Witnesses and aging (page 2)

diamondiiz

Decades of programming. They hear the same mantra every meeting and that's all they can repeat. The end is near, everyone else will die, jw are in Noah's ark and will be saved. No need to save for tomorrow and no need to worry if there is no food in the stores because God will provide and save his people. Somehow they forget great depression and the wars, they cannnot imagine that human history isn't all that linear but is repetative in nature and witnesses can't imagine another cycle of wealth destruction and a possible ww3 without Armageddon.

Heartofaboy

Yes Mad Sweeney as you say:

'Individual JDubs will not be "taken care of" by Jehovah God during the great tribulation. The Borganization will be protected and survive Armageddon but individuals are basically up for torture, death, and hope of a resurrection.'

Whenever I saw this in the Watchtower I felt mad with rage that they put the BORG's survival above the individual Christian.

They truly are the 'EVIL SLAVE' to promulgate this profanity!

Dark Side

We talked about normal things, relatives, weather, etc. until an opportunity rose up and he started with the

"well you know that the world is going to end soon" routine so familiar to anyone associated with the witnesses.

I was pretty young and dumb with a wife and 4 kids back in 1989. An elder whom I deeply respected told me that there was no way the "System of Things" would last until 2000

Mike Jones, where ever you are, I'm divorced, my kids won't speak to me, I've lost a lifetime of friends and I'm still here.

And I'm happier than I've ever been

NowAndThen

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, we are all entitled to our illusions!!!!!!!!!!!!! Believing in the end isn't that bad because the end comes in any event - when you die. It's that simple. The End of the System of Things has happened several times in several places (the Americans lost Vietnam, Saddam's regime ended, the British Empire bit the dust, Madoff went to jail, etc.). All those were "systems of things". Now, if anyone believed 1975 or any of such crackpot prophecies, they needed somewhere to hang their faith and hope. They did and felt good while it lasted. They got disappointed in the end as they were wont to. That to is a "system of things" attached to blind faith. For some, the price has been high - but it is all occupational really. You go to war, you are likely to take a bullet or even die.

Honest, illusion helps us all make it through to another day, week, month, year.

Life is a room of mirrors.

Dark Side

Believing in the end isn't that bad because the end comes in any event - when you die. It's that simple.

I watched my mother die in a hospital bed, placed on a morphine drip, for three days.

I sat at her bedside while dozens of Jehovah's Witnesses, friends she had made during her 35+ years as a JW, told her that they would greet her when she woke up, resurrected under an elm tree in the New System. That my friend, was a lie. Believing a lie, even in death, is still a lie

Now, if anyone believed 1975 or any of such crackpot prophecies, they needed somewhere to hang their faith and hope.

Yep. We blindly hung our faith and hope on lies

They did and felt good while it lasted. They got disappointed in the end as they were wont to.

What?

That to is a "system of things" attached to blind faith. For some, the price has been high - but it is all occupational really. You go to war, you are likely to take a bullet or even die.

What?

Heartofaboy

NowAndThen

Did YOU live through the 1975 debacle???????????

If not shut up!!!!!!!!!!

NowAndThen

Heartofaboy,

I was a boy.

And yes, I did. On hindsight, I can look at it with humour - which I understand many cannot because of the cost. There was so much fear and angst, a bit of euphoria too. I guess it was my dad who kept us all together. He was skeptical about the whole thing from the start and went on with life with his usual gusto.

So Heartofaboy, I will not shut up - I have every right to say how I feel about things. I lived through 1975.

Thank you.

Heartofaboy

I wasn't a 'boy' I was in my early 20's by the time 1975 came & had made some foolish decisions regarding education based on what 'God's channel' was telling us to expect during the 8 or so years leading up to '75.

You were lucky to have a father that wasn't taken in by the WBTS, your life wasn't so affected maybe?

I just cannot abide people that dis 1975'ers as being foolish or going beyond what the borg said, I thought you were one of them, please accept my apologise if you are not.

Hoab

NowAndThen

Hoab,

No issues really. There is no denying that 1975 had a terrible impact on people and that JWs were pressured into believing unquestionably that the end would come that year. There is ample literature to prove that a million times over. Yes, people did get hurt - and I empathize with you over your own personal hurt. I was in Junior High at the time. It felt very sad and wierd to see families practically withdraw their kids from school (I have always lived in the developing world), or who held the reasoning that in the New World, reading the Bible and the WT publications would supply enough knowledge to human kind.

That singular teaching - more than any other - produced a lost generation. I did not mean to be disrespectful of the pain that you and others suffered.

Best regards.

CuriousButterfly

Thank God I did not listen to the WTS. My husband and I save for retirement and he knows I feel the "end" will never come in my lifetime. I never thought I would graduate from HS let alone just hit 40. It is so sad when you really believe the end will come and then time/dates go by and in my heart I know they have NO idea. I am grateful we are balanced and saved, purchased homes and had rental property.

Witnesses and aging

Share this