According to the Watchtower’s game plan, the triggering event of Armageddon will be when the United Nations instigates “the great tribulation” by destroying all religion (all except the Watchtower religion, of course.)
When the U.N. turns its destructive attention to the Watchtower religion, all Armageddon breaks loose, as Jesus intervenes and destroys the U.N. along with all other governments of the world. Then he — along with 144,000 “anointed” Jehovah’s Witnesses (all of whom will then be living in heaven) — will murder every person in the world who is not a Jehovah’s Witness (yes, this includes nearly 2 billion children and babies.)
Finally, once everyone else is dead, the Jehovah’s Witnesses will begin the work of disposing of billions of dead bodies. But in this massive, gruesome undertaking [pun intended] they will have help.
According to the Watchtower’s post-game plan, new bodies will be created into which will be injected the memories and personalities of everyone who ever died (other than those who died at Armageddon.) This is the Watchtower’s version of resurrection. It has never been clear to me why Jehovah is going to create these replicants of long-dead people. It won’t do those dead people any good for surrogates to be running around with their memories; those people will still be dead forever and unaware of these impostors.
Now, if you’re done laughing at the Watchtower’s vision of the future, we can ask: Just how likely is the above scenario?
Let’s start by focusing on the triggering event: the destruction of religion by the United Nations. How, exactly, does one destroy a religion? A religion is a set of beliefs. It doesn’t even matter if anyone currently holds those beliefs; it’s still a religion. For instance, I haven’t met many Druids lately, but Druidism is still a religion; you can’t destroy it anymore than we can destroy alchemy.
Well, what the Watchtower originally meant by “the destruction of religion” was the killing of people:
“…when God destroys the churches wholesale and the church members by millions…”
— The Finished Mystery (WBTS, 1917, p. 485)
But, true to form, the Watchtower has changed its mind on this point, or at least clarified it as far as the role of the UN is concerned. In their 2014 book God’s Kingdom Rules, the Watchtower makes the following major doctrinal change in a footnote [note that “Babylon the Great” is their term for all other religions]:
Who or what will carry out the attack against “Babylon the Great”? A “wild beast” with “ten horns.” The book of Revelation indicates that this wild beast refers to the United Nations (UN).
(Footnote: It seems reasonable that the destruction of “Babylon the Great” refers mainly to the destruction of the religious institutions, not to a wholesale slaughter of all religious people. Hence, most of Babylon’s former adherents will survive that destruction and, at least openly, will then likely try to distance themselves from religion, as indicated at Zechariah 13:4-6.)
–God’s Kingdom Rules (WBTS, 2014) p. 223
The above change may be another deceptive attempt to make their religion appear less cult-like to outsiders. Elsewhere the Watchtower has specified that the “wild beast” of Revelation is “the worldwide political system” and that the “image of the wild beast” is the UN specifically. The Watchtower’s New World Translation of the Bible clearly states that this “image of the wild beast” will kill people:
And it was permitted to give breath to the image of the wild beast, so that the image of the wild beast should both speak and cause to be killed all those who refuse to worship the image of the wild beast.
— Rev 13:15 (NWT)
So, the United Nations is due (according to the Watchtower) to start destroying religious institutions any day now (even today!) Though it now sounds like they won’t engage in “wholesale slaughter” it does sound as if they will be murdering at least some people based on their religious affiliation (just not “most” of them.) [Maybe they should refer to this as “retail slaughter”?!] Again we ask: how likely is that?
Well, exactly what kind of an organization is the United Nations? Do they go around engaging in destruction? Do they have an intolerant attitude towards religion? Do they kill people based on their religion?
The United Nations is a peace-keeping organization. Think about that. Here is one of a very few organizations in the world that has been specifically setup to avoid war and its killing.
As for being intolerant towards religion, let us read from the United Nations charter:
Article 1.3.
To achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion
Article 2.7.
Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state
Article 13.1.
…assisting in the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.
Article 55.
the United Nations shall promote: …universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.
And, in the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we read:
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
I feel as though I am cheating you by only quoting the above excerpts from the declaration. It is one of the most important and beautiful documents ever produced by the heart of humankind. Please read all of it here. Then ask yourself if your government (or “theocracy”) violates one or more of the articles. I know my government (U.S.A.) most certainly is a flagrant violator of several articles. I also know the Watchtower organization violates articles 12, 18-21, and 26.
To think for one moment that the U.N. would ever be guilty of destroying religious institutions, or executing people based on their religious affiliations, is beyond absurd: if it hasn’t completely crossed the line, and borders on insanity.
The more I think about it the more I wonder: What part of the Watchtower religion did I ever find believable? [Oh yeah: that there was no hell, and that other religions were ridiculous — things atheists had known long before the Watchtower was ever thought of.] Religion in general is pretty far-fetched stuff, but the Watchtower seems to outdo all others [well, maybe not the Scientologists and the Mormons] when it comes to stretching our credulity way past the breaking point. They have taken one of the world’s greatest forces for peacekeeping and cast it into the role of the instigator of the greatest war of all time. That’s going some even for a fundamentalist cult.
But back to the Watchtower’s story. After the U.N. destroys all false religious institutions [whilst the more numerous armies of those religious people’s nations evidently sit back and watch] Then the son of the god Jehovah “destroys all government” — this means killing people, not just dismantling governments (since governments lost their right to rule way back in 1914 with the “end of the Gentile Times” — and the son of the god Jehovah has been ruling ever since, at least in heaven don’tcha know.)
At some point in this story the “wholesale slaughter of religious people” does indeed occur, along with everyone else who is not a member of the “right religion.”
Whenever I think about Witnesses burying or burning masses of bodies in their “New Order” I can’t help but call to mind those black and white images of the Nazis with their murdered victims. In fact, the “New Order” of the Watchtower’s vision has several similarities to the new order of the Third Reich. Both look forward to a genocide of all but the “master race” or “members of God’s organization,” after which the survivors will rule the world and everything will just be honky-dory for them for a thousand years. And, of course, both require unquestioning obedience and unswerving loyalty to the leaders of the organization.
Next: Part II. You won’t want to miss the exciting conclusion:
Part II: The Post-Armageddon Blues!
Nancy Madore • 3 years ago
Wow…great article! I remember being told as a little kid that Armageddon was coming in the 70s. What happened to that?
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WatchtowerHelper Nancy Madore • 3 years ago
Thanks, Nancy, and welcome to JWB!
As for 1975, you’ll get a chuckle at how they weaseled out of that one. They said that we need to factor in the length of time between Adam’s creation and Eve’s “building.” Adam evidently spent years trying out all the other animals before it occurred to him and the big J that none of them were going to work out as mates.
So now, while they still maintain that 1975 saw the end of 6,000 years of MAN’S existence, it didn’t mark 6,000 years of the “seventh day” because the 7th day couldn’t have started until after Eve was “built.”
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pastasauceror WatchtowerHelper • 3 years ago
There are approximately 9 million species. Remember Adam had to name all of them before God got to making his helpmate.
At one species a minute working 11 hour days (with half an hour off for lunch) he would have taken almost exactly 40 years to do so! Look out…40 years from 1975 is up next year!!!
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Joseph Schmidt • 3 years ago
Not to be nitpicky, but it was my impression growing up in “the truth” that the dead at Armageddon weren’t going to be buried at all? There’s some verse in Revelation I can’t remember or find online right now that refers to dogs or carrion eating the carcasses of those who die at Judgement Day which we were told meant that the corpses didn’t even warrant burial, they were to just be… treated like detritus to be taken care of by nature I guess. Which I can only imagine would stink like hell with 7 billion dead rotting corpses all over the planet. Imagine the rats. And beetles. Unless god uses some god-magic to clear away the corpses. But yeah… I used to have a HUGE problem with the “we’re supposed to be happy and cheerful that the dead are dead because they rejected Jehovah so oh well for them – they got God’s judgement. Better not even be sad for them or you’re standing in opposition to JEHOVAH!” attitude we were supposed to have.
But to be honest, I HATED the Witness idea of the New System anyway. Living forever with no technology, no cities, farming and making my own clothes. Having to go to Kingdom Hall every day or every other day for all eternity with no music except kingdom songs, no art except JW paintings, all the history, art, architecture, literature, everything good and beautiful and amazing that humanity ever created WILL BE DESTROYED FOR IT IS PAGAN AND EVIL. We will only have the Bible and the “faithful and discreet slave’s” literature to read forever. An eternity of awake articles and kingdom songs and farming and meetings. I used to want to die sometimes. Like I’m not even joking. I used to think about committing a disfellowshipable sin so that I wouldn’t have to live in teh New System because it seemed SO MISERABLE AND HORRIBLE to me. I always wonder if I was the only JW who felt like that…
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taylormadegirl Joseph Schmidt • 3 years ago
Well if you think about the flood, Noah and his family didn’t worry about the other animals and humans that were destroyed. So too after the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah. Jehovah will find a way
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Steve McRoberts taylormadegirl • 3 years ago
Sure, Taylormadegirl: don’t concern yourself with 7 billion people about to be murdered by your loving god (including 1.8 billion innocent children.) Emulate the morals of an ancient barbaric tribe who didn’t give a s**t about anyone but themselves, and who projected that attitude onto the god they fashioned in their image.
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taylormadegirl Steve McRoberts • 3 years ago
If that were the case why would the Bible state the good,the bad and the ugly stories?Whereas most other religions state only the virtues of their gods & religious heroes. I’d rather err on the side of caution (believing in the God of the Bible) than recklessness (not believing in this God)
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Steve McRoberts taylormadegirl • 3 years ago
That’s not true, taylormadegirl. Read the stories about the Greek and Roman gods: they were immoral and cruel. It’s just that the people of that time were immoral as well, so of course the stories they made up about their gods and heroes depicted them with the same morals. It’s the same case with the Hebrew god and the stories they told about him and the “heroes of the Bible.”
“Erring on the side of caution” in this case means shunning your children (if they learn to think) and watching them bleed to death if they ever need a transfusion. I would call that “erring on the side of gross immorality.”
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WatchtowerHelper Joseph Schmidt • 3 years ago
That’s interesting, Joseph. I think I’ve heard it all three ways: JW’s would be burying/burning; animals would eat; and Jah would disintegrate the dead bodies. Maybe they haven’t been too clear on this point, or have changed their minds repeatedly (big shock!) I guess I always thought it would be some combination of the three, or at least of the first two. Can any of our readers locate some quotes on this?
Your comment got me thinking of another question: If the “new order” follows after Armageddon, and in the new order “the lion lays down with the lamb” how is it that the animals eat our dead bodies? I mean it would probably take years for all the non-herbivorous animals in the world to eat 7,000,000,000 human corpses. All that time they’d have to remain carnivores/omnivores, so the lion could not be lying down with the lamb until years after Armageddon.
If any of our readers are illustrators, we’d love to see a revised illustration of life after Armageddon: with a lion tearing apart a child’s corpse instead of being petted by one, and with Genghis Khan, Hitler, et al.,being “resurrected” in the midst of the smiling grape-eating Witnesses.
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Joseph Schmidt WatchtowerHelper • 3 years ago
You bring up a good point. Especially since I didn’t know very much about biology or ecology growing up (SHOCK!!) because of course I was just told to barely read enough of the LIES to get what they wanted as the answer and then preface each answer with “According to the book, the answer is ___.” So growing up I never thought about the absurdity of no meat-eating animals in the “New System”.
I mean… animals will still die even if people don’t. They are quite explicit that even carrion eaters will no longer eat meat. No Jackals or Vultures picking over dead bodies. So… no worms or bacteria or beetles eating dead bodies either? That’s HOW bodies go “from dust to dust”. If the entire food web is upended by all animals no longer eating meat, not only are we going to see immediate ecological imbalance in the alleged future-“present”, but we’re going have animal corpses that will just start piling up. The reason you’re not constantly stumbling across animal carcasses in the woods or parks is because scavengers eat them. Insects eat the remains. Bacteria break down the bones and whatnot. This process is relatively easy to interrupt as is, that’s how we get fossils. So in the “New System”, we would end up with just PILES AND PILES of dead animal carcasses that aren’t being disposed of if no one’s eating meat any more. Even burying them ourselves isn’t going to do anything if insects and microorganisms aren’t consuming flesh. They will just stay there. In fact, I don’t even think they’d rot if microorganisms aren’t doing anything.
Now THAT should be in a painting of the New System. Guess we’ll have to have jobs after all. “Oh, Brother Schmidt, looks like we’re gonna have to ask you to be on animal carcass disposal duty this week.” Maybe we won’t use firewood. We’ll use animal bodies. Nice stack of dead squirrels and rabbits next to my log-cabin instead of firewood. If I can’t eat meat anymore, at least I can still smell it cooking.
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taylormadegirl Joseph Schmidt • 3 years ago
That’s why Jehovah will take care of it. Let him worry about it d once get will do the damage. What happened after all the other slaughters took place back in t he Biblical periods. Sure As Steve Mc Roberts lamented it is sad that so many bns of persons are going to die, me included probably, but I still believe Jehovah WILL make a way around that. Think about it for a moment rationally, judging from past occurrences and even the recent Tsunami in Indonesia. Even now with do many bns of people on the planet, there are many vast empty unoccupied spaces on the earth – people will always try to flee to a place of refuge. So yeah, my point is that, I’m still NOT thrilled with the idea that if I survive Armageddon, I will still have to be teaching, when God knows I need a break to enjoy the renewed Earth
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Steve McRoberts taylormadegirl • 3 years ago
Taylormadegirl, you are missing the point. Actually, several points.
Point 1: It would be immoral to kill 7 billion people, including 1.8 billion children.
Point 2: To dismiss this unprecedented tragedy with a shrug at the bodies, saying “Jehovah will take care of it,” is to demonstrate an unnatural lack of empathy (which is typical of cult members.)
Point 3: To say “God will take care of getting rid of the bodies” begs the question of how this will be done. “Some miracle will happen” is not a rational explanation.
Point 4: Appealing to “past occurrences” such as Noah’s flood doesn’t help when all of the evidence indicates that such an event never occurred. There are also occurrences related in the Bible of Jehovah committing genocide and then having the Israelites do the cleanup of the bodies (Ez 39:12)
There is no Armageddon to survive, so you needn’t worry about teaching.
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taylormadegirl WatchtowerHelper • 3 years ago
Jehovah will take care of that don’t worry. He created the Earth from nothing. Why would he not be able to clean it up after Armageddon. Recall all the past acts of destruction, it wasn’t long after that life returned to normal. To be honest what I’m not looking forward to is the continued “teaching work” 🙁 .. I’m not worried about the cleanup at all
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Steve McRoberts taylormadegirl • 3 years ago
That’s very sad that you’re not worried about the murder of 7 billion people (including 1.8 billion innocent children.) You say you are more concerned about having to teach!
It appears that the Watchtower has corrupted your sense of empathy: diverting it all to an organization.
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pastasauceror Joseph Schmidt • 3 years ago
A JW family in my cong. used to only purchase presents for their children (and the lucky other few who they’d give stuff too) that could be used “after Armageddon” and had “no worldly remembrance”, so abstract (or landscape jigsaw) puzzles, chinese finger traps, bouncy balls….um…yep…that was about it. Money well spent. I’m still not using their presents 25 years later (j/k I binned ’em years ago).
The witness “new system” was veritable hell-on-earth to even think about actually. 300 Chinese Jdubs wading through the detritus and declining infrastructure of 1 billion dead was the furthest thing from the minds of the average Jdub (and I’m sure the GuvBo were trying not to think about it either). I’m speaking past tense, cause it’s way in the past for me; who has two thumbs and is eagerly looking forward to being worm-food instead…dis’guy 😀
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William • 3 years ago
The WT version is far fetched and not ‘fun’ at all. The mistake is to throw out God, end times, Second Coming, millennium, etc. that is biblical and balanced. Rejecting the wrong views of WT is not an excuse to reject right views of these things.
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pastasauceror William • 3 years ago
Really, why would you think the Bible is right?
Jesus himself was a false prophet (if you believe he even lived or said anything portrayed as his words in the Bible). He told the High Priest of his day that he would see him seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds. (Mark 14:61-62) He told his disciples that their generation would not pass away till everything he prophesied had occurred, including his coming. (Mark 13:30)
I don’t take notice of prophets, particularly false ones.
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William pastasauceror • 3 years ago
The problem is your ignorance of Christ and Scripture. Skeptics issues have been answered credibly over and over. Jesus is God and He rose from the dead. Your misinterpretations do not change this.
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pastasauceror William • 3 years ago
Perhaps you could answer the points I brought up then.
And while you’re at it tell me what I interpreted of Jesus comments (let alone misinterpreted). All I did was quote “him”. I’ve read the Bible at least 7 times from beginning to end in 5 different translations, explain how that makes me ignorant.
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William pastasauceror • 3 years ago
You can read a commentary, google it, etc. Anyone can read the Bible, but do they understand it? I am an Open Theist, so the future was not fatalistically fixed. Calvinism is deterministic/problematic and may have more difficulty dealing with your texts. If you do not believe the historical narratives about Jesus’ virgin conception, incarnation, Deity, death, resurrection, you will not believe explanations about these texts. Jesus claimed to be God and rose from the dead. If you dismiss this, you do not take the Bible seriously, so I will not waste endless time.
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pastasauceror William • 3 years ago
So what you’re saying is you can’t explain away those 2 obviously false prophecies of Jesus, but it’s MY responsibility to check it up? Perhaps you should get a better grasp on your apologetics before you start telling someone they’re ignorant of Christ and Scripture. Forgot to mention, 6 of the times I read the Bible through I did so with a commentary. (I read it once with no commentary, the last time, and that’s the time I realized it was utter bunk). Perhaps you should do the same, with no commentary as a crutch the Bible starts to look pretty lame. One last question, how do you KNOW that Jesus claimed to be God and rose from the dead? I read in a book that Harry Potter defeated Voldemort (HP Book 7 Chapter 36), but I’m pretty sure that didn’t happen for real. No contemporary historian (in fact none with ~100 years) records anything about Jesus. In 300 years when people start to claim that Harry Potter saved the world all we’ll have to go on is actual newspaper reports of the incident from the 90s and 2000s to verify that claim. There ain’t none for Harry, and there ain’t none for Jesus neither.
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William pastasauceror • 3 years ago
I am dealing with 100s of posts/posters. I do not have a problem with those verses. You do not believe the Bible, so why do you care about its interpretation. The Bible teaches that Jesus is God and rose from the dead. You reject this, so what does it matter about an interpretation of a few verses? If you were given a satisfactory explanation, you would still reject God, Christ, gospel. Sounds like a waste of time to me.
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WatchtowerHelper William • 3 years ago
That’s okay, William. You can just add these to your list of Christianity’s unanswerable questions. But please keep mine on top, because you still haven’t answered: How can an Atilla-like personality be a Schweitzer-like personality (i.e. how can Jehovah be Jesus)?
I’d really like to see you answer that before posting anything else on JWB. But since you just ignore such unanswerable questions while arrogantly insisting that you’re right and everyone who questions you is “ignorant,” I’ll just remind you of this outstanding question each time you post here.
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William WatchtowerHelper • 3 years ago
Jesus is YHWH. There is no contradiction between the OT and NT God. We see great mercy, grace, patience (and wrath) in the OT/YHWH and we also see the same in Jesus in the Gospels (and great wrath under the Lamb in Revelation). JWs think Jehovah is God. When Christians say Jesus is God, they think we are saying Jesus is the Father, so they easily refute this. What they are doing is confusing trinitarianism with the Sabellian/modalism/Oneness heresy. God deals with man differently in different eras. Before wrath, there is often great patience and opportunity to repent. The same is true during this Church Age of Grace before the future Tribulation/Second Coming.
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WatchtowerHelper William • 3 years ago
Finally: an answer! Thanks, William.
You could say that Schwietzer had wrath too, but that doesn’t mean his personality was identical to Attila. It is a question of degrees. In the article in question I pointed out that YHWH and Jesus reacted in opposite ways to similar situations, proving that they do not have the same personality, and so cannot be the same person/entity.
Now, if you mean to state that Jehovah is not the same person as Jesus, then we are in agreement. But it only confuses the issue if you state that belief in the terms of “Jesus is YHWH.”
When I was a Witness I never thought that Trinitarians were claiming that Jesus was the father. I doubt that there are many Witnesses that think this. I understood them to be saying what I had been taught as a Catholic: there is god the father, god the son, and god the holy spirit, yet there are not three gods, but rather three persons in one god.
The Watchtower correctly identified the above as utter nonsense, but failed to recognize that they were spewing equally nonsensical doctrines.
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William WatchtowerHelper • 3 years ago
I have talked to 100s of JWs, elders, read WT direct quotes, etc. More times than not, they reject a straw man caricature of the trinity. Who ran the universe if Jesus was God and He was dead? Who did Jesus pray to? Himself? They frequently think that Jesus is God is claiming to be Jesus is Father (modalism) since only Jehovah is God. They fail to distinguish nature and person. They may also talk about Catholic wording, etc., but their Trinity booklet over and over misunderstands and misrepresents the biblical trinity as 3 headed god, 3 gods, Jesus is Father, etc. (none of which is held by trinitarians). They keep showing the Father is not the Son thinking they are disproving trinity. I use the same proofs to disprove Oneness/modalism. The average JW does not have deep doctrinal understanding (especially typical busy elders), but mere indoctrination and spouting of WT simplistic answers to objections, proof texts out of context. They succeed because some, like Catholics, do not know their Bibles well. An informed person will not be as gullible. Greg Stafford was a rare exception and is not even a JW any more. His debates/arguments sound good, but are also refutable by an informed person. The one GB member I heard at a convention made me cringe with the way he handled the Bible. I have also seen enough WT literature, flip flops, NWT perversions, etc. to know they have no credible scholarship. When they quote credible ‘Christendom’ scholars, they must misquote them to try to make them say what WT wants to or they go to obscure, liberal, Unitarian, occultic (Johannes Greber), etc. sources that have no credibility. I also find it odd that they try to quote trinitarians to disprove the trinity (Hislop)?!
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WatchtowerHelper William • 3 years ago
William:
Well, even if someone “understands” the Trinity paradox, those are still valid questions the JWs ask. If you’re going to claim that three different entities are god, and yet there is only one god, you’ve got to expect some odd questions about that claim. The questions can’t simply be dismissed because you think they are assuming something that they may not be.
So, if god the father and the holy spirit ran the universe when god the son was dead, then one of the persons of the godhood can be missing and it’s still god? Okay, but that just seems weird.
So, when Jesus prayed it wasn’t to himself, then it was to one or two of the other persons of the godhood. But why? If god the son is equal to the other two, why pray to them? Do you suppose they pray to him as well? It’s just weird. It’s also strange that he says “not my will be done, but yours,” if they are all the same composite god how can they have different wills? And how could Jesus cry “my God why have you forsaken me?” How could one or two members of the trinity forsake the other member if it’s all one god?
If Jesus was god the son: an equal member of the triune god, and he supposedly “explained god” to us (as the Bible states) then you’d think he would’ve made this clear in his teachings, rather than confirming the Jewish notion that god was one individual. Then it wouldn’t have taken centuries to develop the doctrine amongst the Christians that Jesus was god, and later that god was a trinity of gods that were one god.
The trinity doctrine was just a clever way to reconcile some of the contradictions in the Bible by pushing them back onto a paradoxical definition of god. The Watchtower has pulled the trinity doctrine away from their god, and so has to deal with those biblical contradictions instead. Neither way is ideal, but they are both ways of dealing with a set of contradictory books that some ignorant bishops voted to be “God’s Word.”
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William WatchtowerHelper • 3 years ago
The above reflects misconceptions about biblical truth, trinity, Deity of Christ, incarnation, history of dogma, church history. Your WT baggage does not serve you well nor does liberal, agnostic, atheistic perversions of biblical understanding.
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WatchtowerHelper William • 3 years ago
Right, William: those brawling, drunken bishops of 325 CE are the only ones who had no misconceptions about what was true. Questioning their dogma is a perversion I shall burn in hell for.
Then again, maybe we’re all as entitled (and qualified) as they were to take these odd books and formulate an informed decision as to just how truthful we think they really are. In fact, maybe it’s our duty to do so.
When I left the Watchtower religion I read the Bible on my own in order to do exactly that. I not only found that as good a case could be made for the trinity as against it, but — more importantly — that the Bible was a mass of contradictory nonsense and immorality which extolled the virtues of a cruel, stupid, vain god. I wasn’t following any of your categories of “perversions of biblical understanding” when I arrived at those conclusions, I was simply reading the Bible with an open mind.
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