Jehovah's Witness - Is it more important to agree with your leadership's teaching or with the truth?

The truth with any religion you have imperfect people but the bible always sets matters straight and the ones taking the lead are humble enough to let the bible do that

Acts 17:10-15

10 Immediately by night the brothers sent both Paul and Silas to Be·roeʹa. On arriving, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thes·sa·lo·niʹca, for they accepted the word with the greatest eagerness of mind, carefully examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. 12 Therefore, many of them became believers, and so did quite a few of the reputable Greek women as well as some of the men.

Greetings,

No, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe agreeing with the truth is the most important thing. You have been misinformed. Witnesses believe the Bible is the *final* authority on doctrinal Truth and it cannot be overridden by any human or organization.

The Witnesses actual teaching is very clear for all to read: "What God's Word has to say on any issue should be considered as final and binding on all members"–w68 2/1 p. 84

Further, the WTS itself has reproved Witnesses for even using terminology that would appear to place the WTS as their authority on any subject, reemphasizing that JW's should use only the Bible as their source.–w98 3/15 p.18

But your question is a Logical Fallacy: it is a False Disjunction (Either/Or Fallacy; abuse of the Excluded Middle). That is, your question illogically implies that the only choices are EITHER agreeing with the truth OR agreeing with our teachers. But you ignore the third more logical choice. That is, JWs agree with BOTH the truth and their organization because they have proven that their beliefs are based on facts and clearly supported by the solid evidence found in God’s Word!

The fact is that you cannot present even a single *current* Witness belief which is not solidly based on Biblical Truth. This proves that your premise is false; there is no need to choose between our teachings and the truth.

Next, you further present a false premise because you have gullibly bought into the lie that Witnesses made “false prophecies.” The fact is that the JWs’ DOCTRINE has ALWAYS been that the gift of prophecy ceased in the first century. Witnesses only tried to understand when the prophecies already given in the Bible would be fulfilled. This is not prophesying. And criticizing the Witnesses would also condemn the Apostles as false prophets, because they also misunderstood prophecy and had to correct their beliefs repeatedly.

Your criticism is also hypocritical. Because EVERY religion has corrected and changed their beliefs at least as many times as the Witnesses have. The big difference is that the Witnesses have been open and honest in admitting and correcting their mistakes while other religions dishonestly hide their changes and refuse to correct their unbiblical beliefs.

Your argument is also illogical because it unreasonably ignores the fact that any knowledge based belief will be subject to change with greater information.

It would be illogical to disbelieve current medical knowledge because of all the medical mistakes in the past. Likewise it is stupid to reject current religious knowledge which is solidly based on facts just because there were mistakes in the past. The Bible shows that God allows his servants to gradually understand (Pro. 4:18; Jn 16:12; 1Cor.13:9-12; Dan 12:3,4).

Your question also distracts from the real issue. That is, a FAILURE to correct false doctrine or actions when presented with solid evidence would be proof that a religion or an individual is not Christian.

Theologian Charles G. Finney said: "Finite minds, unless they are asleep or stultified by prejudice, must advance in knowledge. The discovery of new truth will modify old views and opinions...True Christian consistency ...consists in holding our minds open to receive the rays of truth from every quarter and in changing our views and language and practice as often and as fast, as we can obtain further information...with increasing knowledge...No Christian, therefore, and no theologian should be afraid to change his views, his language, or his practices in conformity with INCREASING LIGHT."

Yours,

BAR-ANERGES

I don't this they agree with their leadership teaching or looking for the truth! .. Its is more of a Doublethink situation where to them it is more important to accept the whole system than question what they believe is 'minor' inconsistencies within it.

Sunshine quote: "The truth" is the bible and it's NEVER wrong" LOL that is why the witnesses have this belief in something they call " Former Truths" I wonder what I would have done had I caught my kid telling a "Former Truth" instead of a lie. Likely would have cracked up at his powers of manipulation

First Century Christians and the leaders of "The Way" made mistakes and

if you left "The Way" and did not leave Jerusalem when Jesus said to you and your family

died a horrible death. No Scripture ANYWHERE in ANY Bible states that

First Century True Christians or True Christians Today would not make mistakes.

yet the Pope is said to be INFALLIBLE or incapable of making mistakes.

That shows who really has the truth.

This question is reminiscent in its structure and intent, to one of the questions Jesus asked the religious leaders at Matthew 21:25:

"The baptism by John, from what source was it? From heaven or from men?”"

The religious leaders didn't dare give Jesus a direct answer with one of the options presented in the question because they couldn't stomach the implications of either option. They didn't dare deny that John was sent by God for fear of how they would look in the eyes of the people; nor could they admit that he was commissioned by God for that would expose them as refusing to believe a prophet sent by God since they fail to accept Jesus whom John bore witness to as being the lamb of God. The religious leaders evade choosing either option by saying they didn't know the answer.

As you can see, your question is having the same kind of effect on JWs (only, unlike the religious leaders, the JWs are too arrogant to say they don't know.) The JWs answering your question don't dare give a direct response with one of the options provided in your question as to which is more important to agree with - the leadership's teaching or with the truth.

You see, if they say it's more important to agree with the leadership's teaching - which is effectively true when you decipher the result of their insistence on speaking in agreement (i.e. in agreement with their leadership's teachings) coupled with their vacuous platitude of "waiting on Jehovah" (i.e. waiting on the leadership to change or "clarify" its teachings) when they cannot accept or understand a particular Watchtower teaching that seems in error - then they effectively admit to being mandatory followers of men at the cost of disregarding truth. (they look bad in the eyes of others)

But if they say it's more important to agree with the truth then it amounts to an implicit admission that the leadership does not always teach the truth. Such an admission amounts to a criticism of the JW organization - something JWs are programmed to loathe doing, seeing it as an act of independent thinking, disloyalty, murmuring and/or even apostasy. A JW poster on here who chooses this option in his answer risks being viewed with suspicion by other JW posters, not to mention feelings of guilt or dread that he has spoken against "Jehovah's Organization". He may find himself being marginalized by other JWs on here as being one with apostate leanings and possibly blocked by a few of the ultra-paranoid uber-JWs.

Questions like these reveal the ugliness of the indoctrination spell that JWs are under. They are so indoctrinated to be blindly loyal to an organization of men at all costs that they cannot bring themselves to openly and directly admit to what is obviously the truth - that conforming to what is true is more important that conforming to the teachings of the men at the helm of their organization.

It's amazing to me that anyone might think that an organization could be more important than the truth. Jesu said, "I am the way, the truth and the life"

"The truth" is the bible and it's NEVER wrong

Jehovah's Witnesse, like you, merely attempt to understand and interpret scripture. Sometimes we get interpretation wrong, mostly we get it right. Loyalty to the organization and love for the brotherhood is more important than concentrating on errors, especially if they have been acknowleged and corrected.

God's organization is after all the means by which Jehovah is educating his people today, the main channel by which God is protecting and preparing is people.

;

When they are the same it is easy to do both.