"instructions that aren't sound by a human standpoint"

mikeflood

What could be "an instruction not sound by a human standpoint"?

I'm going by dissolving their legal entities...any guesses?

Well, going by the context in which they used it, it would refer to action that everyone in the congregation will be expected to take. Dissolving legal entities or any other purely structural changes wouldn't quite fit that, unless it came with radical changes to what is required for the average JW in the R&F.

I'm thinking that it would mean something more like:

Restructuring whole circuits, disbanding or merging congregations across large areas - either making them into tiny satellite groups, or conversely, large mega-groups.
Going back to at least some online meetings or meetings in private homes might be included in that, especially if it was felt that "persecution" by authorities was coming.
Requiring JWs to make significant financial donations (tithing?), or to surrender certain material possessions
In extremis - if the GB really believe what they say and actually thought the GT is imminent - possibly even declare a particular date when JWs should abandon their jobs and/or leave their non-believing family members and move in together. Maybe not like those extreme high control groups that have established their own "communes" or "compounds", but perhaps more like these smaller churches that encourage groups of "disciples" to form "families" that share households? That would both increase the ability to control, and consolidate material assets among local Witnesses.

Some have feared that they might "do a Jim Jones" but I've always thought that's ridiculous and completely outside anything the JWs have ever stood for.

The funny thing is though, that events, and the behaviour of the GB, even since that dramatic statement was first made, have radically changed again. At that time, all the output from the Org was leading to an almost "doomsday" style showdown with the world, accompanied by hiding in bunkers and being hunted down by black-clad army/police with automatic weapons and armoured vehicles.

But now, the messaging seems to have changed again, with the recent changes hinting at a less isolationist and more conciliatory tone with "the world" - softer messaging in the ministry towards destruction at Armageddon, more emphasis on God being the one to choose who he will allow to live and be resurrected, more emphasis on being "conversational" in the ministry, relaxing dress code, more encouragement to get faders and the disfellowshipped back, etc.

It all seems to send a confused message, for anyone who has been trying to follow the general direction the Org has been taking for the past 20-30 years.

Beth Sarim

It wouldn't surprise me if it weren't for the laws of the land,,,, the Borganization would instruct its members to hunt down & kill apostates.,,, or,,,,

They might just have them hunt down & target dissenters. Regardless,,,,,the consequences.

You know all that tripe about following all instructions whether they seem strategic or not.

dropoffyourkeylee

I think a lot of it has to do with the closing/sale of Kingdom Halls, making people drive an hour or more to meetings. Makes no sense to the average JW, especially where they donated their own hard earned money to build the damn things in the first place.

I don't see going back to private homes, at least in the US, due to liability/zoning/parking/ADA issues.

Journeyman

I think a lot of it has to do with the closing/sale of Kingdom Halls [..]
I don't see going back to private homes, at least in the US, due to liability/zoning/parking/ADA issues.

I certainly think the Org has little wriggle room on most activities - including the more extreme ones I listed, which I was just brainstorming - in most parts of the world, especially the more "advanced" places like North America, UK, Europe and Australasia. And they're aware of this, which is why they've kept the detail of what they really intend to do (should the GT actually happen) very quiet.

As the world is now, the most they can do globally is radically rearrange circuits and zones, selling off facilities and herding the R&F into different sized congregations/groups or locations as they see fit. They already started doing a lot of that. As part of it, they can also radically rearrange their own internal organisation, perhaps replacing COs with rotating localised elder appointments, adjusting the average size of congregations, changing meeting times, teaching and structure, and so on.

They might try tightening up financial demands, but unlike some other groups like Scientology and the Mormons, they're limited in what they can do there because they don't have enough control to demand specific payments from their followers, nor does their historic teaching encourage members to earn enough to be high-paying donors.

But currently, their only levers with the R&F are organisational and financial.

None of this means anything to the outside world, but big changes in these areas would cause huge ripples of discontent internally.

Sea Breeze

What could be "an instruction not sound by a human standpoint"?

Jim Jones Body

What I'm about to ask you to do may not seem sound from a human standpoint.

Beth Sarim

What??

Could they possibly have up their sleeves?? When you hear that hey??

Atlantis

Fantastic comments above, and 99 percent of those comments HAVE ALREADY HAPPENED. Don't think for one moment that a JW won't hunt you down and kill you if he/she thinks they are doing it to please God.

Time and time again we have read and seen news reports of JW's being arrested for murder for killing other people and then going home, getting cleaned up to giving a talk that night. IT has ALREADY HAPPENED!

JohnR1975

The direction to Keep going to get latest booster of the clot shot don’t make sense from a human standpoint!!!!

Jalisco

The only real use of this bizarre teaching is to make people accept things today that require explanation or that may produce protests. Fantasy scenarios of a great tribulation with no biblical basis are hypothesized to make people swallow unpleasant decisions and teachings of today.

"instructions that aren't sound by a human standpoint"

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