What were the brothers obsession with 'The Big A' ? They wanted it so badly (and still do)

by Joliette 34 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  thetrueone

  Armageddon created fear and anxiety which not only brought attention the WTS's literature but it heighten

  the urgency to go and preach before this judgment day appears, saving their lives as well as others.

  In other words enhancing the WTS circulation of its own published literature and as you can see it worked.

  Making an connection to the bible the known and solemnly believed word of god and the great destruction

  of Armageddon, has been for most part the the driving catalyst for the WTS.

  It was an element of exploitation on to people which cultivate a great amount of wealth for the

  organization. If you weren't in agreement with this decisive exploitation, that had really little

  effect on them for they had newly interested ones that would in tum make the replacement.

  Power was retained and the money kept flowing in.

  And that is the corner stone to this religious operation power and money.
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  Black Sheep

  The likes of my parents have invested so much of their lives in it, have made so many converts, have encouraged people to die and to let their kids die, that Armageddon has to show up really soon or they have to go to their death beds looking like complete fools.

  I have pointed that out to them, just on the offchance that they might not have thought of it.
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  Ding

  The more years and effort people invest in the WTS, the harder it is to face the possibility that it's not God's organization.

  "Stay faithul... Armageddon is just around the corner... He who endures to the end will be saved..." etc.
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  designs

  Perhaps the biggest delusion was the Society's early mantra- 'Millions Now Living Will Never Die', that is very seductive. My mother believed it to her core, it was very difficult to help her comes to grips with her mortality when she developed bone cancer and was given a few months to live.
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  thetrueone

  Yes thats right Ding if fear isn't enough, than the expressed reward of living in a Paradise into eternity adds to the catch.

  If you stay in-line with the WTS pertaining guidelines and instructions your almost guaranteed to not be killed by Jehovah the Almighty.

  Speaking in terms of the GB, if you knew what created the WTS wealth ( a billion dollars in total worldwide assets )

  and created 7 million devout subservient workers. What would one person do or could do to change all of that ?

  The WTS. appears to be now dissolving in its operations and the demands placed on its adherents.

  I was told by a co-worker back in the 80's that these cults don't last very long, I'm starting to think he was right after all.
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  designs

  TTO-

  Do you think there will be a Garage Sale
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  thetrueone

  Good one Designs
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  Joliette

  Thank you guys for your comments.
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  VM44

  Armageddon would be the vindication of The Watchtower.

  Without Armageddon the JWs lives are meaningless!
• 

  Vidiot

  VM44 - "Armageddon would be the vindication of The Watchtower."

  Maybe, maybe not.

  I would argue that a global "apocalypse" that didn't follow the WT script would give a huge percentage of JWs pause. And by "apocalypse" I mean one or more large-scale, planetary-population-reducing events or circumstances that are profoundly mundane "real-world" phenomena, i.e. not miraculous/supernatural in nature (like the "Rapture", for example).

  Other things could hypothetically do it; long-term peace in the Middle East, or the non-collapse of organized religion and/or a planetary government that wasn't hostile to it, or "first contact" with intelligent extraterrestrials, or undeniable smoking-gun evidence of evolution (like retro-engineering a dinosaur from a chicken embryo, for example).

  In other words, large-scale and unexpected paradigm-shifting events.

  Recent studies have strongly suggested that circumstances like these would seriously undermind fundamentalism/Biblical literalism, not because they're far-fetched, but because there is virtually no room in the fundamentalist worldview for them.

  If one or more of these events took place, you might see a massive worldwide exodus away from conservative/literalist religion (including JWs), but it would get pretty ugly; the more militant strains would go kicking and screaming. Not to mention that even if authoritarian religion went extinct, authoritarianism itself would not; it seems to be hardwired in some people, religious or secular.