Jehovah's Witnesses: Is a ';Wrong'; Prophet better than a ';false'; prophet?

The prophet Nathan gave ';wrong'; information to King David and had to go back and correct what he said when Jehovah God told him that what he stated was incorrect.





Nathan remained a prophet in good standing even after making this incorrect statement.





Account in 2nd Samuel chapter 7.





EDIT:


Please read the account. Nathan originally TOLD David that he WOULD build the temple. Jehovah then told Nathan that was not correct, but that because David was a man of war, he WOULD NOT build the temple. So Nathan had to GO BACK and TELL David that he was incorrect and that David would not be privileged to build the temple.





MY POINT STANDS.Jehovah's Witnesses: Is a ';Wrong'; Prophet better than a ';false'; prophet?
Greetings,





This question is based on a false assumption. Therefore it is invalid and dishonest; like asking someone “Have you stopped beating your wife.” It presumes that Jehovah's Witnesses have claimed to be inspired prophets or have tried to foretell the future. This is absolutely false and a misrepresentation. Those making these accusations cannot defend their theology from the Scriptures so they have to distract by presenting slanted, incomplete and outright false accusations of what Witnesses teach!





The flat-out truth is that the Watchtower Society has NEVER claimed to be inspired, infallible, or to be foretelling the future as Prophets. These accusers try to deceive others by blatantly ripping the Watchtower's words out of context.





Notice this sentence in the ';Purpose'; statement that appeared in EVERY issue of the Watchtower up to the mid- 70's including the 1972 edition cited in this question: ';No, The Watchtower is no inspired prophet, but it follows and explains a Book of prophecy...';





';The Watchtower does not claim to be inspired in its utterances, nor is it dogmatic. It invites careful and critical examination of its contents in the light of the Scriptures. Its purpose is to aid others to know Jehovah and his purposes toward mankind, and to announce Christ's established kingdom as our only hope.';--Watchtower Aug. 1950





';It is not our intention to enter upon the role of prophet to any degree, but merely to give below what seems to us rather likely to be the trend of events—giving also the reasons for our expectations.'; --Watch Tower, Mar. 1904.





';Since today we have the complete inspired Scriptures, God is not giving any more inspired visions or dreams. However, Jehovah's people today are seeing the fulfillment of many of the inspired visions and dreams that God's servants had in ancient times...Not that these prophesy in the sense of foretelling events under inspiration, but rather in that they are making public proclamation of the inspired dreams and visions long ago recorded.';--Watchtower, 1 Jan. 1971.





There are scores of similar Watchtower quotes that go back to the 1800's.





Rather than claiming to foretell the future or be infallible, Witnesses have always been willing to change as they gained knowledge. What a contrast to religions that insist on believing pagan mythology like the Trinity.





All true Christians can be called “prophets” in the basic Scriptural meaning. Most Bible Dictionaries will tell you that the term prophet did not necessarily include predictions:





';’Prophet’ is used of one who announces the will or celebrates the works of God..and is applied to patriarchs, orators, singers, songstresses, priests, and preachers.';--Hints and helps to Biblical Interpretation--Bible Idioms





';The basic meaning of prophet is ';to speak forth,'; and foretelling is but *one aspect* of forthtelling. A large part of the prophetic writings in the Bible deals not with prediction of things to come but with God's judgment on the behavior of his people...Some idea of the meaning of prophet may be gained from the fact that in the Hebrew canon, the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings are called ';the Former Prophets,'; and these books are almost devoid of predictive prophecy.';--Baker's Dictionary of Practical Theology





(Even without being directed at JWs, this question is a logically fallacious since it demands an ignorance of the basic meaning of the word prophet in the Bible.)





Jehovah's Witnesses carry out the ';Great Commission'; given by Jesus to all Christians (Mt.28:19,20). So they only claim to pass on the words of God and Christ as found in the Inspired Scriptures.





No JW has ever claimed to be inspired or to have received a dream or vision from God. But I can show you several well known Evangelical Trinitarian ministers who have claimed exactly that (usually when they need more money, or to claim God has forgiven them for moral sins).





The ';Father of Protestantism'; himself, Martin Luther taught Christ would return by 1564. Does that mean that all Protestants are false prophets? No, of course not. But they are if we equally apply the reasoning of those who accuse JW's.





Irish Bishop James Ussher's prediction was for 1996. Puritans Issac Watts, Joseph Mede and the Mathers in America were date-setters. The most famous one was actually a Baptist....William Miller who predicted 1843.





Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel predicted the Rapture in 1981.


Hal Lindsey, predicted the Rapture would occur in 1988.


Dr. Jack van Impe has speculated that the end will come between Sept 1999 and 2000.


Philip B. Brown has stated that the millennial reign of Christ will begin Apr 6, 2008.


Dr. Harold Camping, expected the end of the world in 1994.





Now, did early JW's (Bible Students) have incorrect understandings of Bible prophesy? Yes, of course, as did nearly every other religion of that age. I can give you quotes from well known Protestant clergymen from 1823-1870 who pointed to some of the same dates that Bible Students did. You can trace almost every religion's roots back to some of these clergymen! Now just because they were wrong in their timing, does it *prove* that their current doctrine is wrong? No. Only the Bible proves doctrine right or wrong. Does it mean they were false prophets? No, just honestly mistaken. Virtually every religion was influenced by the ';Advent Movement'; of the time, and thus had incorrect expectations!! Since these ';false prophet accusations do not take this into consideration, they are faulty and prejudicial reasoning.





Also, it wasn't too long ago that Protestants and Catholics taught that black people were cursed, that hell was literally in the center of the earth. And most religions joined in stating that the League of Nations was ';The manifestation of God's Kingdom on earth'; in the 1930's (it died a failure). Most have admitted such past beliefs were false.





Now is it fair of me to go back fifty to a hundred years to your religions roots and point out everything that was wrong, especially if it has corrected it's understandings? No, although a effective debate tactic, it would be unreasonable and a logical fallacy.





I could go on and on, but again, this serves no purpose toward identifying the true beliefs of genuine Christianity, since Christ did not say ';you would know my disciples because they would never be mistaken.';





Any logic that says ';they were wrong so that makes them false prophets'; would make the Apostles ';false prophets.'; Because even the apostles had incorrect understandings of end-times and had to be corrected. Their writings were misunderstood and misinterpreted several times by fellow Christians. Were these condemned as false prophets? Only by their enemies (Acts28:22). They were humble enough to correct themselves, just as JW's have.








Jesus didn't say you would identify the true religion because they never misunderstood prophesy (indeed that would exclude the apostles). He said that you would discern the true Christian Organization from the false ';by their fruits,'; or the results of their Biblical teaching (Mat.7:16,20).





Well, what are the fruits of other religions? Do they even agree on abortion, homosexuality, special gifts, or baptism? (1Cor.1:10). Do their fellow believers shoot and kill each other at the command of Governments. Ninty-nine percent do. Is this the fruitage of *true* Christianity? Would Christ or the apostles do this? My religion imitates Christ, and this proves that they are True Christians! Does your's? WWJD?





When you consider the Witnesses ';stability'; in the essentials of Christian teaching and activity you get very solid evidences of True Christianity. From WW1 to Rwanda, Witnesses have imitated Christ while ALL other religions even kill members of their own church. JW's have continued to bring their beliefs into agreement with Scripture. When they were wrong about interpretations of prophecy, they were more than eager to admit it and change. This is in contrast to most other religions. For instance it took hundreds of years for the Pope to admit Catholicism was wrong about Galileo! Protestants are just now (barely) admitting error in their support of Hitler.








Hope this corrects,





Ron RhoadesJehovah's Witnesses: Is a ';Wrong'; Prophet better than a ';false'; prophet?
One said Nathan was 'wrong', yet the further revelation clarifies that The Temple was not to be built by David for he was a warrior who killed people. This is known as a man of blood.
Your asking them, why, exactly?





Oh yeah, never mind.
they wont say yes but there are no modern prophets...Jesus didnt die for nothing....