The Watchtower Society of Jehovah's Witnesses

[Elijah John]

How can Jehovah's Witnesses be the "one true church" if they themselves make mistakes and revise their doctrine, dogma and practices?

Exhibit a) before the NWT (New World Translation) of the Bible was published, Jehovah's Witnesses used the American Standard Version (ASV). Both translations honor the name of Jehovah but there are stark differences.

The NWT is the only translation (that I know of) which has Jesus "impaled on a stake" instead of crucified on a cross, as virtually every other translation posits.

The first volume of the NWT was originally released in 1950.

How can JWs be the "only true church" if it was evolving, fallible and subject to revision?

And exhibit b) how can JWs be the only true church with dimly supported and strange doctrines such as the belief that Jesus was Michael the Archangel before the Nativity?

Exhibit c) How can the JWs be the only true church if they falsely predicted that Jesus would return in 1914?

And when that return did not materialized, they revised their prediction and now conveniently claim his return was "invisible".

"One true Church" or fringe sect?

[2timothy316]

[Replying to post 129 by JehovahsWitness]

JW you will appreciate this.

On another message board there was a person that agreed to a study with the Witnesses. The accepted the study because they thought that they would be able to convince the studying Witness the errors in the their religion. The person had only one thing as advice to others that want to do as they had done. 'Prepare, prepare, prepare! Because it didn't go as I thought. I thought it would be easy. There was nothing easy about it.'

If someone wants to say a person is in error, prepare, prepare, prepare to back yourself up.

[postroad]

[Replying to post 130 by 2timothy316]
Could you explain this text?

Psalm 45:6New International Version (NIV)

6 Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.

Translated from the NWT

6 God is your throne forever and ever;+
The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness.*+

[American Deist]

I keep asking for an example, but I see you are done with this thread now, so I guess it is easier to just walk away then backup your own accusations.

In case you missed this part from an earlier reply:

Now then, let's use some common sense here. Who is most likely right with regard to the NWT being an authoritative version?

1. Numerous PhD's that are fluent with Hebrew and Greek, that reject the NWT, often pointing out its many errors.

2. The NWT authors that were not fluent with Hebrew/Greek, and had no formal education in biblical studies/language.


I am done. Reply if you want to, but the only other thing I will be posting here is the response from my biblegateway.com inquiry.

[William]

[Replying to post 130 by 2timothy316]
Could you explain this text?

Psalm 45:6New International Version (NIV)

6 Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.

Translated from the NWT

6 God is your throne forever and ever;+
The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness.*+

Translations are really interesting.

NIV 'what is gods throne?
NWT 'GOD is gods throne.
NIV "what is justice?"
NWT "Uprightness"
NIV 'What symbolic ornament does GODs Kingdom use to identify itself? "Justice".
NWT 'What symbolic ornament does GODs Kingdom use to identify itself? "Uprightness".

Is Uprightness a necessary aspect of Justice?
Is GODs Uprightness a necessary aspect of Justice?

Its a neat enough distraction but really?

[hoghead1]

[Replying to post 105 by American Deist]

Major biblical scholars, such as Metzger, one of teh great deans of NT scholarship, consider the NWT to be a highly corrupt translation and with good reason. It [probably really isn't a true translation, just a paraphrase quote, bending it here and there, from previous translations.

[hoghead1]

[Replying to post 122 by 2timothy316]

Who exactly are these other major scholars? Names, please. And please don't cite Goodspeed, as there is reason to believe his letter of approval is phony.

[hoghead1]

[Replying to post 125 by 2timothy316]

I know the NWT to be bogus, due to the fact it write in "Lord Jehovah" 239 times in the NT, where it is never found in the Greek. "Jehovah," to start with, is a serious mistranslation. The translation of "a god" in John 1 breaks rules of Greek grammar and is totally out of context.

[postroad]

[Replying to post 134 by William]
What are you getting at? I wonder why you would dismiss the variance in these texts as irrelevant? This verse is a main proof text for the divinity of Christ. I am just interested in what the correct translation is.

[hoghead1]

[Replying to post 107 by 2timothy316]

BeDuhn is not a recognized biblical scholar or translator. His field is comparative religion, not biblical studies. And he has yet to discuss his work with colleagues in biblical studies. Also, you have to deal with major critics such as Metzger, Barclay, Rowley, and even Goodspeed.

[hoghead1]

[Replying to post 131 by 2timothy316]

How is this relevant to the discussion at hand? I'm interested in this forum, not some other one. I'm also interested in what major scholarship has to say about the NWT and the Watchtower Society.