Question about Jehovah's Witnesses and research...?

Question

I was curious as to whether any active members of Jehovah's Witnesses have ever researched their own religion or religious questions from any other source than your own publications. I understand you would not read "apostate" information, but how about reliable, unbiased information? If not, why? If so, did you honestly ponder the information?

Not just biblical information sources, also encyclopedias and historical sources as well. Thanks!

By reliable and unbiased I mean a source not written by Jehovah's Witnesses or ex-JW such as an encyclopedia. I'm not saying either JW or ex would not be factual, however, both COULD be considered to be biased.

Answer 1

A fact is a fact even if the author is biased.

How a person states or couches facts is the biased part.

If I said that; "Russell, the founder of the organization that is now the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society predicted the rapture practically every year from the start of his ministry", I would not be quite correct but close.

I may not mention that the modern teachings of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society resemble the teachings of Russell but little.

This is pure bias and deceptive.
BUT
If I give the date and quotes and the modern resemblance addendum I have removed the biased part and stated fact with a present day disclaimer.

If I say; "The Russellites who called their selves 'Bible Students' were given the name of Jehovah's Witnesses were purposefully separated from umbrella organization that leads them who began calling itself 'The WatchTower Bible and Tract Society'", I am stating a fact but I am not giving any supporting evidence.

But if I state the legal purpose of separating the leadership from the flock and under Rutherford, the dates, sources, and citations, and all I am then giving fact. Biased or not, a fact is a fact.

I could say; "The JWs used to celebrate Christmas and partake of communion and had the cross on the literature".
But that would an error.
BUT
I could say The Russellites, who were also called the Bible Students, and are now the Jehovah's Witnesses used to use the cross, celebrated Christmas, and took communion.
I would be accurate but not show the backing evidence.

See with the JWs no matter how you SHOW the facts these are mostly going to be dismissed.
A person may show what Russell taught and the error and how this teaching was altered by Rutherford and the mistakes, then how Knorr/Franz modified and changed and these pitfalls, followed by the next changes and missteps under the changed leadership - but by the time you detail and explain this their eyes have glossed over and the TRUTH is rejected.

Matter of fact from the pattern of changes and the manner of these changes the next changes can almost be predicted.

One thing that is predictable is thumbs down.

Excellent - GodismyFather - Stay in His word - and do not perpetuate the errors - you are far to smart for that.

Answer 2

Okay you have a wide variety of answers here. All of the active JW's are going to give you pretty much the same answer. I was born into that religion and raised that way. I finally left at age 24. The most grave wrong one can do when you are a JW is ask questions of doubt. I know exactly how a JW feels when they are defending their faith. I know exactly what response they will give you, because they are a complete brainwashing religion. You dont know this when you are one which is a sign of an excellent cult. They believe that they are the ONLY chosen people by god. Everyone else is going to die at armageddon. They are very arrogant in this belief. They very much limit their interaction with non-JW's. A very specific sign of a cult. If you dare ask an elder why or how they get an answer.....your reply will be collective such as "us" or "we". If you dare ask for an explanation you will be told that the society doesn't owe you an explanation. This group makes you give up your own family if your family leaves the organization. The above comment by "lioness" about sexual abuse is especially appalling. If any type of abuse is not witnessed by 2 people it did not happen. This policy is way skewed by the Witnesses. And a lot of innocent people have been hurt by this. In my opinion this is a religion for the weakminded who wish for others to control every aspect of their lives. As a group JW's are very nice people on the outside. However the society has a dark and seedy past that they dont wish for there followers to know about. If you have more questions feel free to email me.

Answer 3

Yeah, I have.
Encyclopedias usually give pretty accurate info, not all the time, though.
Sometimes on radio shows they start saying stuff about us which is wrong and what is sad is that usually I can't get through or a fellow Witness can't get through to disprove them.
Some of the apostate or ex-JW sites give info which might seem interesting to people who don't know much about the religion, but I can usually deduct they are biased and incorrect after reading a couple of sentences.

Answer 4

Before my Wife and I were baptized as Jehovah's Witnesses I did alot of research. I looked into several different religions and compared their teachings with the only authority God's Word the Bible. Apostates and people that have left Jehovah's Witnesses always say the same things, nothing new.
Same old card board signs out side our District Conventions and so on.
What they should ask themselves is why they chose to associate with a Religion that celebrates Pagan Holidays, believes that Jesus is God Almighty, that refuses to preach the good news of the kingdom, and is so wrapped up in the world that how can you tell them apart from those that do not believe in God.
We need to listen to God's word the Bible and trust in God. Man will lie in a hot minute to try and get you to believe in what they believe. We need to be stronger than that and read the Bible and study. We need to pray to Jehovah God through Jesus Christ and ask him to reveal the truth to us.
We need to be humble and honest.
I think you should ask for a free home Bible study and then make a honest decision if Jehovah's Witnesses teach the truth. I did just that and believe with a 100 percent certainty that this is the truth.
In time Jehovah God will destroy false religion.

Answer 5

I often research religious questions using various non-Witness material.

Among my favorite tools is a combination of the older King James Bible with the center reference column, along with the Strong's Exhaustive concordance.

In addition to those, I also use interlinears which I find online, as well as the NET Bible, for its footnotes especially.

For many things I also use secular encyclopedias and or dictionaries. If I find a conflict, the Bible ALWAYS takes precedent.

Ponder info? Yes.

Answer 6

Yes, of course.

Naturally, the bible itself is the primary source for understanding God's will and purposes, and that is a gift from God (rather than from any particular religion or human publisher). There are dozens of quality translations available at no charge online, with "bible.cc" having perhaps the most efficient interface and format.

Many or most Jehovah's Witnesses (and those who defend them) use many non-Witness resources and tools. Non-Witness software such as "E-Sword" can be another tool for retrieving information and researching the bible.

Learn more:
http://bible.cc/
http://watchtower.org/e/bible/

Answer 7

In my case I Use several thing to investiguate, not only our publications but enclycopedias, internet , also I have 10 differents bibles from different publishers.

Evrytime I compare what I had learn about the future of this planet under God´s kingdom how Jesus will rule the earth and change it into a great place to live with the "mess" that other religious organization explain that with a few question you can realize that doesn´t have clear God´s purpose for this planet all of them tell you the same the earth will blow in 1000 pieces and that is it, and good in heaven and evil tortured by God, but what happens with the original purpose of God, will never be fulfilled?

by the way the people of silentlambs lied in a Jury I have the copy of the trial.... I don´t know you but don´t trust in a liar.

Answer 8

Yes, I always do my own research - I use Watchtower material and non-Watchtower material for my information.

I use to visit those apostate sites a lot, and I was almost mislead.. After further research on their information, I found how many times they misquoted articles.. You cannot judge a entire Watchtower article based on one quote, you have to actually read the entire article to get the entire message..

From where I stand, it doesn't seem like people fell try to apostate information, bother checking the articles themselves... Sure they provide page numbers so you can look it up yourself, but those old articles are hard to find, so they think people won't brother looking it up themselves.

unsilenced lamb
You can't say apostate websites do not misquote information because they do...

Silentlambs Website?
http://thirdwitness.com/childabuse/default.html

Some of the victims they support lied on National TV and to the court...

Also, the creator of the website (ex Elder) did not even know the JWs child abuse policy..

Answer 9

Have I ever researched my religion? Yes.

From any other source? Yes.

And did I ponder? Yes.

If I may ask, what is your standard for determining what information is "reliable and unbiased?"

Hannah J Paul

Answer 10

Yes. I try to take most things with a grain of salt. But clearly everyone has theories and considering them can be helpful. As for objectivity, sadly it is rare to read something truly objective.