by BackSlider 35 Replies latest jw friends
"Wouldn't you rather have a smoke alarm that went off once and awhile even if there was no fire, than to not have one, because at least you knew it worked, so that when the smoke started coming for real from a real fire you would have the warning?"
Wouldn't you rather have a boy who only cries "wolf!" when there really is a wolf, instead of just to get attention?
Broken Promises - "You said your Dad is one of the "anointed". I'm wondering how you think he'll take it when he learns that he's not part of the FDS anymore?"
Yes, please tell us how it goes down.
Welcome!
Without the Gentile Times prophecy (1914), on what basis can anyone conclude we're living in the 'Last Days'?
Welcome, Backslider.
Yup, I dare say you may be onto something, as they absolutely need to ditch 1914 and down-play the focus on specific dates, being as non-specific as possible (ie saying the end is "near"; when asking for specifics, saying, "soon"). Instead, they need to play up the uncertainty element (with a message of "be prepared").
That smoke detector analogy/excuse is truly a sad sign of their prediction failures (b eing that they've had only false alarms!): I'd rather have an alarm that works as it should, and as demanded by QA organizations like Underwriters Labs, Consumer Products Safety Commission, etc.
That's what they get for doing the theological equivalent of buying a cheap Chinese-made smoke detector at the $0.99 Store!
I like the hypothesis.....but what I cannot get past is that 1914 if the very foundation of the cult. If it weren't for CTR and his 1914 dates.....this cult would have never taken off.
Then again....the further they get away from 1914 (in terms of time).....the easier it may be to distance themselves. Distancing themselves from 1914 in 1950 would have been impossible. But 100 to 150 years later......it will be easier because all those that believed fervently that 1914 was such a pivotal date will be gone. If they keep working at it......they'll be able to keep 1914 as historical......yet remove the importance from it.......thus yanking out the very foundation of the religion without any current or future JWs even knowing it.
Welcome BackSlider ! Glad to see you have woken up to what the WT/JW religion really is, i.e a Publishing and Real Estate Company posing as a religion, and glad to have you posting here too.
I too think they have painted themselves in to a corner with regard to the 1914 doctrine, and the 1919 choosing, without the latter they have no authority, no voice, of course.
Over recent years we have seen a hiding of how 1914 is arrived at, it is only spoken of as a "given", same with the 1919 choosing, the reasoning behind that is so vague, and so well buried in WT literature, that the only way a JW could learn what it was would be to join here and ask an expert like "Cedars".
Most JW's are actually hard pushed to put the 1914 doctrine in an intelligible way, 99.9% of JW's cannot even get close to the 1919 choosing, they just brush it off as "proved as far as they are concerned", in other words they have never looked at the teaching.
And they have the barefaced cheek to go to people's door and tell them they should examine their religion because JW's have the "truth" !
Leaving WT SAID:
"Without the Gentile Times prophecy (1914), on what basis can anyone conclude we're living in the 'Last Days'?"
In World history, what time HASN'T been "Gentile Times"? Did I miss the book of the Bible where Israel and Jews became a great World power, conquering other Nations, or operating a vast Empire like they were Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, UK, etc?
Point being, anyone who buys the story-line based on a faux "Gentile Times" concept as historically-valid is not likely to be worried about little details like actual historicity and a lack of archaeological evidence (where the expression referring to a scam as "selling the BROOKLYN bridge" is probably no coincidence, lol)!
Clearly 1914 is a joke but that is where they get their power structure from. Without that date, they still wouldn't have their "appointment" and therefore no authority as the FDS. The only thing they could possibly do is change the date from 1914 to sometime later but in the past. At least no later than whenever the GB structure came into exsistance back in the 70s.
I'm sure they'd love to move the date and they moved it once in their past from 1874 to 1914 so I'm sure they could do it again. But, the risk they run is having a ton of people leave.
Welcome to the board!! Look forward to your comments.
Welcome BackSlider!
Interesting ideas on the scrapping of 1914. Very interesting too, that of the people the writing department commissioned to research 607 and 1914...some of them left the borg.
They change who the FDS is....
They change the generation teaching...
They change no blood at all to yes you can take parts of it...
With all that they could change 1914 to simply the beginning of the 'last days' and no other significance....
Yet, with all of that in mind, hardcore JWs will still say "The core teachings have always remained the same." Really?
I guess the only things that would be off limits to changes are - anti-trinity, no immortal soul and no hell fire???
Hiya BackSlider and welcome to the board.
I agree that eventually they are going to have to do something about the 1914 doctrine - it's been 98 years.
Anway I hope you have a great time on the board, and keep on searching.
