After taking to my husband this morning I do not think JW's ever will.
People want to be fooled.
LITS
Have any religions in history ever died out?
by mamalove 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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tenyearsafter
I don't think there are any Heaven's Gate adherents left alive...
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GrandmaJones
"Spain's General Franco, however, is still dead" -NeoMadman
Ha,ha,ha,ha,ha,I love that! SNL used to crack me up with that ongoing remark. Wasn't that in "Weekend Update"?
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sabastious
The World Wide Chuch of God died, and reformed to become to Grace Communion Church.
-Sab
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thetrueone
After taking to my husband this morning I do not think JW's ever will.
Maybe not since most of these other cults don't have huge publishing houses like the WTS has.
Millions of copies of the AWAKE and Watchtower are produced every month and spread around the world.
There are always going to be weak minded, poorly educated individuals who would take an interest to what the WTS says/prints.
Which is both sad and unfortunate.
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skeeter1
Koreshan Unity
Welcome to Koreshan State Historic Site
Throughout its history, Florida has welcomed pioneers of all kinds. Cyrus Reed Teed was probably the most unusual, bringing followers to Estero in 1894 to build New Jerusalem for his new faith, Koreshanity. The colony, known as the Koreshan Unity, believed that the entire universe existed within a giant, hollow sphere. The colony began fading after Teed´s death in 1908, and in 1961 the last four members deeded the land to the state. Today, visitors can fish, picnic, boat, and hike where Teed´s visionaries once carried out survey experiments to prove the horizon on the beaches of Collier County curves upward. A boat ramp and canoe rentals are available. Visitors can take self-guided tours of the settlement or a ranger-guided tour. For overnight stays, the park has a full-facility campground. Campers can enjoy campfire programs every Saturday night from January through March. Located on U.S. 41 at Corkscrew Road
Koreshan Unity
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The Koreshan Unity was a communal utopia formed by Cyrus Teed, who took the name "Koresh", the Hebrew version of his name Cyrus (name). The Koreshans followed Teed's beliefs, called Koreshanity.
The Koreshan Unity started in the 1870s in New York, where Teed started preaching his beliefs. He formed short-lived groups in New York City and Moravia. He later moved to Chicago. Teed's followers formed a commune in Chicago in 1888 called Beth-Ophra. Some followers also formed a short-lived community in San Francisco (1891-2). Small church groups existed in other towns.
Contents
[ hide ][edit] Membership levels
There was a tri-level system of membership.
- The outer level was made up of non-believers who were willing to work for the Unity. This group was called the Patrons of Equation, and allowed for marriage and participation in the secular aspects of the unity.
- The middle group, the Department of Equitable Administration, allowed for marriage, but sexual relationships were only to be for the purpose of reproduction.
- The inner, core, group (called The Pre-Eminent Unity) was the Celibate and Communal group, which did not allow marriage and practiced celibacy.
Within each of these three levels were three distinct branches, the Secular System, the Commercial System, and the Educational System, with a total of nine groups.
[edit] Community
Eventually, Teed took his followers to Estero, Florida, to form his "New Jerusalem" in 1894. The community was at its peak 1903-1908, when it had over 250 residents. There were apparently another 4,000 believers around the country. Teed had a vision in which he was to establish a utopian city of 10,000,000 with streets up to 400 feet (120 m) wide. Membership declined following his death in 1908.
It built extensively, establishing a bakery, printing house (publishing their newspaper and other publications), the "World College of Life", a general store, concrete works, power plant (supplying power to the surrounding area years before it was available elsewhere in the region) and more. The colony was extensively landscaped. There has been work to document and preserve the grounds in Estero. A map and some images are available on line. [ 1 ]
[edit] Political Party
In 1906, the community formed the Progressive Liberal Party to run several candidates for county government against the local Democratic Party but were never successful. This Progressive Liberal Party consisted of Koreshans, socialists, Republicans, and dissatisfied Democrats. The Koreshans had already incorporated Estero and were seeking further political power in Lee County. After Teed died in 1908 the group went into decline. Several groups split off from the Unity. One such group was the Order of Theocracy that left in 1910 and moved to nearby Ft. Myers. This group lasted until 1931. The fact the Unity was celibate did not help, although celibacy was not the real problem since there was a married status within the Unity. Celibates were the highest order. Without new members joining, the group slowly dwindled. It continued to publish the Flaming Sword until the printing press burned down in 1949. It also published the American Eagle, which began in 1906 and later became a horticultural newspaper.
[edit] Followers
The last remaining follower, Hedwig Michel, joined in 1940. She had learned of the Koreshans in Germany, and fled Nazi persecution. She ceded the main portion of the commune grounds to Florida to form a state park in 1961. The Koreshan State Park (now known as the Koreshan State Historic Site) was opened in 1967. Hedwig Michel continued to live in the building known as the "Planetary Court". She died in 1981. She is the only Koreshan buried within the park. Two other Koreshan cemeteries are nearby, one of which lies within a gated community and the other on land owned by the Audubon Society. Partly due to the Koreshan belief in a form of reincarnation, little, if anything, was done to care for these cemeteries. The only permanent grave stones were put in by family members.
[edit] College
The College of Life Foundation, formerly the Koreshan Unity Foundation, is now the owner/caretaker of the remaining Koreshan land and the extensive archives. After Michel's death, control of the Koreshan Unity Foundation passed to her secretary, Jo Bigelow, and most recently another individual, Charles Dauray. None of the those controlling the College of Life Foundation are Koreshan believers
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Cold Steel
The troublesome thing about the JWs is that for as long as they can control who your family is, who your friends are and who you worship with, they will continue to be a force to contend with. From the church's standpoint, I'd be worried about the large number of elders who are leaving the church. It's true that others can just chalk it up to the "apostasy" that would come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord; however, increasing numbers of people are questioning the foundational integrity of the church. How did Christ establish it? How did he ordain its leaders? How does he manifest his will to them?
The Lord's parable about the blind leading the blind is also a hurdle. If the Methodists and churches of Christ are both "manmade," then what about the JWs makes them not manmade? When leaders are as blind as the followers, what keeps them all from falling into the ditch?
The Shakers didn't survive, as noted; neither did many of the frontier churches. How Joel Osteen stays in business (and I do mean business) is beyond me. One thing I'm convinced of, though, is that anyone can get followers.
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Black Sheep
According to Arthur Wiegall, who is quoted by the WT to trash the Trinity, elements of those early religions are incorporated into the Greek Scriptures, making Christianity the last bastion of the old Pagan god's.
You can see his cognitive dissonance at work as he tries to cherry pick the Bible to allow him to keep his Christian faith alive while, at the same time, being an Egyptologist.
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Palimpsest
There have been more religions in world history than we even realize. Your list is only going back a few thousand years...think about all of the faiths that existed before recorded history. Also, bear in mind that almost all religions, up until just several hundred years ago were small, localized cults that died out with population shift, natural disasters, missionary efforts, etc. (The examples you cite were/are incredibly expansive and cover countless individual cults.) And even major Protestant demoninations like the Methodists, Lutherans, and Presbyterians have been bleeding members for decades. Religions absolutely die out or, like Black Sheep said, morph into new forms.
The trick is remembering that we're talking in historical time. "Quickly" in history can mean a few thousand years. So no, it probably won't die out tomorrow, but it will eventually. They all do.
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smiddy
I seem to remember,seems like aeons ago, the witnesses likened themselves to the "waldenses "who existed a few centuries ago.
smiddy