Of course this has been hashed and re-hashed as all of you know the Feb. 15th WT is re-directing JW's to read the title of Rutherford's talk as " Millions now living MAY Never die. " However in reading Crisis of Conscience a second time - I found it interesting to see what Ray Franz said about this quote.
Remember he wrote this book in 1983 , so keep it in mind when reading his quotes about this " Millions " quote. On pg. 193 he states, " Although the Society occasionally employs the catchy slogan " Millions now living will never die ", and calls attention to the fact that Witness membership now surpasses the three million mark, they gloss over an obvious misrepresentation. The claim that " Millions now living will never die " was NOT made to people living in the 1980's. It was made to people in the FIRST HALF OF THE 1920's. Only a fraction of the three million plus members of Jehovah's Witnesses were living then. Only if there were today more than two million Witnesses around 70 years of age or older could there be any pretense that the prediction was in ANY WAY substantiated . " Franz continues, " 1925, on which prediction and slogan were based, proved EMPTY of ALL the things foretold. The teaching was WITHOUT SUBSTANCE, mere fluff , PROPHETIC FANTASY. "
So here today- We STILL see the WT society referring to this " Millions Now Living Will Never Die " quote like it has some magical meaning ! So if the witnesses were 70 or so back in 1983, now they'd have to be 97 years old ! I don't think there are " millions " of 97 year old Jehovah's Witnesses tooling around last I checked, except Barr on the GB perhaps ! Bottom line is the WT society has always pulled dates out of their hind ends trying to make predictions of prophecy. And they are STILL doing it out of desperation to keep rank and file witnesses dialed into the WT society's decieving schemes ! So it's the same old tricks they try to pull in duping members. Just throw a bunch of numbers out like darts at a dart board and see which ones stick. Only problem is that- the witnesses are getting the darts thrown at them - AND THEY DON"T KNOW IT !
So what do you folks think about Ray Franz's quote ? Isn't it interesting that the more time that goes by in the WT society- the more things stay the same as far as their tactics ? As always I look forward to your takes and opinions. Peace out to all, Mr. Flipper