2010: What next for Jehovahs Witnesses?

by truthseeker 37 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  teel

  I am sure a doctrinal change regarding 144.000 is on its way. Now that the limit regarding '35 was lifted, we can see a wave of new annointed. Last year it almost hit 10k, this year I bet the number was close to 11k. The group can only grow so much before maths won't add up. It won't happen in 2010, but most probably it will in the next 10 years. After setting the 144.000 limit as symbolic, we'll see a huge wave of newly annointed ones, making up of at least 20-25% of the JWs.

  I also aggree with willyloman's prediction about field service - it's a pain to many JWs, and it has to be reformed in some way.
• 

  angel eyes

  the sunday meeting is an hour and a half. 30min public talk now :)

  Someone, forgot now,said sisters wearing dishtowels?? You mean skirts? Well i know some sisters, actually quite a few who wear trousers and yes they are still used on the plateform etc, remember its Jahs house not mans. I like to see things done Jehovahs way.
• 

  JeffT

  The question could be: what do you do when you've painted yourself into a corner?

  I've thought for some time the WTBS is dead, it just hasn't fallen over yet. I began noticing a lot more people doing street work in downtown Seattle, except they're not actually preaching to anybody. They just hold up magazines while people walk past. They have a vacant look in their eyes.

  A lot of Watchtower doctrine is no longer credible: 144,000, the whole end times thing is a joke, the leadership is not leading, field circus is a waste of time. What they will do I don't know, I'm sure they don't either.

  Tithing won't help after four generations or so of telling people not to get educated or advance their careers. The R&F don't have the money.

  I think it is going to twist slowly in the wind, like Christian Science, unless somebody gets up the nerve for a major shakeup, and I don't think that would work.
• 

  angel eyes

  maybe this is a sign, afterall we know the end is coming.....and we know we maynot be in kingdom halls nearer the end....

  We know alot of things, we just need to recall them to mind. Lots of things are happening :) for a reason
• 

  teel

  angel eyes: you have kind of a weird congregation. Women in trousers, on the platforms, elders not mindig that you are visiting an apostate webpage, etc.? That doesn't sound like anything I experienced. Are you sure you aren't from an other dimension where Jehovah's Witnesses went mainstream? (BTW the "dishtowels" comment was about sisters giving public speach in front of the congregation or being elders, while covering their heads).
• 

  jookbeard

  Ae I woke up this morning and farted, is that a sign?
• 

  Spook

  If it can be a "sign" when the work is increasing...

  ....and also a "sign" of the same thing when it is decreasing...

  It's safe to say their is no correlation whatsoever.
• 

  OnTheWayOut

  I am right in line with Farkel. Here's some highlights of what he said on page 1 of this thread:

  I see lots and lots of high-profile child abuse cases being lost by the WTS...
  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....

  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.

  Once lawyers know of a settlement, they want to join the bandwagon. Love and Norris have more cases, but there are probably hundreds of others out there trying to bring their case a settlement of at least half-a-million dollars.

  Information is becoming more and more available thanks to people like Barbara Anderson, one who came out in the Nineties with a cause. Plenty others already doing it and more joining in. Ray Franz's books did more to free people than any other source, but the internet made more of us aware of those books. The internet will continue to attract lawsuits and free more people leaving less money available to them.

  Expect Kingdom Halls to be more widely sold off once Brooklyn bites the dust. It will happen in a fast sweeping motion. Expect them to try to reduce conventions to two-days in order to save money on facilities and still try to get the same money out of the collective. Some more of them will be moved to Assembly Halls and they will possibly reduce Circuit Assemblies to one-day to accomodate this. (Half as many weekends needed if CA's are held one on Sat. and one on Sun.- also membership decreases, so more congs. crammed into a circuit.)

  Elders stepping down and numbers reducing will both cause them to combine more and more congs. That's the reason they will use to sell off KH's. They will have to come up with a frantic excuse that the tribulation is starting and sorting out the weeds from the wheat.
• 

  sir82

  All forms of "sacred service" would be valued equally.

  Weren't they strongly leaning in that direction in the late 70's? I recall there were a bunch of WT study articles on "sacred service" being more than just preaching. They changed the name of "Our Kingdom Ministry" to "Our Kingdom Service" (before changing it back again.

  I was always under the impression that Ray Franz was a major promoter of this new "softer" view, and once he got bounced, the hardliners came back with a vengeance regarding what really constitutes "sacred service" (field service only).

  It strikes me as difficult to believe that they would return to an idea that was promoted by an "apostate" - there's still too many guys who were around in the early 80's when the whole thing went down.

  they're not actually preaching to anybody. They just hold up magazines while people walk past. They have a vacant look in their eyes.

  Same thing here in, er, Ulan Bator as well. Just this morning I passed an old lady, "evidently" a pioneer, getting her time in. She was sitting slouched on a city bench, holding a tract up behind her ear (literally!) while looking off in another direction. She wasn't even watching to see if anyone was looking at her tract, let alone actually try to engage someone and preach to them.
• 

  TD

  They are eventually going to have to do something with the "Great crowd" doctrine. They can't go on claiming that it was a "Bright flash of light" to tell adults in 1935 that they composed that group.

  Sooner or later, even people like janesyhull will notice that no one who was an adult in 1935 is still alive today.