When Reform Becomes Impossible

by metatron 11 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  metatron

  In some organizations, reform can become impossible.
  Explosive and centrifugal forces can build up, year after year,
  without relief. After that, even a small pin prick can cause
  the whole arrangement to burst, not unlike Jesus' illustration
  of the wineskins.

  Has the Watchtower reached this point? I note a significant
  similarity with the former Soviet Union. Reforms were attempted
  during Khrushev's rule and turned aside, allowing decay and pressure
  to build for years. The Watchtower Society had a real opportunity
  at reform during the beginning of the elder arrangement - while
  Ray Franz was still on the Governing Body. As we all know, just
  like the geriatric rulers of Russia, this effort at positive change
  was crushed.

  I note also that the Soviet Union gradually slid into financial
  trouble, precipitating its fall. Paperback books and no more
  subscriptions looks like the same drift downward.

  Have they reached the point of no return? Would any basic change
  in doctrine or practice burst the Watchtower bubble? I think a
  case can be made that they must resist reform out of fear of
  the deluge that might follow.('we can talk to df'd people?
  we can take blood? we can vote?').

  and here we sit, on the internet
  with pins in hand.

  metatron
• 

  badwillie

  Metatron-
  I'm glad someone else is as optimistic as me about an eventual WTS bust-up. I also see the parallels to the old Soviet empire.
  My earlier thread asks a similar question:

  http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=19380&site=3
• 

  Dogpatch

  The outcome will prove to be interesting. The only thing the organization has in its favor seems to be money right now. :-))
  No sign of true rpentance, Christian or otherwise on the part of the leaders. Not a good sign for them, defections could become out-of-hand given enough publicity.

  Randy

  Net Soup!
  http://www.freeminds.org

  Watchtower Store
  http://www.freeminds.org/sales/menuframes.htm
• 

  anewperson

  Things are already happening. Last year we heard of problems in India. People are quitting outright or in their activity. More going on the internet finding the real truth every day. A day or two ago someone said he was a CO in Britain on here and that he is compiling documents. I believe more like him are doing the same in the U.S. to protect their rear ends. Some of it is going to going into the courtroom arena when Anderson & Reinhart lawsuits drag COs in who will be bringing the documents. Some will get into the media and on the internet even before then. As you say finances are falling as morale plummets. ExJWs support groups and nonWTS Bible Groups are organizing. Yes, I believe you're right. This will be an interesting year!
• 

  LDH

  Met, as much as I like your posts, I can only hope this one is true and not just our collective fantasy!

  Just last night I was talking to my sister (DA'd and thought it was the truth untilI turned her to THE DARK SIDE LOL). We were discussing our parents, and the WT. She said she things the WT is in for a big tumble this year.

  While I wait with baited breath, a part of me will bleed for the pain my parents will feel if they ever look objectively at the way they've spent 35 years of their lives.

  Lisa
• 

  Belligerent Paladin

  "Have they reached the point of no return? Would any basic change
  in doctrine or practice burst the Watchtower bubble? I think a
  case can be made that they must resist reform out of fear of
  the deluge that might follow.('we can talk to df'd people?
  we can take blood? we can vote?')."

  I think they are in a pickle. They can't make any big change right now. They made a change in/around 1995 with the sheep/goats thing and the generation thing. That caused quite a stir in the congregations. If they really changed anything major right now I think the Exodus would kill them. The more they try not to change, the more people notice how silly the current doctrines are.

  -The Belligerent Paladin

  "The old man fought until the very end. Probably because he knew that the energies he put into play, when they failed, would bring about a very sudden, and relatively painless death."
• 

  picosito

  Paladin, Paladin, where do you rooooam,
  Paladin, Paladin, far, far from hooome
  Have gun, will travel, says the card of a man....
  A man without honor in a savage land.............
  And his name is Paaaalidin.......................
• 

  ElijahTheThird

  Nothing is impossible. But the final lit fuse is these questions;

  Where are the "letters of insight" of the Anointed?

  Why haven't the GB followed those "insights" of the Anointed?

  Did they "sell-out" the Anointed's "insight" to the US/UN?

  They make ones follow edicts of man, and not the bible.
• 

  aChristian

  I am of the opinion that "reforming" the Watchtower organization to any significant degree is impossible.

  As you pointed out, Christ described this situation perfectly in his parable of the "wineskins." In it he said, "No one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins." (Luke 5:37,38)

  We know that Christ's parable was told in response to complaints that his disciples believed and behaved differently than "John's disciples," "the Pharisees," and "the teachers of the law." (Luke 7:30, 33) We also know that "new wine" produces gases which exert pressure on its container as it ferments. That is why in ancient times "new wine" was always put into "new wineskins" which were soft and flexible enough to change shape a bit as the "new wine" fermented, without coming apart at the seams.

  With these things in mind, the meaning of Christ's parable seems quite clear. Jesus was saying that quite often the false teachings and man-made traditions of a religious organization are so much a part of that organization that they make it spiritually inflexible, and thus incapable of any significant change. Christ's parable indicated that, for that reason, Christ knew that none of the religious institutions which then existed were capable of the major changes which would be necessary for them to serve the spiritual needs of his disciples. For those religious organizations had become so filled with false teachings and non-scriptural traditions of men that those false teachings and man-made traditions then formed what amounted to the entire fabric of those organizations.

  Thus, if Christ had told his disciples to stay in those organizations in an attempt make them into Christian organizations, their doing so would not have reformed those organizations it would have destroyed them. For, like old hardened wineskins, Christ knew that religious organizations which are almost entirely filled with false teachings and man-made traditions are incapable of any significant growth or change. And he knew that, like old hardened wineskins, any pressure exerted on them in an attempt to change them can, at best, only succeed in bringing about their destruction.

  That being the case, since Jesus knew that the religious institutions of his day which were almost entirely filled with false teachings and man-made traditions, much like the Watchtower Society, could not be successfully reformed, why do some believe that the Watchtower Society can be?
• 

  bluesapphire

  Who said?

  A day or two ago someone said he was a CO in Britain on here and that he is compiling documents.

  Can you do me the favor of directing me to this thread? I can't seem to find it and I must have missed it. Thank you.