E-Watchman's take on the Special Talk - interesting

by truthseeker 15 Replies latest jw friends

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  truthseeker

  Nice write-up

  http://www.e-watchman.com/commentaries/2007-special-talk-commentary.html

  2007 SPECIAL TALK: "You Can Feel Safe In This Troubled World" A Commentary
  		Feature Graphics
  		On Sunday, April 15th, all of the nearly 100,000 congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses around the world heard the Watchtower’s annual special talk entitled: “You Can Feel Safe in This Troubled World.” Frankly, though, there was nothing special about this year’s so-called special talk. For those who missed it, it was a rehash of the Society’s worn out 1914 sermonizing. The talk followed Bethel’s formulaic outline; whereby, the speaker starts off by relating how horrible the world is now and how everything changed for the worse back in 1914. Basically, it was the same talk that has been given over and over and over again for the past 60 years. According to the formula, the speaker first goes into how terrible things are presently. No doubt the speaker is instructed by the outline to list a number of current events tragedies – both internationally and locally – and then the speaker goes into how many millions of people have been killed in wars since 1914; how many millions died from the Spanish Flu back in 1918; the millions of people who are presently perishing from starvation, and how terrorism is now menacing the world. (Supposedly HIV and cancer are also the fulfillment of the foretold pestilence that is to stalk the earth during the conclusion. Although the speaker did concede that an Avian Flu pandemic has the potential to far surpass the lethality of the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918, glaring in its omission from the special talk was any mention of the fact that the world is unrelentingly lurching towards nuclear war and global financial collapse.) The outline apparently even cited the German statesman Konrad Adenauer from back in the 1960’s, when he said that peace and quiet had vanished from the world in 1914. Of course, from the perspective of an observer in Germany in the post WWII period, during the height of the Cold War, such a view of the importance of year 1914 is perfectly understandable. After all, Germany was not only the epicenter of both world wars, but it was also torn asunder by the Iron Curtain. Embarrassingly for them, though, the Society has been periodically quoting Adenauer for nearly half a century now. Meanwhile, Adenauer and the entire 1914 generation have quietly passed away; Germany has long since arisen from the ashes of war to once again become an industrial powerhouse among the nations, and the world has entered into a period of unprecedented affluence and excess. Certainly no modern statesmen are still bemoaning the fateful year of 1914. Most assuredly the world’s million-plus millionaires and growing number of billionaires do not share the view that the world has become worse and worse since the fateful year of 1914. Predictably, the special talk outline went on to assure Jehovah’s Witnesses that the only way they can hope to find safety in this troubled world is within the confines of the Watchtower Society’s “spiritual paradise,” which the speaker asserted came into existence in 1919. The Society went on to unblushingly claim that the congregations were composed entirely of morally pure people. (See commentary: What is Spiritual Paradise?) I cannot say whether or not the outline made the comparison or if the local elder where I attended merely inserted it himself, but the speaker related an illustration, asking the audience which ship they would choose to board if they had to make a choice. He then went on to describe a luxury sailing vessel, which turned out to be the Titanic; while the other vessel having no amenities was Noah’s Ark. Interestingly, the speaker seemed to go out of his way to avoid using the term “Jehovah’s organization” — perhaps upon instructions from the Society – nevertheless, it was claimed that the modern anti-type of Noah’s Ark is the Society’s “spiritual paradise.” From my perspective the theme of this year’s special talk is an indirect public response to the work I have done in the past few years of calling the Watchtower to account as regards the falsity of 1914, spiritual paradise and other related teachings. Besides presenting these issues on the World Wide Web, I have also personally mailed dozens of copies of the book Jehovah Himself Has Become King to numerous branch offices of the Watchtower as well as to specific individuals and departments at the Brooklyn headquarters, Patterson and Wallkill, in New York, thereby injecting the issue of Jehovah future judgment into the inner circle of the Society. To what extent these matters have been discussed among the leadership is unknown, but it is not likely that the brothers are unaware of my work. (See open letter The Wall Must Fall Also: Woe to the Stupid Prophets) This year’s special talk has made it abundantly clear that the leadership of the Watchtower Society is spiritually moribund. They are determined to cling to their delusions no matter the cost to their own credibility. The special talk amounted to splashing another coat of whitewash on their organizational wall, and thereby ensuring that its inevitable crash will be all the greater when Jehovah unleashes his “flooding downpour” and “blast of windstorms” against it. “Say to those plastering with whitewash that it will fall. A flooding downpour will certainly occur, and you, O hailstones, will fall, and a blast of windstorms itself will cause a splitting. And, look! the wall must fall. Will it not be said to you men, ‘Where is the coating with which you did the plastering?’ Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord Jehovah has said, ‘I will also cause a blast of windstorms to burst forth in my rage, and in my anger there will occur a flooding downpour, and in rage there will be hailstones for an extermination. And I will tear down the wall that you men have plastered with whitewash and bring it into contact with the earth, and its foundation must be exposed. And she will certainly fall, and you must come to an end in the midst of her; and you will have to know that I am Jehovah. And I will bring my rage to its finish upon the wall and upon those plastering it with whitewash, and I shall say to you men: ‘The wall is no more, and those plastering it are no more, the prophets of Israel that are prophesying to Jerusalem and that are visioning for her a vision of peace, when there is no peace,’ is the utterance of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.” – Ezekiel 13:11-16
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  heathen

  Yep, the world has always been on the brink of destruction . Today science has even used radio telescopes to look into space and find new threats to humanity . We are doomed one way or the other and it's quite apparent . The only hope we do have as a species is that there is a God that cares. The WTBTS has been using "the end is at hand" type propaganda for over a hundred years , like every little thing that happens around here is a sure sign that they are right . Just glad I didn't have to sit thru all their hype for the past 100yrs .
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  Blueblades

  Both The Watchtower and E - Watchman are banking on The Bible being The Word of God. Quoting a book that has been misquoted and changed by scribes and scholars and translators down through the years has a had a great impact on all who read it today. What is one to believe? Each has shaped The Bible to fit their own belief system and confusion reigns.

  Blueblades
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  OUTLAW

  So the special talk was an indirect response from the WBT$ to E-WatchMan..LOL!!..YouKnow/BobKing/E-WatchMan is as crazy as ever..He was in good standing with the WBT$ before I left the board....Does anyone know if he has been disfellowshipped?...OUTLAW
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  95stormfront

  Outlaw.....yeah.....it does appear that both the WT and E-Watchmans ego would have quite a time co-existing in the same room. They're both as laughable as ever.
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  BluesBrother

  Frankly, though, there was nothing special about this year’s so-called special talk. For those who missed it, it was a rehash of the Society’s worn out 1914 sermonizing.

  Well, Is that a surprise?? - interesting that they are still not shy of talking about 1914 , evidently it is not being phased out .. The speaker should not have inserted any new material. this is a talk that is supposed to be uniform worldwide. Do you remember when they used to be manuscript? They were excruciatingly bad to sit through.

  NB this does sound very dated, even by their low standards..
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  moshe

  Mr King is just as stupid as the Organization that spawned him. Jehovah doesn't care what the old geezers in Brooklyn do or what he says about it, either.
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  OUTLAW

  Moshe..I got a funny story for you..This is when the board was young..The subject was demons..YouKnow believed in demons..Why???..Because..They sat on his shoulder and talked to him when he was all whooped up on LSD..LOL!!...OUTLAW
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  moshe

  You know Outlaw, I am begining to feel "old" after only two years here!- Demons on the shoulder?- and no creepy bugs and snakes crawling on his skin, too?
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  M.J.

  According to the WTS every cause of death increased in the 20th century. The most devastating time period in the history of mankind.

  The numbers say otherwise: