Resigned as an Elder last week. Briefly this is my story. I was raised as a witness in the 60”s and 70’s. My father was a Congregation Servant then Elder and P.O. My Grandparents were witnesses and my Great Grandparents. Married a regular pioneer at 22. Was appointed shortly after a M.S. then an Elder at 30. My wife regular pioneered for 18 years. I Aux Pioneered up to six months a year. At 35 I was PO of our Congregation. I had parts at Circuit Assemblies and District Conventions, served on various committees. In short I was a true believer and in the center of things in my city.
Then came the first generation change in 95 / 96 I was shocked, I had preached the generation of 1914 would see the end in there lifetime. After all the FDS had said so, it was in the live Forever book, I had studied it with so many people, it was “truth”. Then with a simple article in a magazine they tore down the goalposts. But of course they had to, they had ran out of time. This had a huge impact on me (really, really surprised it did have a huge impact on more) They clearly did not have a clue when the end was, big questions about 1914 etc. I made dramatic changes in my life; my wife became pregnant (planned) quite regular pioneering. I doubled the size of my business and bought a house.
I now believed I would most likely die in this system. I had my doubts about the level of spirit direction given to the FDS.
This all lead me down another road of “personal” study. What about the worsening world conditions does that not prove we are in the time of the end? I went to a two day elder’s school they had a demo how to deal with someone who doubted the time of the end. We were to ask them are things getting better or worse as you look around the world. They of course say worse, and then Joe Elder say’s see we are at the end of the last days. All simple and clear cut. I had just been NYC and walked through central park at night, never felt safer. Murder rate in NYC in the late 70’s and 80’s was 1500 a year now 500 a year. Getting better? Violent crime way down! I went to the lower east side Tenement museum in NYC. (Well worth it by the way) Conditions for the average person in the 1800 really really sucked, infant mortality terrible, I could go on and on. We are taught the WW1 ushered a time of death and violence. That we are living in the wickedest and most turbulent time in world history. This is absolutstly untrue. The only way you could think that we are living in the worst time in human history is if you had little or no knowledge of history. Interesting that there were deadlier wars then WW1 in the 1800’s Wikipedia say 15 million died in WW1 but in the supposed peaceful 1800’s 20 million died in the Taiping Rebellion. (Or do we just count European wars) More Americans died in the civil war then every war put together since the civil war. If you still have doubts about this, here is some recommended reading.
It's getting better all the time : 100 greatest trends of the last 100 years. by
Stephen Moore , Julian Lincoln Simon
The new Bill Bryson book “At Home” What life was like for the average person 1800’s.
“Before the Dawn” By Nicholas Wade
Maybe you think the Morals are in big decline please read.
The Way we never Were. By Stephanie Coontz.
I think you get the point of how I feel.
Then came more body blows, the huge swing against education. I now had a small child who was to receive only training in window cleaning, are you kidding me. You have all posted endlessly on this subject so I won’t go on about it now. Except to say the bible is pro education not anti. The organization is hugely hypocritical on this point, and only oppressive regimes and dictators keep there people uneducated. (if my grammar is poor in this rant it is due to my enforced lack of education, but then the end was going to be here before I got out of high school)
Then the finally body blow that lead to my resigning as an elder. The overlap! You all have once again have posted on this insane idea. I taught the Bible explains and interprets itself and it does. A generation is thirty or forty year’s period. Contemporaries are not the case of a 90 year old Br Franz meeting some young new bethel elder that will soon be on the governing body. We have a new deadline, (the current FDS will not pass away before the end comes) are you kidding me, have we not learnt from blowing though the last four or five deadlines.
In summary there is a limit to how much you can make stuff up and insult the intelligence of the R&F. I will still go to meetings and be active in the Congregation. I love the brotherhood. I love having a place where I can express my love of Jehovah and Jesus and be a Christian. But I can no longer take the lead in supporting made up stuff.
At any rate that’s my rant, needed to get it off my chest. I don’t have time to post much so please do not be offended if I do not return posts.