Endgame Mystery

by metatron 7 Replies latest jw friends

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  metatron

  There is a question about the WTS's future that I can't answer.

  What happens when they 'lose the will of Heaven'?

  That's a Chinese version of 'what happens when the Wizard of Oz
  is exposed as an ordinary guy'?

  I know that the Society fears this - because their unyielding
  directive is to maintain the illusion at any cost. Consider
  that they cannot apologize for anything - no matter how awful
  because that would infer their fallibility. Try telling Joe
  Elder that the organization is imperfect - or makes mistakes
  and see what reaction you get.

  Every Watchtower published absolutely sticks to the principle
  of never admitting to be misguided. Even when their prophecies
  fail, they express disappointment - but NEVER say "we were wrong".
  The idea is hinted that whatever appears as a mistake is actually
  some part of the Divine purpose we can't understand.
  The 1975 aftermath is presented as a necessary separating out of
  unspiritual people from the organization - not really a false
  prophecy, with all it's effects.

  What I discern here is that - if you build an entire subculture
  around a repeated image of infallibility - then there will be
  harsh consequences if that image is exposed as false. People
  will come to depend on that illusion - and get upset if it suddenly
  is yanked away.

  Why do think they now allow 15 minute publishers? They are desperate
  to avoid their exposure if the disciple making work world -wide
  HITS ZERO!

  There are a variety of ways that they can - and will, eventually,
  be publically exposed as fallible - I guess most Witlesses will
  emotionally resist this reality but if they keep getting chipped
  away, it will be unavoidable. Congregations full of grey-haired
  people - with the kids gone - will be difficult to ignore.

  Right now, the Watchtower's primary message is:

  "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"

  After that fails, I'm not sure what happens

  metatron ( maybe we all go to Kansas?)
• 

  Tammie

  I guess I don't have far to go. HE HE HE HE I'm already here.

  
  The truth can never be hurt by a lie,
  but a lie can be exposed by the truth.
• 

  Satanus

  Met

  Exposure can go on untill there is nothing left hidden, but witlesses who need their crutch will still be unable to see the blinding light. You don't understand that many people have a desperate NEED for the wizard. They would rather kill someone attempting to expose their wizard, than see him as just ordinary. Otherwise, their whole world collapses into dust.

  SS
• 

  Hmmm

  Good post (as usual) Metatron,

  I'm not sure what you mean when you say they will eventually be exposed as infallible. I don't think they ever will, to their ever-shrinking group.

  Sure the world at large will see it, but it already does, doesn't it? I don't think you'll ever have the Witness population as a whole sharing an epiphany of this sort.

  I don't think they'll ever drop the Spirit-Directed schtick, but even if they did, today's generation of Dubs would hold on to it--they have to, to justify decades of self-sacrifice!

  I do believe the JWs will slowly mainstream. And I do believe that in the process they'll lose a generation of kids. (I'm not sure which will cause the other.) But I think even the new and improved JWs (whose members will look on blood bans and holiday bans as ancient history) will always have an undercurrent of the Papal Infall--er, Spirit-Directed doctrine.

  Hmmm
• 

  Nathan Natas

  I like that phrase, "the will of heaven."

  I think that if we compare the Dubs with other cults, we can get an idea of what to expect: in the short term, a hard-core minority will remain staunch defenders of the faith regardless of how foolish and irrational the organization is revealled to be. But the WTS is nothing but a business, even if crazies want to think it is more than that, and in the longer term, with their financial lifeblood dripping sacramentally onto the ground, the organization will eventually collapse. This is the fate of all parasites, who contribute nothing of value to the host they suck dry. If there was the slightest hint of a symbiotic arrangement it might be otherwise. Cult members who are under the mind controlling narcotic meme of the Borg may have the illusion they're in Paradise but it IS an illusion.

  I'm basing this prediction on what I've read of various "flying saucer" religious cults and such.

  - Nathan Natas, UADNA
  (Unseen Apostate Directorate of North America)
• 

  Francois

  They did once make the statement that the 1975 debacle was a "natural enough mistake to make." Which I thought was a great stretch for them.

  FT

  NOTE TO GOVERNING BODY: You've been challenged to a debate, boys. Dont you have ANY balls?
• 

  LDH

  Met,

  It's NEVER their fault. It's that DAMN ELUSIVE BROTHER "SOME".

  * http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=5013&site=3#135213

  Lisa
  Director, UADNA
• 

  metatron

  Well, you know I like the Soviet analogy!

  A collective epiphany did happen in a relatively short
  period of time - especially after the shock of seeing
  eastern Europe toss off communist rule - and defeat in
  Afghanistan.

  There was a story of a very old man walking by a long line
  for food. He said out loud something like "Seventy years after the
  revolution and you still wait for bread!".

  The Chinese expression about losing the will of heaven was
  used in regard to the Tianamen Square massacre. The leadership
  felt that if they did nothing to stop the protests they
  would be perceived as having lost legitimacy, 'the will of
  heaven'. Stuff like this is why, as one old Bethel overseer
  said "the Society hates martyrs" (i.e. Witnesses who openly oppose
  them on moral grounds)- hence, the harsh treatment of Bill Bowen
  and others - for threatening the legitimacy of their 'rule'.

  metatron