The Watchtower—Of God or Of Men

___



In year 1960 the Watchtower organization published a rather extensive article addressing whether the Apocrypha was of God or of men.[1]

This article presented a critical look at The Apocrypha collection of publications and isolated the following characteristics:

● Lacks objectivity by ignoring crimes of the chief ministers during the time. (p. 83)



● Exaggeration. (p. 84)



● Historical, chronological and factual errors. (p. 84)



● Contains contradictions of the Bible. (p. 84)



● Contains incredible stories. (p. 85)

As a result of manifesting these earmarks, Watchtower concluded there is no way the Apocrypha is “of God” but rather it is “of men”.[2]

A Big BIG Problem for Watchtower



As it is with The Apocrypha so it is with The Watchtower. That is, the same findings Watchtower isolates and shares about the publications known as Apocrypha are also in publications by Watchtower.



Moreover, Watchtower isolates and declares as “self-justification” a statement by one Apocryphal author who asks readers pardon for what amounts to admittedly imperfect interpretation. As Watchtower says it[3]:

Oddly enough with different words Watchtower makes the same assertion of itself[4]:

We find in The Watchtower all the same earmarks of The Apocrypha, right down to the same self-justification.



So perhaps the article Watchtower’s Governing Body should introduce to Jehovah’s Witnesses is one applying the same objectivity to The Watchtower as it does to The Apocrypha. The title of such an article might look something like this:

Marvin Shilmer

______________

References



1. The Watchtower, February 1, 1960, p. 81.



2. Ibid, p. 86.



3. Ibid, p. 84.



4. Awake!, published by Watchtower, March 22, 1993, p. 4.



___