Jehovah's Witnesses and Jimmy Swaggart

Posted by Joey on December 27, 1999 at 20:47:58

1. When I first saw those documents almost 2 years ago, I thought they were fake, put up on the Internet by "apostates" pulling a hoax and trying to mislead Jehovah's Witnesses. I knew that Jehovah's "clean people" would not have anything to do with false religion... on any level. The apostle Paul's council at 2 Corinthians 6:14, 15 rang clearly in my mind, which reads:

Do not become unevenly yoked with unbelievers. For what fellowship do righteousness and lawlessness have? Or what sharing does light have with darkness? Further, what harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what portion does a faithful person have with an unbeliever?

2. In February of 1990, the Watchtower Society wrote letters to all the congregations in the United States which were read at the Sunday meeting. It stated that literature will no longer be sold at the Kingdom Hall. Also, no price will be set in the door-to-door preaching work. This new policy was to go into effect on 3/1/90 (see the KM 5/90, page 7).

The friends are given the impression that this arrangement is because of a new "simplified" distribution (see the KM 3/91, "Our Simplified Literature Distribution Arrangement", page 3). They are also given the impression that this new arrangement is worldwide (not just the U.S. and Canada as it currently is). Paragraph 9 on page 8 of the 5/90 KM under the article titled "Use our Literature Wisely" states:

"This adjustment in our method of work provides further evidence that "we are not peddler's of the word of god." (2 Cor. 2:17) It also proves we are separate from the world. John 17:14"

From this statement one would logically conclude that not only are Witnesses in the United States "not peddler's of the word of god", but the entire worldwide organization, therefore this new arrangement would have to be worldwide.

The friends are never told the real reason for the new arrangement: that being the loss of the Jimmy Swaggart case. This has been a closely guarded secret for many years. In fact it appears the current donation arrangement is nothing more than a tax "loophole", designed to get around "paying Caesar's things to Caesar".

3. In fact, when Jesus was questioned whether it was lawful to pay taxes, he answered in Mark 12:15-17:

"Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?" Detecting their hypocrisy, he said to them: "Why do you put me to the test? Bring me a denarius to look at." They brought one. And he said to them: "Whose image and inscription is this?" They said to him: "Caesar's." Jesus then said: "Pay back Caesar's things to Caesar, but God's things to God." And they began to marvel at him.

Note the council given by the 11/15/94 Watchtower on page 26:

They knew that whether the taxes were reasonable or not, and regardless of how the government might spend this money, they had to pay whatever tax they owed. The same principle applies to Christians today.

On page 28 of that same article, it goes on to say:

Jesus Christ himself set the example in this regard. His disciple Peter was asked if Jesus paid the temple tax, since the temple was his Father's house and no king imposes a tax on his own son. Jesus said as much; yet he paid that tax. In fact, he even used a miracle to produce the needed money! Why pay a tax from which he was properly exempt? As Jesus himself said, it was "that we do not cause them to stumble."

And yes, this information about Jimmy Swaggart has stumbled many. It is a closely guarded secret.

I had gone to my local elders about this matter, and as a result, was disfellowshipped and commanded not to talk to others about the Jimmy Swaggart case or any of the other matters I brought up that I learned on the Internet.

The elders in my hall truly hate the Internet.

So to summarize.

The Watchtower was dishonest in keeping this important court case a secret from Jehovah's Witnesses.
The Watchtower was dishonest in their explanation for the "complete donation arrangement".
The Watchtower was dishonest by not apply Jesus words to "pay Caesars things to Caesar", and instead sought a tax loophole... which wound up stumbling many.
The Watchtower was dishonest in aligning itself with false religion and went against the scriptures to stay away from false religion.

And most important of all, they LOST the case. That says it all.

As I later found out, the Jimmy Swaggart case is just one of many things the Watchtower Organization doesn't want its followers to find out about.