So has the wt given up on prophecy altogether or what?

agonus

For decades they've produced massive tomes on their own peculiar brand of wt-centric prophecy, but it seems like the production of prophecy-related material as of late has slowed to a trickle, their last prophecy-related book that i can recall was the minor-prophets book released a few years back. However that book if i recall was very vague in its exposition, focusing on daily life application rather than eschatology. And yet the armageddon-end-times-obedience-"generation" drumbeat grows faster and louder with less and less exposition as to how or when exactly any of this is supposed to play out. Have you noticed this as well or is it just me? I began my fade about 5 years ago but even then it seemed that they had shifted focus away from prophecy. I kept wondering, isn.t there a whole host of events that had yet to materialize? What happened to the kings of the north/south, the cry of peace and security, the 8th king, the beasts, the fall of babylon the great, the tribulation, etc. i haven.t been to a convention in a couple of years... Do they even mention this stuff any more? Sorry about the grammatical errors... Shitty phone texting

dgp

I think that the time left before the WT produces more prophecies is indeed reduced. Prophecies are just "right around the corner". And this time around they might just get lucky. You know, all the times they have failed have finally taught them what mistakes they should avoid.

Black Sheep

Their most common prophesy at the moment, is that people who are exposed to apostate material in any form ............. leave.

Hoffnung

Freddie Franz is dead. They have no scholar that can replace him, or even write a book that could measure up to what he wrote. Their own fault, independent thinking and free interchange of thought is not allowed any more, so none of the witnesses would even DARE to come with new prophecy ideas. Not even the overlap generation was backed up by anything more then a few paragraphs hidden in an article that had nothing to do with it. So they ran out of ideas and just keep on shouting things from the past. This organization has 7 leaders but no vision. The wagon is riding high speed in one direction since the 90ies and the guys on the steering wheel don't know how to turn it. They have not yet found the brakes either. To hide their lack of intelligence their output is reduced to tiny but extremely boring how-to-make-the-bible-fit-the-watchtower-ideas-pocket-books like the ones about Jeremiah, Acts and Jesus, and the bookstudy is cut by 50%, so they have to write less books too. No verse by verse discussions, no context provided. very well observed.

leavingwt

They believe that the Apocalypse is even closer NOW, than back when you were attending. Let that sink in.

miseryloveselders

I think with Freddy Franz's death, and the passing away of other eccentric retards in Bethel, without another weirdo or group of weirdos to take their place, the business of prophesying has its days numbered. My impression is the current crop of leadership in Bethel just may not buy all the crazy prophecies studied in literature of times past. They're more concerned about power, retainment of publishers, and the bottom line. Even looking at pictures of those currently on the GB, Splane is the only one who looks potentially crazy enough to take Freddy's old spot as resident weirdo in chief, and the word on him is he's shrewder than he appears. That being said, I think the days of prophesying are a wrap.

Gayle

an end-timers religion that is giving up on prophecy would certainly be in trouble.

doofdaddy

This hasn't flowed through to the rank and file though. I just had a friend on Facebook have a chuckle as two jws knocked on his door yesterday trying to tie the floods in Australia to prophecy.

Actually, this quite profound. Once the r and f get the message that prophecy has laid too much egg on the collective jw writer's faces, so has been abandoned, what will they talk about at people's doors? Where will the "urgency" go? Kinda like the fire brigade never having to fight a fire. Eventually, you find another job.

agonus

I'm not necessarily talking about generic acts-of-god natural disaster type stuff like floods, earthquakes, famine etc. though. I mean primarily specific events involving countries, governments, that sort of thing. For example, the so-called anglo-american world power, the united nations, and the kings of the north and south were all said to play a role in th end times, but they seem to have clammed up on these in recent years. For example, a couple of years back, i think in the kool-aid edition, they mentioned that "very soon militarized elements within the united nations" would soon move to shut down lfalse religion".. And that's the last specific government-related prediction i remember them making, at least in print anuways. Have any of the gb said anything from the platform in recent years regarding such? Any speculation on kings, nations, countries, hell, even return of the nephilim for that matter?

Vidiot

Gayle - "an end-timers religion that is giving up on prophecy would certainly be in trouble."

Bingo.

Studies have clearly shown that apocalyptic millenialist groups absolutely need to date-set (prophesy) to maintain internal cohesion and continue to expand (and thusly survive).

However, as Roger Ebert said, the practice has a limited shelf life; continued failed dates undermine the date-setters' credibility (eventually even with the R&F), but refraining to date-set undermines the sense of urgency vital to the groups' continued survival.

If the WTS stopped stirring up End-Times anxiety entirely, they would arguably no longer be the WTS, because stirring up End-Times anxiety is a fundamental characteristic of the WTS.

Catch-22.

So has the wt given up on prophecy altogether or what?

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