by slimboyfat 21 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
The only point I would add is that the very same principle of self-validation applies to continued belief in Biblical "prophecies in general. How, otherwise, could a book that ends with the expressed wish "Come Lord Jesus" still be believed a good 2,000 years after the all the end-times urgency? Answer: Self validation by explaining away why it hasn't yet happened but it soon will.
JWs are only a specific case of a more general problem with Bibilcal prophecies.
Right, and I would add that they are one of the more extreme cases.
Right, and I would add that they are one of the more extreme cases.
Definitely - and as with extreme cases, they illustrate principles most clearly.
That instant connection one experiences at assemblies, KH's etc. is essential to an active witness. If your a witness and I'm a witness........... we validate each other. We can bask in our mutually wonderful reflections. The pathological need to continuely be validated explains their harsh response to their children, mates, parents or close witness friends..... who have stopped believing. They are more then willing to abandon those persons because they can no longer be validated by them. The friendships and relationships end immediatly even before any announce is made....even if there is never an announcment. JW's are on shaky ground when nothing is reflected back at them. Probably why so many are willing to waste hours attending meetings and assemblies even though there is seldom anything meaningful studied or learned.
SlimboyFat, thank you very much!!!
Marking....
"a belief system consists of statements that are specific and exciting on first inspection, but when running into trouble, they are belatedly modified so as to make them trivial or uninteresting. The deflationary re-interpretation of a failed doomsday prediction is a standard example of this move: a typical solution for apparent prophetic failure is to reinterpret the promised events on an invisible and spiritual level ...."
Ah, ha ha ha ha ha!!! Man, does that ever sound familiar!!
"For example, the cult of Jehovah's Witnesses has a long history of what outsiders perceive as blatant prophetic failures, but the movement does not show any signs of disappearing. ..."
AAAAaaaah CRUD...!!!
Well, stranger things have happened...
Thanks Slimboy for finding this info and posting it.
I was interested to see that one of the sources was by Melton. I can add that the first book which set me on the road out was "The Encyclopedia of American Religions, Vol II, by J. Gordon Melton, editor. It's coverage of Adventism and the Russell-JW religion and offshoots were an eye opener.
And then there are comments like "Only the spiritually weak experience spiritual shipwreck when facing disappiontment." And, "He that endures to the end will be saved". Using both guilt and blame to their advantage.
For example, when their prediction of the Second Coming of Christ in 1873–1874 failed to come true, Jehovah's Witnesses argued that Christ had returned as predicted, but as an invisible spirit being (Zygmunt, 1970 , p. 931).
Is the author incorrect to say that the JW's predicted the Second Coming of Christ in 1873-1874, since the Adventists made the prediction, not the JW's (who did not exist as a group with that name at the time)? Did Russell actually believe/participate in the prediction prior to 1873-1874, or did he just participate in the reinterpretation afterward?
No the author is correct: Russell boldly talked about Christ's (invisible) return that year. Even as later as the mid to late 1920s madcap Rutherford still espoused the date.
The Adventists can be credited with starting Russell on his obsession with dates: They had predicted Christ's return in 1844 then subsequently spiritualized the date. Looking back we can see what utter nonsensethe whole enterprise is: There's no way to test the credibility of predictions that are subsequently given a spiritual fulfillment. Then again, to believe such nonsense requires something of a dim and desperately impressionable intellect.
