Just a thought on how the zealous witness would overcome the situation? Would they open homes for bible study? Or take the wait and see what happens next way out. How in control would the elders be ?
If Kingdom halls closed their doors
by nojw86 18 Replies latest jw friends
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bluesapphire
How funny. I was just thinking about that. I was watching the "Postman" last night and thought, "Wonder if there was a third world war and it took place on the American continent and all the big cities were lost - including Brooklyn (gasp) - and there was no means of communication except "pony express" - what would the JW's do? I mean, would there be some loyal ones left out there? Would they start their own congregations? Would they hold onto the society's bound volumes and suffer martyrdom to protect them the way the early Christians did with their writings? If so, which ones? The ones pre-1914 generation change or post 1914 generation change? Would they hold onto Russell's writings or Rutherford's or Franz's? Seriously.
Or would many say to themselves, "Hey, Armageddon came and went and here we are and ALL OF THESE PEOPLE are here too and they were NEVER WITNESSES! How about that!" Would they start up their zealous witnessing about how Armageddon came and all those other witnesses were really "professed Christians (laugh)" but all of those non-witnesses must have been saved due to their "heart condition." In which case, the "never-to-be-repeated" work was all for nothing!
Man, I really wonder what would happen. What do you all think?
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Flip
“…Would they hold onto Russell's writings or Rutherford's or Franz's?…”
Most assuredly some would carry on independently; cult behavior cannot be turned off with a switch. However a corporation can.
Just as with any business, if there weren’t a "dollar" to be had, the need for the WTBTS and its affiliate corporations to "finance" Jehovah's ministry by controlling six million consumers and benefactors both, would cease to exist, period.
Flip
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RR
"closed their doors"? How about if they just opened their windows? Come to think of it, KH don't have windows, right?
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nojw86
Yep......yer right , no windows during one of those booooring sun. talks I would look at the wall and imagine a window sometimes,.. nojw
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Prisca
Maybe they'd start reading just the Bible for a change?
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Skimmer
If Brooklyn were to disappear, the congregations would fall apart shortly thereafter. The WTBTS has never encouraged the formation of local decision making abilities and instead insisted that the Governing Body and its close pals be in charge of everything.
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RR
Not true Skimmer, why do you think the Society reorganized? The Watchtower Society of PA and NY are merely publishng houses, however the newly formed 'Christian Congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses' is the actual organizer of the JW world and they are the ones that interact between the various congregations.
So Brooklyn disappears, the Watchtower blows up, the JW's are stil organized!
I'm just waiting for the day when all these corporations decide to claim independence from one another, then they will have a mess!
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Less Religion and more Jesus! -
Skimmer
Hello RR:
Can you imagine if there were two (or more) groups, each of which was publishing their own WT magazine? It wouldn't last for more than a few issues before the charges of apostasy flew fast and furious among the different groups.
It would be like as if the disagreements in the Governing Body were made public and the different factions each got their own magazine to publish. It would be humorus while it lasted.
That reminds me of another question. Why is it that the GB discussions are always private? Shouldn't they be open just as were discussions among the apostles as recorded in Acts and other early church histories? I can see a need to keep some personnel matters private (although they get leaked anyway as was the case with members Chitty and Greenlees), but just about everything else should be public. I think that all the GB meetings records should be opened up; they should not object unless they have something to hide.
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RR
Skimmer
Can you imagine if there were two (or more) groups, each of which was publishing their own WT magazine? It wouldn't last for more than a few issues before the charges of apostasy flew fast and furious among the different groups.
It could happen, although the WtBTS has a registered trademaek on "The Watchtower, Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom" They don't have a trademark on "The Watchtower" "Watchtower" or "Watch Tower."
In fact during the time that C.T. Russell published the Watch Tower, the Advent Christian Church, which he affiliated with prior to forming the IBSa published a journal called "The Watch Tower". The two journals were published at the same time. Despite Russell's 'Tower being published first.
In Europe, there is a group of Witnesses who left the Society, they number in the 100,000s, and also go by the name "Jehovah's WItnesses." They look, act and are organize like the Society, inly they are independent of the Society, believing that the Society has apostasized. Funny is, that just like the Socioety has all those resolutions condemning the Churches, they too have a resolution, only condemning the Society! LOl
They hae a website somewhere, if I find it, I'll post it!
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Less Religion and more Jesus!