1975 - serves you right. No extra brownie points sycophants

by Spectrum 64 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  siegswife

  How do you and your nephew know that those people were trying to get brownie points?

  Maybe they were people who wanted to do more for the WTS but were held back by the need to be practical and provide for their families. When the WTS said that it looked like the end of the system was imminent, maybe they decided to do what they always wanted to do since they weren't in the dark anymore about how much longer this system would last. They might have been relieved that they were given the green light to stop running in what they viewed as the rat race and concentrate on Kingdom WTS interests instead.

  I think you should have called your nephew on his judgmental attitude. You should ask him why, if he's so capable of discerning motives of and placing blame on people for their actions, he isn't able to place accountability on those who were responsible for creating the situation to begin with.

  Lea
• 

  Spectrum

  Lea,
  
  "I think you should have called your nephew on his judgmental attitude."
  I've answered that earlier by saying that he was judging them be their own standards so it wouldn't havehad any effect.
  
  
  "You should ask him why, if he's so capable of discerning motives of and placing blame on people for their actions, he isn't able to place accountability on those who were responsible for creating the situation to begin with."
  That's a very good point but part of the purpose of this thread is to show that some of those that got caught out by selling up did it with ulterior motives regardless of who instigated it.
• 

  Spectrum

  "Is it possible to be self-interested and also be interested in the welfare of others,"
  Yes you can have interest in yourself your well being and look out for the walfare of others, though far and how deep one can take it before your own welfare is affected i don't know. I don't think altruists should help unappreciative people it's such a waste of kindness and energy that can be put to good use somewhere else.
  
  "or should the world be divided between the completely altruistic and everyone else?"
  You mean all altruists only help each the other? Not really, I think that anyone that can appreciate the help they have received is worth helping.
• 

  siegswife

  Um, yea...I only read the first page.

  I dunno, I still don't see how anyone could get "caught" having ulterior motives. Even if they thought it would give them "brownie points" the fact would remain that they believed there were brownie points to be made because they believed everything that the WTS was telling them.

  In order to think they'd rack up some points they had to believe that the end was going to come soon so selling everything at the end might be worth something. I doubt that people would sell their homes and quit their jobs if they weren't confident that there wasn't any future in it for them. They came to that point because of the WTS' propaganda.

  Even if they did have an agenda, the bottom line is that those people had to be "true believers" of the WTS' crapola.

  Lea
• 

  VM44

  In 1955, The Watcthower published the book, "You Might Survive Armageddon".

  Now what other purpose was there in using that title than to appeal to a person's sense of not wanting to die?

  --VM44
• 

  Spectrum

  VMM,
  It's very powerful stuff, believing that you are never going to die. It took my almost 2 decades to finally accept that one day I'm going to be worm fodder in a cold dank grave.
  That could be the reason that so many of us found it difficult to disassociate our minds from this brainwashing we received.
• 

  JT

  "Spoken like a 17 year old , who has only read about this from the books, and is too young to have known what it was like at the time."

  that was what i thought- as well,

  it reminds me as a 43yr old man listening to Mr Johnson an old white man who lived in town who would come to school and relate to the class what it was like since he as There at pearl harbor when japan hit. we listened with attention but really didn't grasp the sheer terror he must have felt o yea we saw some pictures in the books showing how japan attacked, but it really doesn't sink in

  well i know that in 40yrs from today when folks talk about 9-11 and look at the newsreels they will not grasp what it was like

  i live here in washington dc and i recall that day so clearly, yet in 40yrs it will be a passing thought

  and the same with jw who are today "17" yrs old-- what can one honestly expect for him to say- smile
• 

  DannyHaszard

  Jesus parable on the 'unrighteous steward' admonition to store up treasures in heaven directy said to give money to the his kingdom interest.I would write monthly $1,000.00 checks to the WWF for years instead of putting in a retirement account.

  I did this to win points with God,just as the Luke 15th chapter said to.The error was investing in the Watchtower man-made ripoff racket.-Danny
• 

  DannyHaszard

  checks to the WWF

  World Wide Fund

  Luke 16

  The Parable of the Shrewd Manager

  1 Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'

  3 "The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg— 4 I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'

  5 "So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'

  6 " 'Eight hundred gallons [ a ] of olive oil,' he replied.
  "The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.'

  7 "Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?'
  " 'A thousand bushels [ b ] of wheat,' he replied.
  "He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.'

  8 "The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

  10 "Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?

  13 "No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

  14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.
• 

  Swan

  Unless you lived in that time you may not ever fully appreciate what the attitude of the times were. We were facing impending doom narrowed down to a specific month and year. October 1975, or possibly November 1975 at the latest was given by the WTBTS representatives as the absolute last possible date for the big A. It was stressed that God might not even let it last that long. I was in Kindergarten when my Mom told me 1975 was the year. We knew this about 10 - 12 years prior.

  Other kids my age worried about the atom bomb, especially with an army and air force base in our town. I worried about the ground opening up and swallowing my friends whole. I had nightmares of widespread destruction and pestilence, with flesh rotting off of people like watery Jello. We may have had our own survival in mind when we were out there preaching, but I can say that it was not the highest priority. Under mind control your sense of self preservation is skewed. The vindication of Jehovah's name was a high priority. Also, the survival of the group and the sheep-like ones left to find in "this wicked system of things" was put ahead of thoughts of our own selves.

  If we wanted Brownie points, the time to earn them would be when the final tests began. Only those who remained faithful under torture would get the Brownie points no matter how much they pioneered. With descriptions of sheer brutality suffered by brothers under ban, such as of brothers King and Jones in prisons in China, deeply embedded in my young mind, I never thought of the preaching activity as a way to earn favor from God. I always knew my salvation would hinge on whether I could be true to Jehovah when the government put my parents in prison and gave me to some foster family. I imagined painful tortures with whips and sticks, and focused on memorizing whole chapters of the Bible word for word to help me endure.

  I think it is very telling what this young 17 year old said. It shows how much the times have changed. If this attitude is prevalent among a lot of young JWs, no longer is the sanctification of Jehovah's name, aiding your brothers and sisters to endure, and the salvation of strangers the focus. Now the focus seems to be about whether your preaching will be seen favorably by Jehovah or not. He might even secretly worry a lot about this.

  Tammy