Cult

*** Watchtower 2001 August 1 How to Make Your Advancement Manifest ***

8 First, since “oneness” is to be observed, a mature Christian must be in unity and full harmony with fellow believers as far as faith and knowledge are concerned. He does not advocate or insist on personal opinions or harbor private ideas when it comes to Bible understanding. Rather, he has complete confidence in the truth as it is revealed by Jehovah God through his Son, Jesus Christ, and “the faithful and discreet slave.”

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1998 December 1 p.14 Defending Our Faith ***

[Compare this quote to Watchtower quotes regarding blood]

4 Second, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been targets of false accusations—barefaced lies and twisted presentations of their beliefs. As a result, they have been the object of unjustified attack in some lands. Further, because they seek nonblood medical treatment that is in harmony with their desire to obey the Bible’s command to ‘abstain from blood,’ they have wrongly been labeled "child murderers" and "a suicide cult." (Acts 15:29) But the fact is that Jehovah’s Witnesses place a high value on life, and they seek to obtain the best available medical care for themselves and their children. The accusation that numerous children of Jehovah’s Witnesses die each year as a result of refusing blood transfusions is totally unfounded. In addition, because Bible truth does not have the same effect on all family members, Witnesses have also been accused of breaking up families. Yet, those acquainted with Jehovah’s Witnesses know that they highly regard family life and try to follow the Biblical commands that a husband and wife love and respect each other and that children obey their parents whether they are believers or not.-Ephesians 5:21-6:3.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1996 December 1 p.11 Parents, Find Pleasure in Your Children ***

To supply these needs, fathers especially are urged to bring their children up “in the discipline and mental-regulating of Jehovah.” (Ephesians 6:4) What does this involve? “Mental-regulating of Jehovah” means regulating our thinking to conform to Jehovah’s will. Parents, then, must instill in the minds of their little ones Jehovah’s thinking on matters.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Awake! 1986 October 22 p.16 A Tragic Saturday That Shattered My Family ***

But that was only part of the campaign to dissuade me from studying the Bible with the Witnesses. One of my brothers was a Baptist minister, and he spent three hours trying to tell me how to be a good Christian and to stay away from Jehovah’s Witnesses. My father said that the Witnesses would brainwash me, to which I replied that my brain needed a good washing, since I had been taught so many untruths for so many years.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Reasoning From the Scriptures (1985, 1989) p.202 Jehovah’s Witnesses ***

[This is the total and complete entry in this book on this subject]

Are Jehovah’s Witnesses a sect or a cult?

Some define sect to mean a group that has broken away from an established religion. Others apply the term to a group that follows a particular human leader or teacher. The term is usually used in a derogatory way. Jehovah’s Witnesses are not an offshoot of some church but include persons from all walks of life and from many religious backgrounds. They do not look to any human, but rather to Jesus Christ, as their leader.

A cult is a religion that is said to be unorthodox or that emphasizes devotion according to prescribed ritual. Many cults follow a living human leader, and often their adherents live in groups apart from the rest of society. The standard for what is orthodox, however, should be God’s Word, and Jehovah’s Witnesses strictly adhere to the Bible. Their worship is a way of life, not a ritual devotion. They neither follow a human nor isolate themselves from the rest of society. They live and work in the midst of other people.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1983 March 1 p.25 What Is Our Position Toward Opposers of the Truth? ***

Consider some of the other “twisted things” used to mislead God’s people today. On occasion opposers will question the various teachings that Jehovah’s people hold in common. Often this becomes a debate about words, just as it was in the first century. (1 Timothy 6:3, 4) They may also question the need for an organization to direct the minds of God’s people. Their view is, God’s spirit can direct individuals without some central, organized body of men giving direction.

[Emphasis Added]

*** United in Worship of the Only True God (book, 1983) chap.15 p.118-124 How Does Jehovah Direct His Organization?***

THEOCRATIC IN STRUCTURE

4 The Scriptural expression “congregation of the living God” makes evident who direct it. The organization is theocratic, or God-ruled. Jehovah provides direction for his people through the one that He appointed to be the invisible head of the congregation, the Lord Jesus Christ, and by means of His own inspired Word, the Bible.

[…]

7 […] To please Jehovah, we need to accept the instruction he provides through this channel and act in full harmony with it.

[…]

13 We do well to ask ourselves: “Do we truly appreciate how Jehovah is directing his visible organization? Do our attitudes, speech and actions reflect that?” […]

14 It is by means of his visible organization under Christ as appointed head that Jehovah is dealing with us today. So our attitude toward this organization demonstrates in a practical way the stand that we are taking on the issue of sovereignty. […] By cultivating wholesome respect for Jehovah’s organization and wholeheartedly doing the work that he directs, we give evidence that Jehovah truly is our God and that we are united in his worship.–1 Cor. 15:58.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Awake! 1982 September 8 p.10 Moon’s Unification Church–What Does It Believe? ***

[Compare this quote to Watchtower quotes regarding education]

Who are the “Moonies”? Press reports about the Unification Church have tended to highlight charges of weekend brainwashing sessions and slave labor. The political and financial problems of the Church have also made headlines, especially since Sun Myung Moon, the Church’s founder, was convicted of tax fraud. Moon’s mass marriage of 2,075 couples also made headline news. But what do you know about the beliefs of the Unification Church? What is motivating the Church’s small army of apparently idealistic youths? Why are they willing to give up college and careers to follow Sun Myung Moon? What is he promising them?

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1973 March 15 pp.186-7 Be a Vessel for Honorable Use ***

27 Jehovah’s witnesses are not trying to escape reality. They are living now with a purpose. They are ‘making their minds over’ from the way they formerly were being “fashioned after this system of things.” (Rom. 12:2) A musician who had lived the unreal life on drugs began studying the Bible with Jehovah’s witnesses. His associates ridiculed him, taunting: “You’re being brainwashed.” He aptly replied: “The shape our brains are in, they need a good washing.”

[Emphasis Added]

*** Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses 1970 p.9 ***

NEED FOR MENTAL CLEANSING

It is evident, therefore, that there must be a cleaning out of the mind if there is to be an implanting of right thinking. There must be a putting away of all filthiness of the flesh, and that superfluous thing, moral badness, so one can give one’s time and energies to accepting the implanting of the Word Of God in one’s mind. One just cannot do both things at the same time. Sweet water and bitter water cannot come out of the same spring. (Jas. 3:11) It is absolutely necessary for one to change one’s ways of thinking and doing things if the truth of God’s Word is going to be implanted in one and grow.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1961 Sept 1 p.539 Staying Awake as Approved Slaves ***

Manifesting loyalty to God’s channel and one’s brothers and showing love is a fifth way in which we can stay awake as approved slaves…..And lastly, we can stay awake by being respectful and obedient to the organization, the Watch Tower Society and its appointed servants. Yes, “remember those who are governing you, . . . and as you contemplate how their conduct turns out imitate their faith.”–Heb. 13:7. So let us stay awake as approved slaves by co-operating with the “faithful and discreet slave” to the best of our ability.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1959 May 1 p.269 Attain Completeness in the New World Society ***

In the same way Christ, the Head, employs the organization that is his body to carry out his assigned work. His orders reach the whole of the organization on earth through the governing body, and on down through the Branches to the congregations.–1 Cor. 12:12-18; Matt. 24:45-47. To hold to the headship of Christ, it is therefore necessary to obey the organization that he is personally directing. Doing what the organization says is to do what he says. Resisting the organization is to resist him.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1956 June 15 p.360 Getting and Giving the Thoughts of God ***

Why be tricked by crafty men into adopting their thoughts, especially when those men have themselves been snared by Satan and pumped full of his poisonous subtleties and like ventriloquists’ dummies chatter them out under his unseen direction? Why allow yourself to be brainwashed by dupes oblivious to their own mental bondage? The brains of millions need a washing, but not with the political or religious propagandas of this system of things under Satan. Rather, everyone needs regular cleansings “with the bath of water by means of the word” of Jehovah God, to get his thoughts instead of man’s or Satan’s. Then all will rest content in the highest possible wisdom: “The wisdom from above is first of all chaste, then peaceable, reasonable, ready to obey, full of mercy and good fruits, not making partial distinctions, not hypocritical.”-Eph. 5:26; Jas. 3:17, NW.

[Emphasis Added]

*** Watchtower 1952 June 1 p.351 Questions from Readers ***

We must be willing to dismiss our own thoughts to make room for God’s thoughts, and bend our thinking to conform to the principles of God as shown in his Word, even on this point of family and community responsibility. (Isa. 55:8, 9)

[Emphasis Added]