Posted by Jaypeeto [Jaypeeto] on March 30, 1999 at 11:01:02 {.Oe37V.qjQ0hi4VK0MIQHq/lZhRVmk}:
In Reply to: ***What is a Prophet? posted by Friend on March 30, 1999 at 10:44:10:
And would you allow this elastic leeway
for other groups than the WTBTS?
The Society claims to be the restoration of
the Doctrinal System held by the early christians.
In other words, the early Christians, doctrinally, were
allegedly Jehovah's Witnesses.
You don't need a bible or a lexicon to test THAT claim.
All you need is the writings of the earliest christian writers. Note what they AFFIRM, to see if what they AFFIRM is doctrinally compatible with Watchtower doctrine. NEXT, if they write AGAINST groups that are "heretical", note if the Heretical groups' teachings are compatible with Watchtower Doctrine.
If nobody in the first two centuries can be found who holds to a set of
Watchtower-compatible beliefs, then you can conclude with absolute certainty that their claim that early Christianity "gradually" went apostate from their beliefs, is an out-and-out lie....................................
.....which, by
the way, it most certainly IS.
How then can they be "true" "prophets"
even in the NON-predictive sense?
Jaypeeto