by kneehighmiah 70 Replies latest jw friends
Most witnesses will not be shaken by any changes in the watchtower. Not enough humility to acknoledge that the GB is wrong and wasted decades of their lives with meetings and knocking on doors
and telling others that they are the only ones with the true religion.
In our area it's possible to take early retirement at 55 years of age, if you are in any kind of trade union, teachers union, or work for any utility company. Of course, this reduces your monthly retirement amount by about 30%. (Still, it would exceed what many persons live on in this area.)
But if any JW really believed that Armageddon was imminent, wouldn't they feel the need to downsize, cut expenses, retire and pioneer in an effort to save some of the countless lives soon to be lost?
Is anyone demonstrating that they really have faith that Armageddon is that near?
NO.
Doc
Evidence that JW morale is at an all-time low is the fact that meeting attendance is soo damn low!
I've heard time and time again from COs that JWs need to work on their meeting attendance.
Currently the percentage that I've heard over and over again is 30%! Thirty percent (30%) if not more of JWs are opting to stay home to watch T.V., stay home and surf the net, go shopping, a sight headache or work overtime....any excuse just to stay away from boring JW meetings.
I have been out on social event last week and got involved in conversation about 1914 and and the ovelapping nonsense. Elder from our cong was telling everybody that, because the second overrlaping generation is 70 years old, then end must be really close, definitely in 10 years. Everybody got really excited about it . I told him that, this is the sixth or seventh version of generation explanation and how can I be so sure that this is the right one. Answer, read Prov 4:18. and Micah something I can remember. This elder is born in, young man with great personality and great attitude , always helping others, often materialy. I mean he is great guy and we're friends (so far, he does't know I'm awful apostate ) but, mental block created by wt teachings in his head, does't allow him use his brain. How crazy and sad it is.
But it is coming up again in the January edition. I just got my copy in English yesterday and already marked up the 2 offending paragraphs. I am going to use if for discussion with the wife. Plus we get a bonus timeline in the same issue that again shows the 'flood' occured in 2370BCE and then only 100 years later the buggers were already building the tower of Babel. So they all moved from Ararat to plains of Shiinar and breeding like rabbits, managed to build cities and civilizations with enough support to embark on this project. Not bad!
In the same timeline, they did not want to 'speculate' on what year Adam and Eve were ejected from Eden so they did not post a date.
pah!
In 100 years 3 couples could produce 1000s of people if they all bred like rabbits. It's no problem.
Just trust in the big man
**cough**
Another interesting aspect of the timeline is the reference to the pyramids in WT literatures
Date of flood - 2370 BCE, 3rd milllenium B.C.E, 24th century B.C, but 630 years of that epoch preceeded it.
Here is a quote from the Insight book...
Later, during his stay in Egypt (Ge 12:10), Abraham may have witnessed some of the architectural splendors of that land. The Step Pyramid of King Djoser at Saqqara is supposed to date from the third millennium B.C.E. and is one of the earliest examples remaining of major constructions using cut stone. (PICTURE, Vol. 1, p. 530) The Great Pyramid of Khufu, built somewhat later at Giza, has a huge base of 5.3 ha (13 acres) and was made of some 2,300,000 blocks of limestone, each weighing 2.3 metric tons on the average. It was originally 147 m (482 ft) high. Not only the size but also the precision achieved makes it a project amazing even modern engineers. Several centuries later at Karnak, farther up the Nile, the Egyptians produced the largest known temple built by man. The roof of its great hall was supported by 134 enormous columns, each some 3 m (10 ft) in diameter,decorated with richly colored reliefs.
Wikipedia tells me that the Pyrimid of Djoser was built around 2667–2648 BC.
It also tells me that the Great Pyramid of Khufu was built around 2560 BC.
It also tells me about a number of other sites that were built at least 2400 BC - many of them outside of Africa and the Middle East. Loads of them are in North West Europe. South America has a building older than the Pyrimid of Djoser.
The WT is strangely silent on all of this. Somehow it ignores the continuity of the Egyptian dynasties through the destruction of the flood. In a time where there is still the possibility that mountains were forced up and extraordinary tectonic activity changed the shape of the world all these structures survived without significant damage. Amazing what God can do. How faith strengthening.
Holy crap. Look at this chart - http://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/w20140115/worship-jehovah-king-of-eternity/
how do you explain Tower of Babel and the Egyptian dynasties not having a giant gap in their records?
@Konceptual99: yea, that quote about Abraham really got me started when I first saw it. According to WT history, there were no Egyptians before the Tower of Babel. So all of Egyptian history was compressed into the time from post 2269 to when Abraham arrived. That is most amazing. It is also interesting how they mention how advanced the city of Ur was when discussing Abraham's departure to live in tents, but no mention of the fact that Sumeria had 1000 years of history as a dominant civiization prior to that. Sure we don't know exact dates, but we do know that most of it happened earlier than 2370. The whole subject was always so embarassing to me. I prayed nobody would bring up the subject at the door when I was in.
So no wonder witnesses are demoralized. It is not healthy trying to maintain multiple versions of 'truth' in your mind simultaneously.
I did a survey here on who left after the 1995 thing and got many responses. You can go through the "topics started" on my profile to find it if you're interested.
I think people are getting tired. It's just the same thing decade after decade and it's lost its value. It's become a great big "Meh."
