by ballistic 6 Replies latest jw friends
How is the Watchtower organisation going to let it's members down or is it going to keep stringing them along ad-infinitum.
I ask because even though they've had their fingers burnt by quoting dates, they still continually insist it's close and we're in the "last DAYS".
I was thinking in the thread about kids leaving that perhaps the membership rotates to such an extent that they can keep pulling the wool over their sheep's eyes.
I was too far out... and not waving but drowning - Stevie Smith
G'day ballistic. Nice to make your acquaintance.
I was thinking in the thread about kids leaving that perhaps the membership rotates to such an extent that they can keep pulling the wool over their sheep's eyes.
I think this is an important factor in the borg's survival.
When I was growing up 'in the truth' I knew nothing of the previous prophetic dates esp. 1925. Now my own children who've also been raised as JWs have little recognition of 1975. In turn their children have no knowledge or personal recognition of the geeration change. And so it goes on.
In time the 'generation' change will have passed into dim memories and it will be almost apostasy to speak of a literal generation.
Mark my words, we'll see!
Cheers,
Ozzie
"Evil is the absence of empathy"
Movie (2000), Nuremberg
Doomsayers have existed since the dawn of time and they have always been able to attract followers.
I see no change in human nature that would make me think that doomsayers will disappear anytime soon.
Jehovah's Witnesses are just a subset of the doomsayer mentality.
It soothes the nerves of a certain segment of humanity to believe that God will change reality into a perfect pretty place for them to live. Reality is ugly, so its not surprising that people like to hear that reality will be fixed for them.
hugs
Joel
I agree that the doomsayer mindset still has a fair bit of potential.
However, for the last five years, the org has had no immediate
target date - not even a hazy one. Undoubtedly, this has hurt
their ability to excite people into a state of urgency.
Their other big problem is the chronology. It is stale. The 1914/1918
crap is getting very, very, old.
My wife's grandmother died a few weeks ago, mainly of old age. She
was born in 1916. We have no more remaining grandparents. I feel
that 1914 is getting very distant. I can just imagine how far
off that date is for young persons. It must seem ancient.
How long can they say that we are in the "time of the end"? And, if
Jesus' reign began almost 100 years ago, does that mean that the
coming millenium is down to only 900 years?
At some point, their entire chronology system will become untenable.
I'm sure most wonder about this when leaving, as exiting members have been doing for the past 100-plus years. The Tower doesn't seen concerned about letting members down, but has fine tuned the process of blaming followers foolish enough to believe them. Yes, there is the revolving door of new in & old out, but most former JWs have a 20 year history before calling it quits. Therefore a short memory is helpful for most JWs until the mind-garbage overflows, and denial ceases to work. Don't worry about the Tower's concern of letting members down--concern requires a conscience.
If you closely study the Borg's membership statistics, it becomes very apparent that while lots of folks (usually family members of current Borgites) are coming in the front door, a similar number is going out the back door. If all who have left or been thrown out since the fifties were still in, the Borg's Org. would be very large indeed. So there is a lot of validity in the observation that there is enough fresh meat coming in to keep the Borg busy jumping up and down screaming "LAST DAYS" until the cows come home.
Keep in mind, too, that the definition of what a "member" or "publisher" is has changed quite a bit over the decades as well. Used to be they only counted adults. Then that changed over the years to include little kids who could hold up two magazines for the householder. I predict soon they will be counting as "members" the blastocysts of pregnant JWs. Don't laugh. Stranger things have happened.
Francois
Well said Java.
And Francoise, that's brilliant. Blastocysts do speak loudly of Jehovahs marvelous creation, do they not? Why from infancy the Lord has looked upon our witnessing activity, yes a heavenly time slip has been kept since the day our mothers' very inward parts were uhmm...molested!.
I see a kingdom song in there somewhere!
