I seem to remember some talk that the paradise turned out to be an invisible spiritual one instead of a literal earthly one with the lions with beach balls one. Anybody have any articles on that?
Why do dubs act as if 1975 wasn't failed prophesy or misleading?
by NotaNess 64 Replies latest jw experiences
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garybuss
Kingdom Ministry, May 1996 p. 1 par. 9
We Never Had It So Good Spiritually!
"9 We have every reason to be the happiest people on earth. (Ps. 144:15b) May our attitude, conduct, and service reflect the joy we feel in our spiritual paradise. We never had it so good!" -
Arthur
Here are some sound bites from Charles Sinutko made prior to 1975 and its certainty.
His "Stay Alive Til' 75" sloganeering didn't seem to discredit him or the organization in the eyes of most dubs. He was our District Overseer when I was a small child. I remember that he was practically worshipped by the friends - despite the fact that he had so eloquently acquired foot breathe.
But then again, Rutheford himself admitted to "making an ass" of himself. I guess this makes it all okay. I guess admitting after the fact that your prediction didn't come true is all that is required to make the doctrinal boo-boo feel better to the rank and file.
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Mary
From the evidence I have found, it was all but etched in stone. So why try and defend the WTS by saying "they never stated Armageddon would be in 1975", as one witness tried to throw back at me.
Typical of cult mentality: Since the guys at the top screwed up royally, but refuse to accept responsibility, they do the only thing left: deny they ever said it and convince the R&F that it was their fault for "reading too much" into what was being said. Since the emphasis of this religion has always been to accept anything coming out of Brooklyn Bethel the same as from the throne of God, most accepted this insane explanation as they've been trained to do. I can remember everyone in my old Hall talking about it---there was only one brother I remember who openly stated that we shouldn't be speculating about 1975 because Jesus said no one knew the day or hour. This brother was virtually shunned for his 'lack of faith'.
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choosing life
The first thing I ever heard about JWs was that they believed that the world was going to end in the fall of 1975. My husband was interested in them and I asked a friend who had relatives that were JWs what they believed and that is all she told me about them. This was in the spring of 1975. I told her they had to be crazy.
When I asked the JWs about it, at the time they totally denied it. They said she was mistaken. I believed them and started studying with them. They dangled the carrot and we started chasing after it.
When they changed the generation teaching, it was even a bigger deal to me. Now when I look at the truth book that I originally studied, I realize that it is no longer even the same religion. So many of the teachings in there would be considered apostate now. The carrot is still out there dangling, though. When you wake up and realize it is all a farce or just get too old and worn out to chase the carrot anymore, you become the bad person.
There is a reason that the JWs look and act in robotic fasion. They have to be careful not to let their minds connect the dots because it has become their whole world. It is rather like pulling the ground out from under you when you allow yourself to see through the deception. That is why people need support for a long time after they leave cause they sure ain't gonna make it easy.
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Mad
Simple!Those STUPID enough to put faith in the speculation of one of our writers left! Those (like me) who knew better- just ignored it, trying to help the non-thinkers see it as Speculation, rather than a Divine Revelation.
No excuse- just fact. Now there are probably others giving excuses- but it was simply the imagination of one of our writers!
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choosing life
MAD
Was the change in the generation of 1914 that saw the beginning of the sign of the end that would not pass away until all things occurred just one writers mistake too? That generation is just about gone and coincidentally they had to change that teaching also. It's called saving face. I would much rather they just say that they made a mistake. Never could stand someone that can't admit to making a mistake.
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NotaNess
MAD, I got a real problem with that reasoning, as will others.
That's like saying the editor and complete staff of Time magazine, didn't know that one of their writers was publishing articles on how "child molestation is a positive thing", in the magazine for a few years.........Editor gives the excuse....."well we didn't know our writer was writing that", then claiming it was the writer's stupid fault.
RIGHT! That ship will never float.
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Who are you?
Simple!Those STUPID enough to put faith in the speculation of one of our writers left! Those (like me) who knew better- just ignored it, trying to help the non-thinkers see it as Speculation, rather than a Divine Revelation.
No excuse- just fact. Now there are probably others giving excuses- but it was simply the imagination of one of our writers!
MAD...you are a liar! I know what this statement implies. I say it in all sincerity and am willing to except the consequences of posting this. You are a bold faced "Theocratic Warfare" liar. You know it is a lie, yet you repeat it. I was around in 1975 and watched as my brother and sister joined the cult and heard and read all the hoopla to do with it. I was never a JW. I don't have to lie. In order for you to have become a JW around 1972, you would have known the same things that I as a non-JW even knew to be true...through the writings and through the mouths of the JW's. You are a liar. You belong to a cult of false prophets. Even my mother in law, in all of her pomposity from being a lifelong JW, will scold elders who try and perpetrate this lie to younger JW's. She calls them out and they shut there mouth.
What is one of the ten commandments? Thou shalt not lie....or did the NWT change that to, Thou shalt not lie, except when it gets the WTS out of one of the 10,000 lies that they tell each year. The WTS is the most pathetic excuse of liars that has come along. They should change their name to Jehovah's Liars. Then at least they would be telling the "truth" about something!
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ANewLeif
Mad,
You wrote, "Now there are probably others giving excuses- but it was simply the imagination of one of our writers!"
When an organization promotes itself as God's sole channel of communication and promotes its magazines as the primary vehicle for distributing communication through that channel, that organization had better fully accept the weighty responsibility it takes on itself. I can quote you dozens of articles that say that all Jehovah's Witnesses should eagerly heed the leadings of God through His organization. In other words, they put faith in the imagination of one of the writers because they were told to do so.
You cannot excuse the organization on the basis you are using without calling sharply into question if it is God's channel of communication. If it is, then God is apparently incapable of making or unwilling to make sure the message is conveyed properly. If it isn't, as I suspect, then those charlatans have much to answer for.
ANL