Imagine you are here in the year 2030 and nothing has happened? How will Field Service be carried out? Will meetings still be at Kingdom Halls or will Halls be used via SKYPE? Now is the time to specuate how life will be for those still in the Organization in 2030. I thought Newton said the end would come in 2050 or 2060 using his math models with Bible prophecy. Remember the song "In the Year 2525, if man is still alive?"
How Will The WTS Society Look In The Year 2030? How Will They Explain Why The Generation Is Now 116 Years Old?
by AvocadoJake 16 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
bigmouth
Yes, Zager and Evans are the true prophets. Not a bad song either for its time.
FS will still be from door to door. The org does not embrace modern methods of communication (e.g. wireless, although they once did..)
Meetings will still be at KH but as the congregations average age increases they will make video/audio streaming available for the aged and infirm.
The WT as we see it modelled now will be very similar in 40 years time, I fear.
Forget about Newton and any others who try mathematical sleuthing.
-
wobble
The Governing Body of today are not so young, how many of them will be around then ? how many of the puppet masters who pull their strings?
The GB of the day by then may be a bit more savvy and will probably get a bit of excitement going for 2034 as being 120 years after 1914, they will know this is BS too of course, as they know 1914 is BS, so they won't have anything directly in print, they will use a variation of mad freddie Franz's "It would be no surprise if ..........."
I think numbers will be seriously down by then, they will fade away like the oh so similar Plymouth Brethren.
-
bigmouth
Actually, thinking about it, Wobble could be right with the Plymouth or Exclusive Brethren example.
There are not insignificant numbers of the Brethren still operating but they concentrate on their born ins and keep the rest of the world at arms length. They are suspicious of technology and are happy to lobby political groups to support social issues that fit their world view. they are isolated and introspective and they practice shunning at least as ferociously as Jw's.
As the GB struggle to deal with the proliferation of information and opinion they may well start to retrench and concentrate on keeping the born-ins in. They will spin this as the 'closing of the door to the ark'. Too bad if you're not inside.
They will continue to shrink in numbers and their clothing styles will begin to date them.The women will start to wear scarves all the time and some weird genetic thing will happen from all the marriages taking place inside the group, you know, something like half the kids will be ginger and speak with a lisp.
-
-
Refriedtruth
The Watchtower's 'man behind the curtain' has got to be legal financiers real estate developers who see the pot of gold tax free,free labor same as Scientology.
The WBTS is worth BILLIONS like a crash proof fortune 500 company and the bosses will do what ever it takes to keep the cash machine going.
It's ego and money
-
truth_b_known
I imagine there will be a continued reduction in "full-time ministry" position at the Bethel homes around the world. That is to say, their will be a workforce reduction in the volunteers who get a free ride at the factories. I believe there will be a continued simplification in printed materials.
First we saw the reduction in the Awake! magazine. I forsee that magazine going away, completely. The Watchtower will probably be published once a month and with fewer articles in the public version.
All of this will be done to maintain the current level of the gravy train at the ivory tower for the heads of the WTB&TS.
-
OnTheWayOut
I tend to imagine that WTS will do so badly in recruiting in the next 10 years that the old fogeys in the GB will go ahead and switch to the 2034 prophecy of 120 years to the end just like the days of Noah.
Many of these guys are so old that they will allow such a thing. The core group of true believers is dying off and the number that follows them to that end will be smaller than the current 7 million.
The younger lawyers or GB members will ask for a plausible deniability factor to be built in- the 2035 "We didn't say the end MUST come, we just said it could." That will open the eyes of many who will bail out of WTS. If it gets too bad, they will abandon their deniability and go full throttle with the end of the world by the end of 2034 with a huge summer convention. WT upper ranks will already have figured out how to steal as much as possible of what's left and WTS will go away.
It could happen.
-
Jim_TX
I think that no matter what they (GB) say, the followers will believe it (at least the older ones).
This goes hand-in-hand with a conversation that I had with my older sister recently. I asked her about 1914, and the 'this generation will not pass away' bit. We had just been talking about how the 'truth' never changes. When I asked her about the change to the 'generation doctrine' she told me that it was changed because it was wrong.
So - the older ones... those who have no life (or future) outside the JW-org, will continue to believe what is dished out - no matter if it contradicts what has been taught for years.
The younger ones... now, that may be a different story. With all of the technology available today (and in the future), I can't see that there would be many, here in the U.S and other advanced countries, that join a religion that does not embrace new technologies, but rather tends to avoid it and discourage it.
There can be only so many 'born-ins' that occur, and who believe it without being exposed to the modern technologies.
Most of the 'growth' will happen in those countries that do not have as much access to modern technologies.
Overall growth will not be as great as it has been in - in the past. In fact, it may start to level off and decline. But that will be explained as their being in 'the last days', or some other BS explanation - which will be believed by the gullible.
Well... that's my .02 worth.
Regards,
Jim TX
-
Paralipomenon
In regards to teaching, each generation has been snared by the "very close to the end" carrot. They will continue to prune teachings that actually have a real world marker (1975, 1914 generation... etc.)
I think their numbers will start to be in decline more. For the longest time, when someone had doubts about the society, there was no body to talk to, no means of talking to anyone. Now with the internet and the apostate groups getting larger and more vocal, the information is right there.
As far as technology goes, I'd be surprised if the society doesn't capitalize on "podcast" style talks that will be played at local KH's. It would take the crunch off the elder shortage and make sure the message is uniform.