This is something that the Watchtower regularly commits to yet it has the tendency to talk out of both sides of it’s mouth.  I’m going to address the subject of condemnation.  For this, we are going to define it as “strong disapproval.”

 

I would like to spend some time on the topic of condemnation.  Starting with the Bible first, I’m not going to read all of Revelation 2 and 3.  However, when you look at the Seven Churches of Asia Minor, they are representative of various gatherings today.  Each church was either commended or condemned for something.  I’m going to quickly go over these using the New World Translation:

 

Ephesus: Verse 2 and 3 are commendations

‘I know your deeds, and your labor and endurance, and that you cannot tolerate bad men, and that you put to the test those who say they are apostles, but they are not, and you found them to be liars.  You are also showing endurance, and you have persevered for the sake of my name and have not grown weary.

Verse 4-Condemnation Nevertheless, I hold this against you, that you have left the love you had at first.

 

Smyrna

Commend-verse 9 ‘I know your tribulation and poverty—but you are rich—and the blasphemy by those who call themselves Jews and really are not, but they are a synagogue of Satan.

 

Pergamon

Good verse 13 ‘I know where you are dwelling, that is, where the throne of Satan is; and yet you keep holding fast to my name,+ and you did not deny your faith in me+ even in the days of Anʹti·pas, my faithful witness, who was killed by your side, where Satan is dwelling.

Bad-verse 14 “‘Nevertheless, I have a few things against you, that you have there those adhering to the teaching of Baʹlaam, who taught Baʹlak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality.

 

Thyatira

Good verse 19 ‘I know your deeds, and your love and faith and ministry and endurance, and that your deeds of late are more than those you did at first.

Condemnation-Verse 20 “‘Nevertheless, I do hold this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezʹe·bel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and misleads my slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols.

 

Sardis

Commendation-verse “To the angel of the congregation in Sarʹdis write: These are the things that he says who has the seven spirits of God+ and the seven stars: ‘I know your deeds, that you have the name that you are alive, but you are dead.

Some individuals are pointed out in verse 4: “‘Nevertheless, you do have a few individuals* in Sarʹdis who did not defile their garments, and they will walk with me in white ones,+ because they are worthy.

 

Philadelphia

Good-verse 8, 10 ‘I know your deeds—look! I have set before you an opened door, which no one can shut. And I know that you have a little power, and you kept my word and did not prove false to my name.

Because you kept the word about my endurance,*+ I will also keep you from the hour of test,+ which is to come upon the entire inhabited earth, to put to the test those dwelling on the earth.

Bad-verse 16

So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth.

So you notice there is only one group of believers that had no type of condemnation at all mentioned.  The irony here is that there is no indiciation that they would ever be perfect in the least bit.  

 

Let’s contrast that with the organization:

Now the Watchtower is very quick to talk about the good that is has.  Here’s one quote: God has produced a spiritual paradise and has brought his people into it. The term “spiritual paradise” may seem abstract, hard to grasp, but such a paradise was foretold, and it really does exist.

The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom. October 15, 2004 p. 8

 

The closest the organization ever said anything was not a spiritual paradise was this: Shocking as it is, even some who have been prominent in Jehovah's organization have succumbed to immoral practices, including homosexuality, wife swapping, and child molesting."

The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.  January 1, 1986 p.13

 

 

Even though the Watchtower loves to condemn earthly government as being under the control of Satan, instead of praying to Jehovah for a divine intervention, they send their army of lawyers to speak on the organization’s behalf.  If this organization was truly run by Jehovah, why doesn’t he just simply intervene in a case?  When a case is won, the organization is very quick to point it out and insert the information on the official website.  I did a simple Google search for “watchtower wins legal ruling” and the third link led to a January 8, 2003 Awake! article titled, “Supreme Court Rules for Freedom of Speech” on the official website.  Doing a search for “watchtower loses legal ruling” lead to only Candace Conti being mentioned by various news outlets.   The only thing by the organization that was mentioned was, “Russia Bans Official Website of Jehovah’s Witnesses” hosted July 27, 2015.   

 

So here’s an older quote that has the society condemning just a group of local officials:

Consolation condemned San Diego County officials for their refusal to grant a permit for Rutherford's burial at either property, stating "It was not the fate of the bones which they decided, but their own destiny.

San Diego officials line up against New Earth's princes", Consolation. May 27, 1942 p. 6,9 

 

However, one thing has been constant, the organization has reinforced the “us vs. them” mentality and that is where we will focus today. 

 

Christadelphian

If you have a copy of the Emphatic Diaglott, thank a Christadelphian.  However, the organization has bitten the hand that helped developed a core doctrine.  The organization condemned all Christadelphians with the following quote:

The tenor of the foregoing may cause some to conclude that Christadelphianism is indeed of God. However, as we examine it more closely we find that it contains such gross shortcomings and false doctrines that it simply could not be of God but must be of men.

The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.  August 1, 1962 p. 474

 

The organization has been against the Catholic Church even though it models the structure much the same way.  Here’s the Catholic Church and Watchtower structural comparison:

 

Catholic Church-Watchtower Society

Pope-Governing Body

Cardinals-Branch Committees

Archbishops-District Overseers

Bishops-Circuit Overseers

Priests-Elders

Deacons-Ministerial Servants

Laity-Publishers 

 

 

Judge Rutherford was very keen on attacking the Catholic church.  Here’s a small sampling from the publication: Judge Rutherford Uncovers the Fifth Column published in 1940.

The Roman Catholic Hierarchy are the chief instrument on earth of the Devil. p. 10

 

Now the interesting thing is there is a lot of time spent condemning the Catholics.  However, this was kind of forgotten since the organization used the Catholic church with a sampling of the following quotes:

The New Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledges: “The date of Christ’s birth is not known. The gospels indicate neither the day nor the month . . . According to the hypothesis suggested by H. Usener . . . and accepted by most scholars today, the birth of Christ was assigned the date of the winter solstice (December 25 in the Julian Calendar, January 6 in the Egyptian), because on this day, as the sun began its return to northern skies, the pagan devotees of Mithra celebrated the dies natalis Solis Invicti (birthday of the invincible sun).

Awake!  December 8, 2002 p. 17

 

“The soul in the O[ld] T[estament] means not a part of man, but the whole man—man as a living being. Similarly, in the N[ew] T[estament] it signifies human life . . . The Bible does not speak of the survival of an immaterial soul.”—New Catholic Encyclopedia.

Is There a Creator Who Cares About You?  1998 p. 168

 

The New Catholic Encyclopedia revealed that “astrology was used by Pope Julius II [1503-13] to set the day of his coronation and by Paul III [1534-49] to determine the proper hour for every Consistory.”

Awake!  July 8, 1994 p. 3 

 

“The Christian concept of a spiritual soul created by God and infused into the body at conception to make man a living whole is the fruit of a long development in Christian philosophy. Only with Origen [died c. 254 C.E.] in the East and St. Augustine [died 430 C.E.] in the West was the soul established as a spiritual substance and a philosophical concept formed of its nature. . . . His [Augustine’s] doctrine . . . owed much (including some shortcomings) to Neoplatonism.”—New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967), Vol. XIII, pp. 452, 454.

Reasoning From the Scriptures.  1985, 1989 ed. p. 379

 

The commonality between all of these quotes is the organization is freely quoting them.  Now if Rutherford said that the Roman Catholic Hierarchy is the devil’s chief instrument and by extension the writings are to, why does the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society openly use material from Satan?  Notice the graphic below when the search parameter is set.  It is possible that it is pulling in articles that just have "new." 

 

 

Regardless, one must ask the question, if this organization is so bad, evil, and part of Satan’s system, why does this organization have a steadfast reliance upon it? 

I wish to spend some more time on one of the organization’s favorite enemies, the League of Nations/United nations by starting to look at some negative quotes:

 

Babylon The Great Has Fallen! Gods Kingdom Rules (1963) p.577

 

 

No, the UN is not a blessing, even though the religious clergy of Christendom and the rabbis of Jewry pray heaven’s blessing upon that organization. It is really “the image of the wild beast,” the visible political, commercial organization of “the god of this system of things,” Satan the Devil. So the UN will soon be destroyed along with that beastly organization.

The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.  September 15, 1984 p.15

 

 

However, this organization initially didn’t speak negatively with this quote:

We cannot but admire the high principles embodied in the League of Nations... Truly this is idealistic, and approximates in a small way that which God has foretold that he will bring about after this great time of trouble."

The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence.  February 15, 1919 p. 51

 

It's also worth nothing the League of Nations preceded the United Nations. 

 

However, what many Witnesses are still not aware of is that the organization was part of the Scarlett Beast for nearly 10 years. 

 

Here’s an article that a journalist used to uncover the association:

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/oct/08/religion.world

The organization, as usual gave a half truth as an excuse.  It was done to obtain a “library card.”  However, here’s the weblink that you can search: http://unbisnet.un.org/

 

Now, admittedly, it’s been 15 years since this story broke.  What you can do as a Witness if you’re curious is simply reach out to the UN and inquire about past procedure if membership was needed for a library card. 

Further irony is here when you break out your slightly older you will see this: Two articles that were favorable to the United Nations: Awake! Dec 8, 2000 and April 8, 1998 Awake!

 

In a similar vein, I just mentioned that a journalist uncovered this.  Condemnation goes for the media as well.  Let’s look at this:

 

Satan makes full use of the media to put across this degraded mentality.

The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.  September 1, 1988 p. 16

 

In the new world, Satan’s propaganda media will have been removed.

The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.  April 1, 1997 p. 17

 

However, when there’s a need, the organization will employ use of the “Satan’s propaganda media” as the following quote says:

Coordinators’ Committee – The brothers serving on this committee oversee legal matters as well as the use of the media when it is necessary to convey an accurate picture of our beliefs. They also respond to disasters, outbreaks of persecution, and other emergencies affecting our brotherhood anywhere in the world.”

God’s Kingdom Rules! 2014.  p. 131

 

Remember earlier how I called the organization a spiritual paradise?  Let’s look again:

Now the Watchtower is very quick to talk about the Good that is has.  Here’s one quote: God has produced a spiritual paradise and has brought his people into it. The term “spiritual paradise” may seem abstract, hard to grasp, but such a paradise was foretold, and it really does exist.

The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.  October 15, 2004

 

The closest the organization ever said anything was not a spiritual paradise was this: Shocking as it is, even some who have been prominent in Jehovah's organization have succumbed to immoral practices, including homosexuality, wife swapping, and child molesting."

The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.  January 1, 1986 p.13

So here are some things to keep in mind as a Watchowerite, the organization doesn’t want you to believe anything but what it has to say.  They are willing to speak out of both sides of their mouths with what they print.  Do you possibly believe they are thinking out of both sides when it comes to dealing with you?  Come to the Jesus of the Bible and you will never ever regret it.  I’d like to finish up by starting with  1 Peter 2:22 (New World Translation): He committed no sin, nor was deception found in his mouth.   Let's contrast that with the organization.  How often has it been deceptive to the public?  If it's deceptive to the public, do you believe that they would be deceptive towards you?  Leave the organization today.