2010: What next for Jehovahs Witnesses?

by truthseeker 37 Replies latest jw friends

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  truthseeker

  In the last two years we have seen many changes in the Watchtower - a few are listed below. What are your thoughts concerning the movement and direction of Jehovah's Witnesses for 2010 and beyond?

  Doctrinal changes:

  Generation teaching changed to mean the current anointed class now living, regardless of age

  1935 cut off date for selection of 144,000 extended indefinitely

  Faithful and discreet slave relegated to non functioning heavenly class under the Governing body (the faithful steward)

  Operating changes:

  Downsizing of Bethel family worldwide

  Some laid off Bethelites being assigned to special pioneers

  Transfer of printing facilties from USA to Canada

  WT buildings being sold off

  Consolidation of congregations and Kingdom Halls

  Procedural changes:

  Sunday meeting cut from 45 minutes to 30 minutes

  Book studies in private homes abolished

  Book study amalgamated with Theocratic Ministry School & Service Meeting and renamed Congregation Bible Study

  Marketing changes:

  2 Watchtowers, 1 Awake

  2 Watchtowers - Public edition and Private study edition and 1 Awake

  New songbook - songs reduced to about 145

  More emphasis on marketing campaigns (Memorial and District Convention)
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  blondie

  Don't forget printing being transferred out of Spain and the downsizing there.
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  excito-are

  To be honest, we need a new Ray Franz to come out of the governing body and disclose what has been going on inside over the last decades. though looking from the outside it seems that time and the internet is the problem for the WT. A new reworking of Daniel and Revelation will have to come about in the next 20 years as these books became even more outdated and bizarre even to the most faithful.

  They can't become to mainstream or they lose what separates them from rest of Christianity, however they need to modernise somehow retaining the control.

  Excito
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  jookbeard

  surely the F&DS & the G/B are the same thing , how can one be in submission to the other?
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  WTWizard

  I expect more in the way of going into debt to donate to the Worldwide Pedophile Defense Fund. They are really going to push this in the next few years--already they are doing this at many a$$embly hells, and I expect it to spread to every a$$embly hell. I expect also that they will start installing credit card readers in every Kingdumb Hell, allowing people to max out their Visa and American Express cards donating for the Worldwide Pedophile Defense Fund right there. And more talks telling that, now that we can do it, we should be donating that much more. Of course, they will call it "good debt", even though it will be a burden for the witlesses.

  As for witlesses without access to credit, they will be hounded to get a line of credit for this very purpose. And, there will be the hounding to drain every account using a debit card--and, they will have information of who is donating how much, access to how much remains in your accounts or line of credit, and printouts of how much each witless "owes" (whatever is left). If anyone "owes" too much, they will be taken to the back room for a talk about giving the whole field instead of just part of it. If too many people "owe" too much, they will have a talk from the platform about that very subject.
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  Farkel

  I see lots and lots of high-profile child abuse cases being lost by the WTS. That is going to bleed their already short cash flow even more. They can only live off the income from sales of their assets for so long without cash flow. I think the California Court decision that ruled Judicial Committee meetings are not subject to the clergy/laity confidentiality protection will be cited and echoed in other states and that will leave elders even more hung out to dry. I wouldn't even be surprised if the Supreme Court ended up ruling on it and the WTS loses big time. Once the public becomes aware of their secret kangaroo courts and what they do to victims of child abuse, dubs will find it near impossible to get new members, except in the poorest of countries, and poor people don't help the WT bottom line at all.

  I see elders stepping down in droves when they realize just how much liability their Corporate masters have heaped upon them and just how much their Corporate masters have abandoned them whenever there is trouble.

  I wouldn't be surprised if the WT concocts some "Biblical" basis for women to have responsibilites in the Congregations. They will still have to wear dish towels, but they might be given some responsibilities they don't now have.

  But most importantly, I still see the same old bullshit being cranked out with each new publication. They have been re-issuing slightly worked over articles from as early as the 1970's publications for three decades now. They have no new ideas and no new message. After decades of 1.4 billion hours a year of "preaching" from house-to-house, hardly anyone, even in countries where they are active knows what their message is about.

  Their time to shine and brag and grow as a movement is long over.

  Farkel
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  Joshnaz

  Oh so true Farkel
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  Athanasius

  Right on Fark. Though Freddy Franz was a little unbalanced, still his strange theology was somewhat original. With the passing of Freddy the Organization is left with bland party hacks, men who got their positions because they followed orders, not because they had ideas.

  The young are leaving in droves. So we will continue to see the greying of the JWs in developed countries and a decline in contributions. The growth in Third World countries will further drain the Watchtower's declining funds. In time without new ideas the growth will slow in developing countries. The JWs won't disappear, but they will decline in numbers and become an insignificant sect.
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  smiddy

  I wouldn`t be at all surprised to see them introduce tithing

  smiddy
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  Mickey mouse

  Ditto smiddy.