You would not believe how my JW friends responded to Flippers' comments (page 3)

Finally-Free

Good one. I've always maintained that the best weapon against the watchtower is their own literature.

W

BluesBrother

"Most of the witnesses that have been around for a long time have lost their thinking ability. They are so brainwashed that they will always accept what the GB tells them"

Correction....they are so set in their ways that they take no notice of corrections in the WT , as Bonafide discovered. They still believed what they had always believed no matter what these pesky newcomers on the Governing body decide to print.

Last time I had occasion to be in a deeper social conversation with old time dubs, some still clung to the generation being those from 1914, no matter what the WT says...because they like it that way.

Beliefs are like haircuts. The style that you have as a young man is often the one you stick with all your life, until your hair falls out....

snowbird

JW's are so afraid of being accused of running ahead of "the slave."

Even innocent remarks that don't adhere to the party line can get you in trouble.

For example, once during a TMS Bible highlights, I mentioned that Sarah died at the age of 127, and that she's the only Biblical woman whose age at death is mentioned.

Some looked at me with such surprise; the TMS overseer couldn't hide his disapproval that I would bring in something that the publications hadn't mentioned.

I do believe I was "marked" from that night onward.

Tee hee hee.

Sylvia

Tired of the Hypocrisy

By the time the elders get back to you to see what you said, they will have been told that you stood on the table and to the governing body to suck it.

StAnn

"He said, "It sounds like you are criticizing the WT." I said no I wasnt, I was just talking about the new light. I had to change the subject, because suddenly everyone was so uncomfortable."

BonaFide, if you get the chance, I wish you could ask these people why they think it's "critical" to simply mention what's in the literature and what the latest "new light" is. If you're helping them learn to think, help them to see that all you did was bring out what the WTS said IN ITS OWN LITERATURE and that THEY, not you, became upset by it. Why were they upset? Don't they trust the FDS? Don't they accept the New Light? Ask them why they are so defensive~is it a sign they aren't putting their trust in the GB?

St. Ann

moshe

Truth is only what you can convince others it is and now when you make comments about the Society's pubications that make people less convinced they have the truth, they get uncomfortable. The only solution for this discomfort is to avoid the person who caused the discomfort in the first place. Now we can get back to our "happy place", state of mind. JW's are so easy to confuse as their literature is a 4 generation coverup of lies and mistakes. Any JW who has been in for 40 years should know the numbers of partakers bottomed out in the 80's and has been steadily climbing since.

I saw the discrepancy developing 30 years ago and had an actuary look into it in the early 80's. Starting with the figures given in the 1930's for the partakers and asumming a a very young average age of 35 for them, the actuary claculated that there should only be about 3500 partakers left alive by 1984- less than 1/2 of the numbers given in the yearbook. By 1994 it should have been no more than 1000 and the last one would have left the building by the year 2000. Neither the WT office in NYC or the elders and CO liked my report and I was told to stop talking about it in the KH.

winstonchurchill

Some of us active JW's (more than you imagine) do get the 'new understandings' and its implications.

Most just aren't able because they are really dumb, intellectualy impiared, and others just don't wan to see it for reasons you have well explained above.

WTS is taking advantage of that, and they have learned form their previous fisacos, so they start with an obscure QFR (that most won't even read), then they put in ambiguous words in a study article, kind of hidden. (Some of you may remember that in the past when 'new light' was published they even put a special textbox at the beggining of the article saying: "There's new understanding here!"; not anymore).

Then comes a CO/DO at an assembly and presents that same information in a very sensationalistic way, twisting it to make it look like (a) we're closer to the end; and (b) FDS is soooooo wise, that everyone now 'understands' and applauds. If and when the 'new understanding' falls apart, WTS can always hide behind the fact that they never said there was a change.

Remember after '75 they never admitted to being wrong, only that "things were stated in a way that led some to have false expectations". So for them is not a matter of being right or wrong, but just avoiding being proven wrong.

leavingwt

Understanding new light is pointless to an active JW.

Why bother? It will simply change again.

They simply need to attend meetings, smile often, comment, go in service and keep their mouths shut regarding speculation/criticism.

THIS is how they maintain their "good standing" within the congregation.

Trevor Scott

"I saw the discrepancy developing 30 years ago and had an actuary look into it in the early 80's. Starting with the figures given in the 1930's for the partakers and asumming a a very young average age of 35 for them, the actuary claculated that there should only be about 3500 partakers left alive by 1984- less than 1/2 of the numbers given in the yearbook. By 1994 it should have been no more than 1000 and the last one would have left the building by the year 2000."

I've been convinced for quite some time that the numbers published by the Society are bogus. The Society NEEDS "anointed" on earth. Period. Their doctrinal house of cards falls apart without this. They know this and they're not going to let a little thing like the truth stand in their way...

For years the Society printed a slowly decreasing 'reasonable' number of anointed. They did this up until the point where even the most brain-dead dubs might start to question the numbers, considering the 1935 cutoff date for the "heavenly calling". By 2005, 70 years had passed since the cutoff date for the heavenly calling. Those who were 30 in 1935 were now 100 years old...

So in 2006, the Society publishes a signficant increase. And again in 2007. This, of course, affords the Society the PERFECT opportunity to do away with the 1935 cutoff date, which they did immediately following the memorial in 2007:

*** w07 5/1 p. 31 Questions From Readers ***
"On the other hand, as time has gone by, some Christians baptized after 1935 have had witness borne to them that they have the heavenly hope. (Romans 8:16, 17) THUS, IT APPEARS THAT WE CANNOT SET A SPECIFIC DATE FOR WHEN THE CALLING OF CHRISTIANS TO THE HEAVENLY HOPE ENDS."

Once the rank and file get it through their heads that there is enough fresh blood in the "anointed" ranks, no doubt we'll see the number begin to slowly decrease again and once again the Society will point to the dwindling number of anointed as evidence of the nearness of the end.

Rinse and repeat.

sspo

Most of the witnesses are not students of the bible or of the watchtower teachings.

They have remained " spiritual babes" , they are mentally lazy and that's why they don't even notice changes of doctrines.

I was always shocked in finding out how many of the witnesses were not even reading the magazines, letting months go by

and then trying to "catch up"....... elders were the worst .

There are a few among the witnesses that take their worship seriously, for the rest it

has become a weekly, monthly, yearly routine.

You would not believe how my JW friends responded to Flippers' comments

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