults (i.e. JWs, Mormans and Seventh Day Adventists) that change scripture by subtracting scripture from the original documents, add in words that were never there and turn Gods Word on its head which is truly evil and exactly what Satan has always sought to do which is turn everything God says and wants upside down, in effect a total reversing. And all know what the Bible says about changing scripture (Gods Word) and the penalties and it is not annihilation and eternal non existence.
The reason I am researching the JWs, its history and any and all input on them is because of two things. I LOVE my daughter and fear for her soul. I was a "sleeping Catholic" who due to my earnest and intelligent daughter allowing those two "nice ladies" into her home for "Bible Study." has put me on a journey to find the truth. Although she is not baptized and I can see she has some inner doubts, I have had to do all the work to educate myself with an open heart and mind while sincerely asking the Holy Spirit to guide me. This labor has had the result of bringing me to God and His Word and now a very careful and tiptoeing dialogue with my daughter because if she shuns me thinking I am trying to make her "stumble" I will lose her and my grandchildren (too painful to think about) and losing communication would be devastating to her soul, her family's soul and result in my loss of them.
In my quest, I can see why some ministers and regular folk have made it their life work to witness to JWs in a loving way. We are our brothers keeper. My favorite scripture so far is Jeremiah 14:14 And Jehovah said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in My name; I did not send them, nor have I commanded them, nor did I speak to them. They prophesy to you a false vision and a worthless divination, and a thing of no value, and the deceit of their heart. The numerous prophesies of the JWs over the years that did not come true should cause doubt in anyone as that is the consequence that Jesus spoke of so we would know who is false and who is not.
May our loving Father guide you and me and make victory in winning back the souls of our loved ones for Him.
Kim Costanzo
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
144,000, December 15, 2010
This review is from: The Watchtower's Coming Crisis (Paperback)
This book is as slim (62 pages) as the arguments the Watchtower uses to support its 144,000 teaching. The author uses Scripture to underline inconsistencies and contradictions in the Watchtower position. There is a chapter in the back with ideas for engaging with the Witnesses.
Nothing here that you couldn't find in Ron Rhodes "Reasoning from the Scriptures with Jehovah's Witnesses."
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12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eye opening revelation about Jehovah's Witnesses, June 15, 2009
This review is from: The Watchtower's Coming Crisis (Paperback)
Just got the book today, and couldnt put it down. It is only 62 pages long, so you can read through it very quickly. It is published by Chick publications. What i love about Chick Publications, is they pick a topic and give you the nuts and bolts, not the sugar coated fluff that make books bigger than what they need to be. This is the 2nd Daniel Rodriguez book i have. His writing style is just like my reading style, here it is, this is what you need to know. This book deals with a topic that most books on jehovahs witnesses dont deal with. if the 144,000 are the heart and soul of the watchtower, and they were sealed in 1935, what happens to the orginization after these people die? over the last year i have read 5 books on jehovahs witnesses and 2 books on the cults of the world. what got me interested in the jehovahs witnesses was all the bad things i heard about them. they were painted like monsters in my mind from all the stories i had heard in my life. i met alot of them and they seemed really nice. i started reading the bible and wanted to know the TRUTH. i started going to over 20 churches in a course of a year, to see what church had it right. i really have learned alot over the last 2 years, and it is because of books like this one. they tell it like it is. and that is what i found out about jehovahs witnesses, they are real people like you and i, but are not aloud to read any other literature than the watchtower literature. how sad when the truth is out there and you cant read and find it. the last thing about this book is it tells you how to witness to the jehovahs witnesses. and you dont have to use bible verses, because they are trained to argue until the sun goes down with bible verses. daniel rodriguez has a great book on his hands.
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