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Full Version: Laws of God or Lies of Satan
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“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.” So said Paul, at Romans 3:19-20 (New International Version)

And who better to say it than Paul? A former Pharisee and killer of Christians, he might have, upon his conversion, joined those Judaizers who heaped law upon law until the worship of God again became Talmudic—governed by confusing the masses with the mundane rather than the spirit of the Law and its two greatest commandments—to Love Jehovah, and love our neighbour (a perfect stranger, even of a different religion, as illustrated by the good Samaritan).

But confusing the minds of men has always been is the best way to win believers. It’s been in practice since time immemorial. It’s how the Jews built their synagogues and Sanhedrims and it’s how Christendom built its churches and inquisitions. By making the Mosaic Law more than it was, the Jews were able to better control Judaism. By making Christianity more than it was, Christendom was better able to control her adherents. After all, it’s the devil’s world and only he would search out criminals at the expense of the innocent.

And so, not content with the six hundred and thirteen laws given to Moses (the Torah), the scribes and Pharisees added interpretation bulletins (the Talmud) much the same way the tax department amends its rules to catch offenders. If you are a taxpayer, then you know how much your problems are compounded just because a relatively small percentage of criminals abuse it. So follows the old adage—for every criminal caught by a criminal justice system, there’s a hundred innocent citizens found guilty in its net.

Religion is no different. In the mind of the Pharisee, God was a cruel, yet perfect taskmaster, who orally enacted thousands of IT bulletins to oppress and control the masses for the sake of unifying them to a privileged few. As for those caught in Christendom's net, even Jesus’ words were suppressed for the sake of IT bulletins issued by so-called Apostolic Fathers. Like earlier Judaizers demanding circumcision, these men deviated even to a greater extent, demanding that Christians follow a Didache of regulations and Hellenistic teachings blended into everything the true apostles were inspired to write.

Looking at history, it was predictable to say the least. If Satan could make Jehovah appear a merciless tyrant through Pharisaical laws, he could do no worse to the Christian community by introducing doctrines that would obliterate Jehovah entirely so that none would even acknowledge His divine name. And what better way to do so than muddy the inspired waters with such grandiose doctrines over things that carried no meaningful conclusion, like the structure of the godhead which extrapolates from one obscure statement such immense documentation that all Christian reasoning should be reduced to arguing the metaphysical nature of God rather than the real task of shepherding and feeding Christ’s little lambs with uncomplicated love and compassion.

So, while many would call themselves Christian—are they? For if men become or accede to become and support such cruel taskmasters, are they imitating God? or are they rather imitating their father the Devil by believing and enforcing the lies he continues to tell even among those who would vehemently profess otherwise.
"There's nothing so absurd that if you repeat it often enough, people will believe it."—William James (1842-1910) The father of modern Psychology
Oh, how I agree, SW. The WTS has found a way to create new "laws" by quoting "principles," which they claim are greater than laws. So, let's take "smoking" as an example.

Although I have always hated cigarette smoking, the "principles" they use to disfellowship people are the very weakest that one can imagine.

If you want to get back to God's "principles," go back to the Old Law. And there you will find that observing the Sabbath, forbidding the eating of unclean foods, and many other things that we do today are against God's "principles," and they simply make good sense. However, we are not under the Old Law, but under the law of LOVE. So, all their man-made laws that they base on "principles" have gone beyond "the things that are written." In other words, HYPOCRISY!
The whole WT, "law" and "principle" thing reminds me of the Pharisees. They wanted to avoid breaking the law, and so created a buffer zone of extra laws so that one wouldn't even come close to breaking the real law. An example might be, let's say it was wrong to travel over 5 km on the Sabbath. The Pharisees would say, no, it's wrong to travel over 3 km on the Sabbath, because if you don't travel 3, you surely won't travel 5. This seems to be a common practice, not even in WT circles, but even among some Christians.

This doesn't mean we are antinomian though, (antinomianism means against or without the law.) We are under law towards Christ, as Paul says. But we do not keep the law, or obey God's rules, in order to be justified, or saved. We keep God's law because we are justified and saved and because we love Him and want to please Him.
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