Translated from the original by Chris Tsilikas
As it is known proverbs are the quintessence of the wisdom of peoples. In a simple sentence the wise nation manages to tell you everything, all the essential things that otherwise would probably need whole pages to be expressed.
Well one of the most famous wise proverbs of our nation is the one saying “There’s no smoke without fire”, which denotes that rumors heard about something or someone might probably have some standing in reality.
It is true that we have heard various rumours about the bad behavior Jehovah’s Witnesses have on our images due to their hatred against them. But, to be honest, we didn’t want to adopt and believe these rumours even though they came right from the mouth of close friends who would never have lied. And we didn’t want to believe them because we thought that although Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe in the honour of the images and actually hate them, it would be far-fetched to believe that they maltreat an object of worship for another person, moreover a religious symbol.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are familiar with the rumours that have been spread about their bad conduct on images, so they have had their chances to try to be transformed from victimizers to victims, as they know that it is impossible for us to prove anything on that, since the accusations are based on personal witnesses and we have no proof whatsoever.
So, we were not surprised when a lady who lives in Germany
Of course they have no images to stamp on, BECAUSE THEY HAVE SIMPLY BURNT THEM ALL!!!!
We are fully aware of the significance of this statement and we still make it. And it is the Society of Jehovah’s Witnesses “Watchtower” who gave us the right to make that statement; we don’t make up stories to accuse them. It was just beyond our comprehension when we read in the Society’s leaflet that Jehovah’s Witnesses burnt religious images!!!
But as the proverb says “The ass that brays most eats least”. So, we don’t want to waste time with words and we go on with the proof for our claims.
In the official magazine of the Society of Jehovah’s Witnesses “Watchtower” of July 1st 1974, pages 395 – 396 we find an article entitled “How the use of images can affect you”. We all understand that the article deals with the honours and reverence we pay to icons and images, which to the eyes of the “Watchtower” is considered to be idolatry. We suggest you read our earlier post on the issue of images “Worship of images – is it idolatry or not?”
On page 396 the “Watchtower” becomes more specific and claims that the honours we pay to images is offered to demons and not to God! And it also claims that if we keep religious images in our houses, it is possible that demons visit us and disturb us!!!
It also refers to an incident with a lady in North America . That lady was sick during summer without any obvious cause for her disease. Indeed, one night a demon visited her in the form of a young child who wandered around her room and even sat by her side on the bed!!!
She narrated all these to her daughter and her son-in-law who searched the whole house to find the cause for these things. And….My! What did they find? Two religious images that her mother had kept!! They immediately decided TO BURN THE IMAGES!!!! And they did indeed, they burnt them, and not only the demons stopped coming but also their mother was up and about again.
We quote this terrible document of the burning of the images right away not only for the Orthodox Christians to read, but for Jehovah’s Witnesses as well, who might say that we are slanders:
How the Use of Images Can Affect You
The apostle Paul pointed to another harmful effect of image worship. He said that the relative worship offered to images actually goes “to demons and not to God.” (1 Cor. 10:20, NAB) At times, possessing religious pictures, images or fetishes can even invite harassment from the invisible realm. A woman in North America reports concerning her mother: “She had been ill almost all summer. When my husband and I visited her home she told me that on the previous night she had seen a soft light floating around her room. Then the bed covers were pulled off of her and it felt as if a child had crawled into bed next to her. She was a nervous wreck.” What caused these unusual circumstances?
Her daughter searched the house and found two religious pictures. Could these have something to do with her mother’s difficulties? Realizing that the Bible associates image worship with demonism, they decided to burn the pictures to see what would happen. The daughter continues: “How happy we were to see my mother out of bed the very next day, and feeling better than she had all summer!” Many have had similar experiences.
Magazine of Jehovah’s Witnesses “Watchtower” of July 1st 1974, page 396: Jehovah’s Witnesses burn images to stop demons from coming!!!!
The Orthodox faithful should also take into consideration the following conclusion: the fact that the text does not talk of images in general but of RELIGIOUS IMAGES. And we point this out because we know that Jehovah’s Witnesses may start their typical tactics of refutation and try to convince us that although the “Watchtower” talks about images it doesn’t mean the ones we use and so on, so forth. And anyway the whole article deals with image reverence.
It’s also worth pointing out that the burning of the images by the couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which is praised by the “Watchtower” as the action that threw demons away, is not an isolated incident since at the end it notes that many Jehovah’s Witnesses have had similar experiences.
So, how can Jehovah’s Witnesses find images to stamp on since they have burnt them all to throw demons away!
Well, what about you dear faithful? Why do you sit around without doing anything? Why don’t you burn the images you have? Do you like the acquaintance of demons?
But to get serious now, religious images convey a lot of concepts, but demons. And we don’t need to make any profound theological analysis to prove this, just because it is more than obvious that the incident which caused the burning of the images is contrived, and it only offers them an excuse for burning them all. And this is due to the fact that this text has a lot of contradictions. Do you wonder how we know it? From our dearest “Watchtower”, of course. Has it ever left us complaining?
In the “Watchtower” of March 1st 1961, on page 160 there is a question a reader asks, “In what form did Satan come to tempt Jesus? Did he appear in the form of a man, or was it only a voice that Jesus heard?”
And the ‘Watchtower answers that Satan and demons cannot materialise into flesh any more, after the Flood. Here’s the relevant document:
Questions From Readers
In what form or manner did Satan come to tempt Jesus? Did he appear in the form of a man, or was it only a voice that Jesus heard? Also, how is it that Jesus would allow Satan to take him along out of the wilderness and, in fact, right through the city to and on top of the temple? Was Jesus taken bodily to the top of the temple?—D. A., Sierra Leone
At Jude 6 we read regarding the angels that “forsook their own proper dwelling-place” that God “has reserved [them] with eternal bonds under dense darkness for the judgment of the great day.” The Watchtower, October 1, 1955, pages 594, 595, after showing that this darkness is a spiritual and not a literal one, goes on to say: “Their being ‘reserved with eternal bonds’ evidently means also that they are no more permitted to materialize in the flesh as before the Flood. This power of materialization was exercised by God’s faithful angels, including Jesus Christ, for thousands of years after the Flood, down into the day of Christ’s faithful apostles, according to God’s will and to serve his holy purposes. But the sinner angels were not allowed to use this power longer, for they would misuse it.” In view of this we must conclude that Satan the Devil also was prohibited from materializing in order to tempt Jesus.
Magazine of Jehovah’s Witnesses “Watchtower” of March 1st 1961, page 160: Satan and the demons cannot materialise in flesh any more, after the Flood!!!
Consequently, how could the lady in the incident described above realise that the demon who crawled on her bed was a child? Did she visit a medium to find out?
Apparently, as we said, all these are contrived by the “Watchtower” so that Jehovah’s Witnesses can burn the images, since their Society has given them its approval and the green light to do it.
As for the ones who serve the demons we would like to remind Jehovah’s Witnesses of another proverb, and we also advise them to “let sleeping dogs lie”. Does it believe we have forgotten that it had knowingly been using the demonic translation of the Bible by Johannes Greber for years?
So, the Watchtower had better try to throw the demons out of its own ‘house’ and then deal with other houses.
Well, now you know what Society the people who knock on your door or stop you in the street to sell you their leaflets and publications belong to.
Writer Christos Pal
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