@ghost-of-a-duke said
@galveston75

Of all the religions and denominations (cults) I have studied, yours has always stood out as the most unwholesome. Not only does it stifle free thinking and punish those who do, it also targets vulnerable people and projects a twisted version of scripture.

You yourself exemplify here everything negative about the Jehovah Witness church, in the way ...[text shortened]... ity, it is you who have been brainwashed by bizarre dogma that has very little to do with Scripture.

Lol, Lol, Lol. Get away from me Satan!!!!!!!

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Russell said Jesus retained his divinity. Are you saying there is more than one kind of divinity? Is that your bizarre argument?

Edit: I know your church discourages free thinking, but give it a shot.

Lol. Me saying bizarre things? I think you've get an award for that.
And the "church" you are saying that keeps me or any other JW from free thinking is just the opposite of your shallow knowledge of us.
Hummmm....that reminds me of something that was said, oh, a few thousand years ago by some slithering reptile that questioned the mother of us all. It was something like" Is it so that God said you cannot eat of the tree? That is a lie because if you do, your eyes are bound to be opened and you will become like God!"

Ring a bell? Is this what you are saying that JW's are being denied of? Becoming someone, say like you?

The thing you are miss my friend is the vast majority of JW's were not born and raised being a JW. Most were once members of the churches that hardly ever even opened their bibles and just blindly followed their preachers pagan backed teachings which are "clearly" condemned in the very bible they own but are never taught to use it. So who's blind here?

I could get any teenager from the Kingdom Hall that could run circles around you with their knowledge of the bible......

What a joke.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
But Russell didn't merely promote the teachings of Jesus Christ. He believed, and stated, that Jesus retained divinity.

Was he wrong?

Where did Russell ever say to worship Jesus ((( exactly ))) as we are to worship his Father Jehovah? Did he ever say they were both on the same level and we are to worship then on the same level?

@Ghost-of-a-Duke

Your grasp of reality is almost non existent but this is our answer. Take it or leave it.......

"The modern-day organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses began at the end of the 19th century. At that time, a small group of Bible students who lived near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States, began a systematic analysis of the Bible. They compared the doctrines taught by the churches with what the Bible really teaches. They began publishing what they learned in books, newspapers, and the journal that is now called The Watchtower—Announcing Jehovah’s Kingdom.

Among that group of sincere Bible students was a man named Charles Taze Russell. While Russell took the lead in the Bible education work at that time and was the first editor of The Watchtower, he was not the founder of a new religion. The goal of Russell and the other Bible Students, as the group was then known, was to promote the teachings of Jesus Christ and to follow the practices of the first-century Christian congregation. Since Jesus is the Founder of Christianity, we view him as the founder of our organization.

Colossians 1:18-20:

18 and he ( Jesus) is the head of the body, the congregation. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might become the one who is first in all things; 19 because God was pleased to have all fullness to dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all other things by making peace through the blood he shed on the torture stake, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens.

A couple of the more scriptural foolish posters here will in no way get this. That is a given fact..... This is for the others here that actually think.
The bible uses the words "light" and "darkness" to explain the state of humans spiritual teachings, practices, type of worship and also their involvement in the world and their support to mans governments and his rules.
The bible describes that the majority of the world is in spiritual darkness.
(1 John 5:19, "We know that we originate with God, but the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one." (Not JW's words, Jehovah's words)
The bible says that some would be in a lit position but that the light would continually get brighter as time goes by and that not many others would ever see it.

Proverbs 4:18,
18 "But the path of the righteous is like the bright morning light
That grows brighter and brighter until full daylight."

( Not JW's words, Jehovah's words)
The point here is that most religions still follow and practice very old pagan beliefs like the Trinity for example, and no matter the proof shown that it is not a bible teaching, they never change their belief in such things. That is but one example of how most of the worlds religions are spiritually in darkness and have pretty much not changed. As long as they stay that way Jehovah will never help them see the light or truths of such teachings if they don't remove themselves from them.
Some here that are obviously in a dark spiritual condition, complain that the JW's change what we believe all the time. It is not comprehensible to them that it is simply Jehovah directing our course as time passes to a brighter light of understanding.
( Not JW's words, it is Jehovah's words )
So these few of many scriptures explains that as we get closer to the end of imperfect mans rule of this world that is stuck in the dark spiritually, but that some are in the light of understanding what Jehovah has let us see earlier and what he lets us see now and that would include any corrections he now lets us understand.
When a light gets brighter, you gradually see things clearer. Thanks to Jehovah.....