So, I was at the local mall today and ran into a JW friend that I had grown up with and attended school with. Hadn't seen him in 6 months or so. He didn't see me, so I had to approach him.
The conversation started out as usual, with his condescending b*tch of a wife not even saying word one to me. She's the daughter of a CO, and of course she's better than everyone else. She walked away, and we started to talk about life in general, how his parents are doing, etc. He asked me first how things were going, and I replied, "Just Great! How about you?" Then I get the whole pathetic run-down about tight they are, how he works some route delivering crap, long hours, etc. His pampered wife? Works at cleaning houses of course!! Of course, neither one got an education, my wife and I both have degrees.
So, about 20 minutes into it and about the economy, he lays this one on me, and I saw the set up coming, "Well you know, there was a 1981 Watchtower that PROPHESIED these very hard economic times today!" I actually laughed at him and stated, "You've got to be kidding me, right? This isn't a depression yet; my grandmother lived through the Great Depression - those were hard times, this is merely an economic adjustment. You want to read some old Watchtowers? Go check out the 1984 Bound Volumes, they're priceless!!!" Right then, his wife came back and they had to leave. Man, that saddened me. I was ready to let him have it. You know why? I wanted to tell him that the WT didn't predict the hard economic times, the BIBLE DID. You all remember the scripture telling of the signs of the End Times, hard times hard to deal with, people having no natural affection, men being lovers of money instead of lovers of God, nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom. You all remember this. The Watchtower didn't print in some 1981 article that in October of 2008, Wall Street would be crashing. Know why? Because in 1981 NO ONE at Brooklyn Headquarters or any other JW would EVER have believed that we all would still be standing here in this System of Things in 2008 - no one! If you did, you would labeled as "spiritually weak" and laughed right out of the Kingdom Hall. The Generation of 1914 would never last that far, and the end MUST come before they would die off - period!! According to their "prophecies" in the 1984 Watchtowers which is "Newer Light" then a 1981 WT I must assume, we should all be in the New Order by now, so what are we doing standing around in a mall after Christmas complaining about this "old system of things?" Uggh.
To have this friend stand there and actually say something like that to me was just astounding. What's worse, is that I could actually see his personality switching off and the WT one firing up and him going into his presentation. I haven't read Steven Hassan's books yet, but have heard this discussed on here as the "Cult Personality" and it is just really freaky. Also, I found the entire reasoning to be laughable and stupid. Discuss the Bible if you are going to try and preach or make a point; don't discuss an "Old Light" document that is talking about some Bible verses and is trying to make it seem that The Society are the ones doing the prophesying. This was really something to behold in all honesty. Are normal, thinking, intelligent people really buying into this BS today????
I felt bad for him in a way. He is totally brainwashed, and you can actually physically see it. I believe they are having a child soon. Why bother? Isn't the end near? I told him if he thought they were tight now, wait till he has a child! Ha! We have been out of high school a little over a decade now (We were told we'd never make it to jr. High!) and life has not been good to my friend. He looks overweight, tired, over-worked and underpaid. Still tolling for the cult. He didn't mention Jesus or Jehovah once in the conversation, only the WatchTower.
Will this cycle ever end? It has for me and my family. I refuse to be a mindless zombie under the control of a nearly anonymous sheltered group of old men in a Tower that have their every need taken care of for them. They are NOT "The Christ" and I will no longer submit to their life of penny-less servitude.
- Wing Commander
JW tells me, "1981 Watchtower article predicted today's economic problems."
by WingCommander 43 Replies latest jw experiences
-
WingCommander
-
stillajwexelder
Yes - this one is doing the rounds at our KH. The article discusses possible scenarios in 1981 for a possible future financial meltdown. As one poster once remarked "A clock that is broken is right twice per day"
-
WingCommander
You've got to be shitting me, right? They are actually touting off some 1981 Watchtower that somehow words in a vague way that an "economic meltdown" was on the way? Let me guess, they probably pulled this same article out when the stock market crashed in 1987 too, huh???? Rinse and repeat!!
Being a JW today is an exercise in repetition; just like a Macaw, today's JW's can be programmed to spout off anything, whether it be from old or new publications, just pick the one to fit the situation. And, since they're programmed to forget past errors and things that didn't come to pass, they come as sounding totally stupid about their own past while they talk to you and try to persuade you that they've been "right all along." Ha-ha!
Wanna know what pissed me off later that evening after I had thought about it? This so-called "friend" could count the entire 20 minute conversation he had with me on his monthly time slip since he slipped that WT crap in on the end of it! Unbelievable! Just another block of time for his time slip.
- Wing Commander -
truthsetsonefree
Even if it said there would be hard economic times, so what? They say there will be hard times everywhere in every aspect of life before the end. With no specificity as to type, time, location its no prophecy. That's like saying there will be a car accident on some high traffic intyersection in the next twenty years and then calling it a prophecy come true when it happens.
Isaac
-
VM44
What is the exact article from 1981 that they say predicted the current economic situation?
-
VM44
The JWs always say that The Watchtower is written by imperfect men and is "not inspired"!
How can they say that the magazine "predicted" anything then?
-
Nathan Natas
"Well you know, there was a 1981 Watchtower that PROPHESIED these very hard economic times today!"
WOW! The Watchtower actually predicted that naive, ignorant, uneducated JWs would have a hard life? They must be GENIUSES!
-
Spectre
Wait-a-minute here.....
Didn't old magazines from that time say that armageddon would be here by now?
So was there supposed to be an economic problem AFTER armageddon?
-
Spectre
And now that I read all of your answer to him Wing Commander, I see that you said that.
-
Billy the Ex-Bethelite
Technically, that article was from the start of Prez. Ronald Reagan's administration. It was a simplistic article quoting economic authorities of the day. Prophecy? Notice the credit line that come right after the title:
*** g81 12/22 p. 24 ***
What’s Wrong with the Economy?
By "Awake!" correspondent in Canada
LIKE an automobile mired in the mud, the world economy is bogged down....
You better start looking for your prophet in Canada.
Funny. If Botchtower had any prophets, why didn't they foretell in 1981 the approaching collapse of the Soviet Union? After all, the demise of their King of the North would have been prophecy-worthy, right?
B the X