Will the WTS ever give up on Armageddon?

by factfinder 34 Replies latest jw friends

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  factfinder

  Thank you everyone for your comments!

  @I quit- The wts does hope for armageddon so they can be vindicated, true- but how long can you keep on getting people to believe in something that will never happen?

  @Low- Key Lysmith- That is true, religions foster hatred and superstition. I wonder if wt can use the threat of armageddon 100 years from now. At some point wouldn't it loose its effectivness-just become unbelievable anymore?

  @Stonewall- I agree- religions use fear tactics to hold on to their believers.

  @free2beme and Scully- won't it reach a point where people won't be willing to accept such teachings anymore? Or is it just too ingrained in human nature?
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  factfinder

  @3Mozzies- yes, people have been waiting 2,000 years, but does that mean in 1,000 or 2,000 more years people will still be willing to accept the teaching now that it would be 4 ,000 years since Jesus died? How long can it go on before too much time has passed and the teaching has to be given up on?

  @wobble- I do believe in God. But I wonder if he is in reality something far different from what religions teach. I think the wts is going to reach a point where their "end times" teaching will no longer feasably be able to be used to without losing credibility. They would need to be much more creative to be able to still use the 1914 teaching hundreds of years from now. Would they be able to still come up with convincing explanations that will keep the witnesses in a sense of urgency even 200 hundred years from now? Won't they have to find something else to anchor themselves on, than the nearness of armageddon?

  @the -illuminator81- Yes, every year brings us closer- and in a million years from now armageddon will be that much closer!!! Of course if we have only waited "two days" (in Jehovah's eyes) how many more days must we wait?

  @blondie- yes I remember the chart in the truth book- a timeline illustration of events of the last days and it said: "All within one generation." And psalms was used to show a generation was 70-80 years. Then , we were also taught, that one born in 1914 could not understand the significance of the events taking place, so those of that generation would need to be 10-13 years old in 1914 to be able to understand Jesus prophecy and see how WW1, and the famines, pestilenses, earthquakes etc were fulling it. Thus, armageddon would have arrived by 1984.

  Yes, I remember they said some of the annointed would be alive when armageddon comes, and each year as the number of partakers dropped we were getting closer and closer because there still had to be anointed ones alive when the "end" came.

  I did not even know about the 1925 date and I began studying in 1976.

  Do you think the wts WILL eventually drop the 1914 date altogether? If, so they will have to wait until all who were taught about it have died.

  @TotallyADD- so you feel that in time the wts will let the armageddon teaching fade into the background?

  @kjw53- Welcome! I waited for armageddon for over 30 years. It did not come. Others waited for it for a much longer time than me, and it did not come. As time keeps going on it becomes evident that certain predictions are not going to be fullfilled because they are just not true. There will not be any "great tribulation" in my lifetime.
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  factfinder

  @thetrueone- do you feel this could go on indefinetly no matter how much time goes by? Do you think there will always be enough people that will accept the "fear tactics" the wts uses so the organization would continue to grow, or that in time it will shrink and only a small nucleous would still truly believe we are in the last days? Can there always be a "last days?" I guess so, but when people think about how long the last days have been going on, would it really matter to them anymore?

  @keyser soze- Yes, if the witnesses only taught about Jesus they would have no motivation to preach door to door. No one would pioneer.

  @james-woods- yes, most witnesses don't realize that armageddon is their version of the threat of hellfire. We must be loyal to the gb (fds) or God will destroy us at armageddon.

  @Nomad soul- I do wonder if at some point in the future people will look back on such doomsday preaching- realize that these predictions never were fulfilled, and be unwilling to allow fear of such to cause them to let a religion control them.
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  factfinder

  @designs- I guess people could still believe in a second coming. But not of armageddon coming within the life span of the 1914 generation! How many times can that generation "overlap" and still be effective in instilling a sense of urgency about the nearness of armageddon?

  @LostGeneration-but in 2,000 years from now- can they still teach the nearness of armageddon? Will the entire history of the WTS become totally erased so that if the wts exists then, people will only know about "their last days" and be unaware of how long (thousands of years) the wts kept preaching it was coming "any day now" and it never did?

  @Mad Sweeny and doubtful- that is true. I agree that if they give up on 1914 now, that would cause a schism and millions would fall away- they'd lose all credibility. But what about thousands of years from now? How can they keep holding onto the idea that the last days began in 1914?

  @straightshooter- yes- the end is so close! But it never comes! Won't there ever be a time when 1914 and armageddon have to be discarded? The WTS can NOT exist without teaching we are in the last days and soon armageddon will come?

  But even in the far future?

  Thank you everyone for your comments!
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  skeeter1

  Not until a new prophet comes...