Are Jehovah’s Witnesses a Cult? Part Three - Information Control

our jehovah's witnesses a cult don't take my word for it don't take anybody's word for it I'm just here to present the facts and you can draw your own conclusion because the proof is in the publication if you have not already seen part 1 & 2 of this series go ahead and check those out today we're going to be discussing part 2 of the bite model which is information control now information control is my favorite aspect of the bite model this was the one that really had me convinced 100% that I was indeed in a

cult you've ever seen an organization that has a really big public scandal maybe it's a financial scandal or a child abuse scandal you may ask yourself how does this organization still have loyal members you know with all this information that's public why are people not leaving in droves well information control is a big part of why now information control is all about an organization controlling the narrative they may withhold information from their members they may distort the facts to their members or they may just flat-out lie they will encourage their members to only seek out

their sources of information so if this organization has a website or literature the members of the group will be encouraged to look there for information instead of going outside of the group they will definitely be dissuaded from looking at critical information about the group so if there's a news report or a documentary discussing the negative aspects of their religion that will definitely not be something that will allow their members to watch it will be considered quote-unquote fake news if you will talking to former members it's definitely a no-no groups that operate in this manner do

not want you talking to people who have left and finding out why they left there will be a buddy system in these types of organizations where you're encouraged to spy on and report other members so if there's a rule that you know you guys are supposed to follow and you see a member breaking that rule it's your responsibility to go report and tell on that member they also may manipulate your memory so they may rewrite history things like that so in a nutshell that's basically what information control entails so let's look at some Jehovah's Witness

literature and see if they are exhibiting information control let's start with critical information our Jehovah's Witness is allowed to watch news reports or documentaries that are critical of the organization hmm let's see let's start with the watchtower August 2000 18 the title is do you have the facts so I'm gonna repair graph four and then there's like a little box I'm gonna read also a paragraph four says to make the decisions we need solid facts okay that's true so far therefore we need to be highly selective and to choose carefully what information we will read

I'm still with you I'm still agreeing okay I'll still make a good point we should not waste our time viewing questionable internet news sites or reading up unsubstantiated reports that circulated via email okay I can agree with that it is especially important to avoid websites promoted by apostates see this is where they lost me their whole purpose is to tear down God's people and to distort the truth poor quality information will lead to poor decisions never underestimate the powerful effect that misleading information can have on your mind and heart the box is a few provisions

to help us get the facts what provisions have been made to keep God's people up-to-date with accurate information breaking news this feature breaking news on JW org provides a quick brief updates to jehovah's people and major events happening worldwide now I'm not even gonna read the rest of this cuz it's stupid basically this box is saying whatever information you need you can get it from JW org that's that's what it's saying is saying they're breaking news page on JW org the news room section on JW org or JW broadcasting on jw.org I'll actually read paragraph

6 - it says we need to be especially cautious when we come across reports regarding jehovah's people never forget that Satan is the accuser of God's faithful servants therefore jesus warned that opposers would lying lycée every sort of wicked thing against us if we take that warning seriously we will not be shocked when we hear our range of statements about jehovah's people so i hope you can see the manipulation happening here so the first that paragraph 4 again they start out making good sense you know we do need to be careful about what we read

the internet is so easy to just hop on the internet create a blog or create some type of website and just put any type of false information on there I completely agree with that however where I don't agree with them that they're saying you know any information that's put out by apostates or people who have left the organization we'll get more into that later any information that's put out by apostates is automatically a lie now this is where that information control really comes in because they're not allowing the members to read it for themselves and

decide if it's a lie or not the leaders of the organization are saying hey we've already decided it's lies okay you nothing to see here you guys don't need to look for yourself and draw your own conclusion we already know the people who have left the organization are making up lies about us no don't look at it don't read it don't decide for yourself we've already done that legwork for you and it's like why don't you trust your member to look at the information themselves and draw their own conclusion or is it are you not

allowing them to look because you know there's some truth there and then we also see in that little box that basically they're saying hey the only place where you can get trustworthy information is jw.org where we're controlling the information that you're consuming so yeah of course set for them JW org is a safe place to look for information they're not gonna put any bad information about themselves on their website I mean come on let's let's be real here in paragraph six you know they're saying you know when you we hear outrageous statements about the organization

its lies its lies from people who want to oppose us and tear us down so any outrageous thing of Jehovah's Witness hears about their organization are automatically going to think oh yeah that's a lie I don't even I don't even need to investigate that further you know when you see a documentary on A&E talking about Jehovah's Witnesses and their mishandling of child abuse a witness is gonna say oh you know that's just fake news by somebody who wants to oppose our religion so I don't even need to look into that any further the next article

I want to look at is the watchtower it's October 2015 what should you do if you find slanderous news about Jehovah's organization on the Internet such materials should be firmly rejected some feel that they must bring it to the attention of others to get their opinion but all that does is propagate the malicious information if we feel troubled about something we see on the Internet we should to Jehovah for wisdom to speak to mature brothers about it Jesus who was the object of false accusations warned his followers that enemies will persecute them and Langley say

every sort of wicked thing against them we need to use our thinking ability and discernment to identify the man speaking perverse things and those whose entire course is devious now I don't know if you guys noticed it but I noticed a huge contradiction in this paragraph the beginning of it just says you know anything you find about the organization that's negative is slanderous it's lies it should be firmly rejected you know don't don't take the time to investigate this don't go cross referencing and and researching and doing anything you know just firmly reject it and

if you still after you reject it if you're still feeling troubled about what you read go talk to the elders and the elders will basically tell you what these articles are saying is just don't think about it fall back in line go on JW we're gonna read something on there and don't read anything outside of that but then at the end of the paragraph it says that they need to use their thinking ability and discernment um you guys just told me I couldn't do that I don't know if you guys understand what thinking ability and

discernment means but you guys aren't allowing me to distinguish true from false you guys did that work for me already so how can I use my thinking ability I guess I can only use my thinking ability when it leads me to the same conclusion that they're at is that anything that's said bad about witnesses is false I guess I mean whatever one thing I do want to add on before we move on is this is one of the reasons why college is strongly discouraged with in the organization because one thing you're gonna learn how to

do in college you're gonna learn how to think critically and how to do thorough research you know even when I was in high school and I wasn't allowed to go to university I took two years in Community College but even in high school when I would write research papers I would have to have so many sources from different from different books from different magazines from different websites and I would have to cite those sources so you know if you if you gain that skill you'll be able to identify manipulation like this really quickly you if

you have that ability to critically research you're not going to just take whatever somebody throws you as fact and that's what the organization wants you to do they want you to accept whatever they say is fact as fact and whatever they say is false you are immediately to disregard oh let's move on to the word apostate because I was mentioned in the last one of the paragraphs we just read so the dictionary definition of an apostate is a person who renounces or abandons a religious or political belief it's pretty simple right I was once a

Catholic no longer Catholic I'm an apostate I was once a Jehovah's Witness no longer a Jehovah's Witness I'm an apostate of the Jehovah's Witness religion simple no big deal not a crime people leave religions every day but watch how this word gets distorted and the Jehovah's Witness literature okay this is the watchtower July 15 2011 will you pay attention to Jehovah's clear warnings paragraph 6 says how can we protect ourselves against false teachers the Bible tells us exactly what to do Maclaren struction in the bible is avoid them that means that we have to stay

away from them the warning from the Bible was like a warning from a doctor who tells you to avoid a person who has a disease that may spread to others the doctor knows that if you get this disease you will die his warning is clear and you will do what he says the Bible says that apostates are mentally diseased and that they use their teachings to make others think like them Jehovah is like that good doctor he clearly tells us to stay away from false teachers we must always be determined to follow his warning I'm

literally paragraph 72 it says what must we do to avoid false teachers we do not speak to them or invite them into our houses we also do not read their books watch them on television read what they write on the internet or add our own comments about what they write on the Internet why are we so determined to avoid them first of all it is because we love the God of truth so we do not want to listen to false teachings that go against the truth in God's Word we also love the organization that Jehovah

uses to teach us wonderful truths it was Jehovah's organization that taught us about Jehovah's name and what it means his purpose for the earth what happens to us when we die in the hope of the resurrection do you remember how happy you were when you first learn these and other truths then do not allow the lies from false teachers to turn you against the organization that taught you these truths as you can see this simple word apostate which again is just someone who once had a religious belief and leaves that religious belief the organization has

now turned this word into something scary into something demonic mentally diseased I just want you all to think about what kind of picture that paints when you're hearing this over and over especially as a child you know people who leave they have ill intentions you know they're not all right in the head they they're messed up mentally and they're just looking to drag others down with them that is a very that paints a very scary picture and that automatically if a jehovah's witness comes across someone and they find out that person was one of Jehovah's

Witness and left the wall is immediately going up they're not gonna have a rational conversation with someone who they believe to be mentally diseased so the organization does this purposely because again they don't want you to talk to someone who's left the organization because they don't want you to find out why people are leaving you know if if the Jehovah's Witness was comfortable enough to talk to someone who left they will find out a lot they will find out about how the organization has mishandled child abuse they will find out about all their failed prophecies

they will find out about the racism that's in their old publications they will find out about all the ridiculous doctrine that's in their old publications that are no longer accessible on their website or anywhere for that matter you really have to do some digging and get the publications that you know Charles taze Russell wrote so this is the type of stuff they don't want you talking to someone who's left about so they have to demonize that person and say you know don't talk to them they're mentally diseased they're not right in the head and they're

gonna mess you up in the head too so just leave them alone and that's why they're saying you know don't speak to them don't watch what they say on TV don't watch them don't listen to them on social media I mean they've really covered every aspect of communication here like an organization that's that's really that serious about you not talking to their former members they have something to hide and that goes for any organization not just Jehovah's Witnesses this is another article that I thought was really interesting how they paint apostates I was a watchtower

April 15 2009 the title of this article was Satan a deviant adversary and apostate so I mean you already see where this is going paragraph 15 says Satan was the first creatures to turn apostate modern-day apostates display characteristics similar to those of the devil their mind may be poisoned by a critical attitude toward individuals in the congregation's Christian elders or the governing body some apostates oppose the use of the divine name Jehovah they are not interested in learning about Jehovah or in serving him like their father Satan apostates target people of integrity no wonder service

of Jehovah avoid all contact with them I can actually feel my blood boil and as I was reading that because so not only are people who lead the organization mentally diseased you know that that wasn't bad enough okay they had to kick it up a notch and say not only are they mentally diseased they're kids of Satan they're the spawn of Satan Satan was the first apostate and we're just his children our minds are poison okay and then and again it's showing like we target people in the kingdom Hall like you know we're just these

these criminal deviants and we're just looking to run amok in organization and poison people's minds and turn everybody's satanic I remember hearing articles like this as a kid and I did an apostate really like terrified me like you know most kids are afraid of like the boogeyman or whatever the case is I was afraid of apostates because I was just in my mind I had some picture of like someone who was just deranged and looking to bring harm to Jehovah's Witnesses for no reason and this is done again by design these no organization describes them

this way is because if they can make Jehovah's Witness terrified of apostates if a witness comes across any information or is talking to someone and they have an inkling that this person may be trying to share apostate information all sorts of alarm and red flags go up I mean if if you would see the look of Jehovah's Witnesses faces when you even use the word apostate I mean there is so much fear there and when you when you make someone that's scared you can control them and Jehovah's Witness is not going to sit and have

a reasonable rational discussion with someone who they believe is trying to share apostate information with them because again the way they've been programmed is that when they realize this person is an apostate there's all types of warning alarms and that fear will take over and they will immediately shut down and they will not hear what you have to say let's talk about spying on other members the Jehovah's Witnesses encourage that let's take a look so this watchtower is February 15 2012 paragraph 14 and 15 it says what if we become aware of someone is involved

in a secrets and perhaps abusing alcohol viewing pornography or living in a moral life turning a blind eye to grow strong boy can hinder the free flow of Jehovah's holy spirit and threaten the Peace of the entire congregation just as the early Christians in Corinth had to clear out badness so today any corrupting influence must be kept out of the corrugation in order to preserve its healthy positive spirit what can you do to contribute to the congregation's peace as previously mentioned is important to maintain confidentiality in certain matters especially when others share with us their

feelings and thoughts how wrongful and hurtful it is to spread confidential information about someone else even so but serious sin has been committed those scripturally obligated to handle the matter the elders in the congregation should be informed so if we know that a brother or sister has fallen into such wrongdoing we should encourage that we should encourage that one to approach the elders and seek their help if he or she does not do so within a reasonable period of time though we should report the wrongdoing so the answer to that question is yes Jehovah's Witness

definitely encouraged witnesses to spy on other members so it's not enough that you have to report yourself you know it's not enough that if you make a mistake or if you commit what they consider to be a gross sin it's not enough that you tell on yourself to the elders you're also responsible to tell on someone else if you become aware that they've done something so it really creates this system where everybody is being monitored you know there's just not enough elders to monitor every single person but if you instruct the members to spy on

other members then everybody's under scrutiny at that point and it even says that you know you can talk to the person and you can give them you basically can give them a period of time to snitch on themselves and then if they don't do it by whatever they consider a reasonable period of time then you're responsible for reporting it the last thing I want to talk about as far as information control is how they rewrite their history this is a big part of the reason why a lot of they're really old publications are not accessible

because they change the narrative of what has happened and if you go back and look at the old articles you'll realize that they're lying so I'm gonna focus on one today and that's 1975 now if anybody is familiar with 1975 this was a year that Jehovah's Witnesses strongly implied that Armageddon was coming and if you would ask a Jehovah's Witness about 1975 today presently in 2020 you're gonna get one of two responses depending on how old they are I'm in my 20s so people my age they probably won't even know what you're talking about if

you if you ask a twenty-something your own Jehovah's Witness hey do you know what happened the organization 1975 you'll probably get a blank stare they'll have no idea now some of the older ones they will remember like some type of scandal going on in 1975 I've actually I remember talking to an older pioneer about it I think she was in her 70s I want to say but what they remember but with what someone now we'll tell you about 1975 is that the leaders never said the end was coming in 1975 they'll tell you that's a

date that a few members in the congregation came up with and started spreading around so if you ask someone about 1975 they're not going to blame on the leaders they're gonna say oh no what I was just you know some members of the congregation they got ahead of themselves they started speculating it started spreading like wildfire but you know that was no fault of the leaders okay that's cute and all but again the proof is in the publication so let's start with a kingdom ministry May of 1974 and the title that is how are you

using your life I'm not gonna read the entire article but the gist of the article is you know encouraging people to use their lives to serve the organization more fully especially because the end of the system is so so close I want to definitely read the last paragraph because this is where this is where the good stuff is so it says yes since the summer of 1973 there have been new peaks and pioneers every month now there are 20,000 390 for regular and special pioneers in the United States an all-time peak that is 5190 more

than we're in February 1973 a 34% increase does that not warm our hearts reports are heard of brothers selling their homes and property and planning to finish out the rest of their days in this old system in the Pioneer service certainly this is a fine way to spend the short time remaining before the wicked worlds end now before we discuss this we just want to remind you all that Jehovah's Witnesses are taught they fully believe that the information that the governing body releases is influenced by God okay they believe that the governing body is appointed

by God and the information that they are getting from the governing body is really coming from Jehovah so when you're reading this as a Jehovah's Witness you know if I was an adult in 1974 reading this article I will fully believe the end was right around the corner I mean here they are actually commending people who have sold their houses and are devoting their time to just preaching to people I mean we're selling your home do you understand that you're you are getting rid of your property because you believe the end is so close there's

no need to worry about maintaining a home all I need to do is worry about going on field service and trying to bring more members in before this world ends which is very soon just just hold on to that put a pin in that and then we're gonna move on to the awake 1969 um it's may 22nd page 15 it says if you are a young person you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things why not because all the evidence in fulfillment of Bible prophecy

indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years of the generation that observed the beginning of the last days in 1914 Jesus foretold this generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur therefore as a young person you will never fulfill any career that this system offers if you are in high school in thinking about a college education it means at least four perhaps even six or eight more years to graduate into a specialized career but where will this system of things be by that time it will it

will be well on the way toward us finish if not actually gone the organization they do a lot of speculating and a lot of maybe and evidently and probably but this article date they didn't even do that okay this article I would like look the end is coming so soon we are confident enough to say that if you're a young person you will never get old you will never get old if you're in high school you will never even need to consider an education or career in this system because the end isn't that close I

mean they are saying this with a hundred percent certainty it's not a maybe a probably a could be we speculate that it might be they're saying it with certainty so again imagine being a young adult or young person in 1969 reading this and you believe that all the articles that come out are really you know they're it's coming from Jehovah really not really the governing body there's just the human directed leaders or whatever they call themselves nowadays would you not be thinking the end is coming really soon so again this was in 1969 they said

this and then the other article while the other articles in 1974 so so in the years leading up to 1975 they're really saying like look sell your house don't consider education don't consider college like this this system is on its way out the door like I'm again it's so close there's no we need to even consider any of those things so if you're if you're somehow justifying those two articles are defending those two articles which I really have no idea how you could let's look at this one this is the watchtower 1968 August 15 the

title of this article was literally called why are you looking forward to 1975 if nobody was thinking about 1975 up at to this point they're thinking about it now I mean the title of this article was why are you looking forward to 1975 like I don't know should I be looking forward to 1975 apparently you want me to be thinking about 1975 because you wrote a 37th paragraph article about it I mean clearly you think something is going down in 1975 or you wouldn't have written an article about it I'm not even going to read

all of this but basically they go off on these calculations and these prophecies and I'll have it linked below if you want to take time out of your day to read it basically that the speculation came from this calculation that they did which they thought 1975 was going to mark the end of 6,000 years of human history since Adams creation I mean you know witnesses love their complicated calculations child if you don't know how to get to the gear in 1914 make sure you have your ti-83 graphing calculator and a protractor to deal with that

but again you put 1975 on the brain nobody was thinking about 1975 you guys started putting out these articles oh yeah just look look at this date something significant may happen on this date and don't go to college and sell your house and don't look for a career a watchtower likes to do this thing they like to have it both ways where they want to have enough power to dictate the doctrine and to set the rules but they also want to give themselves enough wiggle room to to back out of something and throw their hands

up if your backfires no you don't get to have it both ways you wanted to talk about 1975 as if there was gonna be a significant date you wanted to commend people publicly for selling their homes you wanted to tell people oh if you're a young person you'll never get old in this system you told people not to bother going to college or getting a career so no you can't just try to back away now and say oh no we didn't we didn't say the end was coming to 1975 we just said it was it

was probably gonna happen no you don't get to do that and I'm gonna show you how they tried to do that because there's a video they released I believe they released it in the 2016 convention a madman 2017 I listed below I'm sorry I've I really can't remember at the moment but they don't actually reference 1975 like they don't actually say the year I believe why they did that is they didn't want people who didn't already know about it to go researching but it was for the people who already had it like some memory of

it so let's just watch that video and then we'll talk about it Peter another test came our way you see back then some were looking to a certain date as signifying the end of this old system of things a few even went so far as selling their homes and quitting their jobs I admit I was ready to see this old system go away too but something just didn't seem right both had meetings and in my personal study I was reminded of what Jesus said nobody knows the day or hour I was dedicated to Jehovah not

a date after that year came and went most of those who had wrong expectations made the needed adjustments and they stayed we didn't run away and we didn't give up we trusted in Jehovah rah do you see how they do do you see how they do some went so far as to sell their homes and quit their jobs you're forgetting the part brother where the watchtower and Bible and tract Society commended those people for selling their homes and quitting their jobs they told young people don't even bother trying to get a job are we are

we forgetting that part you see how they try to make it look like this was something that members just conjured up in their minds you see how as the organization they take no responsibility for leading people to believe the end was coming and I take 75 like you you see that right you see that so as someone who is older now this is how history is being rewritten so now in their mind that was never something that the leadership spoke about that was just something that individual members came up with on their own even though

we still have literature these are articles that are still on the Watchtower online library is just the average witness wouldn't know to go looking for it but we have the proof the proof is in the publications I it's it's just it's fascinating to me I remember when I first watched that video I'm like I saw the articles bro like I saw the articles where y'all said what ya'll said there was even a convention there's an audio there's audio I think it's still floating around on YouTube somewhere of the district overseer giving a talk and a

convention and in the talk you said stay alive till 75 like that was their little phrase they were using stay alive till 75 basically just hold on until 1975 because once 1975 gets here Armageddon is gonna come we're gonna be a paradise everything's gonna be okay so you know they just really distort the information they just start we're really happy I mean that's not even in the distortion they just flat-out lied about what really happened around the 1975 scandal that's a lie it's it's a lie this is what they do and this is the type

of stuff you would not know because again you're not allowed to speak to people who have left so someone who's found this information and less because of it you you can't talk to them you're not allowed to watch a documentary that's talking about Jehovah's Witnesses and their failed prophecies or their child abuse you can't watch that so again how would you know whatever an organization is telling you you should have the ability to go fact check it yourself if they are telling you you know just take what we say is fact don't go look for

yourself if they're trying to decide for you what's true and false without allowing you to look at the evidence that organization has something to hide period so that's all I want to say about information control um stay tuned for the next part of this series where we will discuss the part three of the bite model which is thought control make sure you like comment and subscribe thank you for watching and I will see you in my next video bye