Jehovah's Witness admission to not being inspired or infallible

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MeInMississippi

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I had a very heated debate with a Jehovah’s Witness a few weeks ago about the Trinity (I posted my experience on a different post). First of all, I didn’t even know there were Christian denominations that did not accept this doctrine. This caused me to have a real curiosity about what JW’s believed.

I started digging into their Watchtower organization. They claim they are not Protestant, they are Christian, but if you type in keyword “Catholic” for a website search there are hundreds, if not thousands of articles with very harsh anti-Catholic views. However, if you type in “Lutherans” or “Baptists” or “Presbyterians” you get nothing except various hits where these denominations were written about in an article, and it’s nothing really derogatory. They even praise the work of Luther, Calvin and that of the like. But get this straight, they’re not Protestants, they’re Christians…lol. What a joke.

Anyhow, after watching a YouTube video about some JW beliefs, they referenced an article in the Watchtower Study edition from February of 2017, titled “Who is Leading God’s People Today?” In it they actually admit that their governing body is “neither inspired, nor infallible.”

Someone please explain to me after reading this admission why JW’s aren’t running for the hills? They expect their people to adhere to their organization policies, but they don’t get their direction from God??? They do say they are guided by angels and the Holy Spirit (not capitalized in their publication because the Holy Spirit isn’t God in their eyes) and the Bible, though. Whatever all this means…

In the words of my Italian grandmother, Madonn!!! She didn’t pronounce the “a” in that word, of course!
 
The Catholic leadership certainly doesn’t claim infallibility in their leadership, so it’s largely the same.
Infallibility is invoked very infrequently on doctrine, which is different than policy (IMHO)
 
I see what you’re saying, but their governing body determines the guidelines of the faith. If at no point they claim infallibility in their beliefs then how do you ever really know the truth? There are certain teachings that need to be defined as infallible, but that’s just my opinion too.
 
Well, they deny the divinity of Christ so that right there disqualifies them from the term “Christian”.
 
MeInMississippi said:
I see what you’re saying, but their governing body determines the guidelines of the faith. If at no point they claim infallibility in their beliefs then how do you ever really know the truth? There are certain teachings that need to be defined as infallible, but that’s just my opinion too.
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I expect they only feel they know the truth on what is self evident in the Bible. Catholics have much more to reference but there are still many areas were we have unanswered questions, where we don’t have infallible guidance.

I’d even say the Catechism isn’t deemed infallible though it largely reference infallible doctrinal definitions.
 
Benadam said:
We do claim Divine guidance.
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But not in all things. Sometimes the Pope is just sharing his wisdom, and sometimes he is speaking infallibly.

Certainly there have been disputes expressed in these forums over the various positions expressed by Bishops. I think this issue would arise more distinctly from writings by the bishops and their bodies than by the Vatican.
 
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No individual is but the leadership as a whole is guided to all truth
 
Benadam said:
No individual is but the leadership as a whole is guided to all truth
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Yet they rarely speak “as a whole”

I’m not trying to nit-pick with you, just pointing out that to an outsider we have some modest degree of the same issues of having imperfect individuals leading the Church.
 
Two things to keep in mind about JWs: they believe that Jesus and the Angel Gabriel are the same person; and they seem to be obsessed with the end of the world, their founder predicted it a few times and after it didn’t happen they now say it is ‘imminent’.
 
The Watchtower is not just claiming it’s not infallible though, it’s also claiming none of their doctrine is revealed by God- only GUIDED by angels, the lowercase Holy Spirit and the Bible. Fortunately for us we have dogma, revealed by God, that will never change. How can they claim to teach the word of God if they never come down and say this is 100% true as it was revealed by God and will never change? They can change every teaching they have on a whim. Who knows, tomorrow they may decide they’re Trinitarian, only to change next year back to the old belief. It must be exhausting to be a JW.
 
It still sounds like they feel the Bible is the word of God, at least second hand.
 
I’m sure they do believe the Bible is the word of God (even though they use their own dishonest interpretation), but with no definitive profession of faith, no infallibility through dogma and no inspiration from God when it comes to doctrine, how can they claim to have the one true faith? They will disfellowship someone real quick if they don’t adhere to their doctrines that they admit are fallible. If I’m breaking one of their admitted fallible doctrines, what difference should that make? Why should I be disfellowshipped?
 
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“teaching infallibly” and “infallible Teaching” May want to understand the difference.
 
Are you saying I should understand the difference or they should? They claim to have the one true faith. Their faith is based on their Watchtower Society interpretation of the Bible. Since none of their doctrine is neither inspired nor infallible why would you follow that faith? You’re just going by what they tell you to believe at that particular point in time, all the time. They make no definitive statement of faith that is set in stone and that you can center your beliefs on.
 
ERR observed. They a saying Jesus was Michael, not Gabriel
Fooled Mary & the Apostles tho
 
One has to wonder how the millions of disfellowshipped x-JWs see this. Is it possible their disfellowshipping was a joke and someone just forgot to tell them the punchline?

Peace!!!
 
True dat, my friend! I guess saying you’re a Christian is easier to promote than saying you’re a Michaelaneglican… With their belief that Christ was A God and not truly God, that seems to imply they follow the teachings of more than one god. And they will sure throw it up in your face real quick that belief in the Trinity is belief in three gods.
 
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