How soon is soon?

Sour Grapes

I guess if the JDubs have no clue how long a generation is they also wouldn't know how long a time period the word "soon" refers too.

60 years ago my mother would hammer into my brain how soon the Great Tribulation was. Soon Jehovah would destroy the wicked. Then a few years later there was no need to go to college because the end was so soon.

How long is the time period for soon? If you have to work late and you call your wife to let her know that you will be home soon, when will she expect you to be home? In hours, weeks, months, years, or decades?

If you are driving to see relatives in another state and the children in the backseat get restless and ask, "How much longer until we get there?" Of course, the answer is "soon." Hold on kiddies, in Watchtower Land lingo you could be on one hell of a long drive.

If you are single and you find the love of your life, then later you propose to the person. You proudly announce to the parents, "We are getting married soon." What time frame is in their mind?

You are in the car driving a long distance and your wife tells you that she needs to stop and use the restroom soon, how much time are you going to give her?

I was going to write down how the dictionary defines the word soon; however, everyone reading this already knows. Now if I knew that the Gibbering Booty would read this then I would have done that since they don't seem to know how soon is soon.

The saddest thing is that JDub children today are saying how soon the end is. Only in God's Organization could grandparents, parents, and children die during a single time period of soon.

fastJehu

I researched "how long is soon" some years ago.

Interestingly it depends on how old a person is.

scratchme1010

Now if I knew that the Gibbering Booty would read this then I would have done that since they don't seem to know how soon is soon.

They don't have to. They know they are fooling people with their nonsense.

days of future passed

Didn't the society use that illustration of children asking their parents "how soon are we going to get there?" To a child, a short trip can seem like a looonnnng time. That is how it is with us. We just have to be patient and wait on Jehovah..... or something to that effect.

Telling my mother, I wasn't supposed to graduate high school, get a job etc. falls on deaf ears. At her age, soon isn't soon enough.

jwleaks

The following is quoted verbatim from the JW LEAKS website:-

The first edition of The Watchtower magazine, July 1879, made the following two comments on pages 5 and 8 regarding how "soon" the end of this system will come and the marriage of Christ's Bride will take place:

"Keep your eye fixed on the prize. Soon-very soon-you may wear the crown."

""The Chaste Virgin" Church, which expects soon to go in to the marriage and become Christ's Bride."

Some 138 years later the Jehovah's Witnesses are still waiting to "rejoice over the marriage of the Lamb!" of which will take place soon, after the war of Armageddon, according to the 'new light' published in The Watchtower magazine, February 15, 2014.

Jehovah's Witnesses - Proclaimers of "soon" since 1879.

Ftn. Special hello to all those future JWs and XJWs, and all sundry breakaway groups, who stumble across the above comments while doing research anytime "soon" in the next 138 years or so (2156 CE +).

slimboyfat

I believe Watchtower writers could benefit from an explanation of "near and far" from our old pal Grover.

https://youtu.be/iZhEcRrMA-M

venus

Bernard Shaw perfectly understood the problem when he said:

"“No man ever believes that the Bible means what it says: He is always convinced that it says what he means.”"

carla

Years ago me & my jw had a jw argument and ended up arguing about the word 'soon' in jw literature and its meaning. To make my point I started using the term myself! I applied my own meaning of 'soon' to many situations. (yeah, yeah, kind of bitchy I know, it was a tough time around here) "when are the kids going to clean their rooms?" "soon", "when will supper be done?" "soon" (hours later). Just tells you how asinine a jw argument can get. Round 2 of the 'soon' argument the point was made and promptly forgotten at the next meeting. sigh. Next up might have been something like "we can assume...." , me, knocking my head against the wall. "No! you cannot assume anything! you are adding and making things up!" I probably didn't use the word 'things', most likely rhymed with 'fit'.

Onager

Frame of reference is key when considering something subjective like soon. It doesn't matter if there's an infinite God to whom "soon" is a million years. It's the frame of reference of the people receiving the message that is important.

For humans soon can still be seconds, minutes or even years. It's still subjective. What it can't be though is more than the lifetime of a human. That's not soon in anybody's book.

You might say, wait a minute. The Yellowstone Caldera is going to explode soon and that might be thousands of years from now. Yes, but the frame of reference for that "soon" is in a geological time, not human lifespan time.

The message was for humans and the frame of reference was human, so although the term soon is subjective it cannot exceed a whole human lifetime.

Fred Franztone

How soon is now?

How soon is soon?

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