Zilgee - “Will the anointed now fight with each other in heaven?”
vidiot Probably not.
But I would totally watch that movie.
😏
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😁😁👍
GB Update #2, March 2024: Women allowed to wear pants, no ties/coats required if not giving a talk, & now able to greet DF ones in the KH!
by WingCommander 194 Replies latest jw friends
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Diogenesister
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Diogenesister
Yes. I concur. This is all just too little,, too late.
How about a homeless shelter. Or even a soup kitchen for the ""less privileged" ones.
Beth Sarim this would be the clincher. If I saw this I might believe they were genuine. The problem with watchtower is they think too highly of themselves. They think everything - every recource - should go in their direction and its wasteful to allow jehovahs possetions to benefit anyone else. What they really need is a little humility.
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JeffT
I think a good analog for the collapse of the Watchtower is the fall of the World Wide Church of God. Founded in 1933, (with a different name) by Herbert W. Armstrong the WWCG shared a lot of theology with the Witnesses. Armstrong's followers believed the end of the world was imminent, and did not believe the Trinity. They also believed in a number of old testament laws (such as keeping the Sabbath) were still required of Christians. Mainstream churches thought WWCG was a cult.
Through the sixties and seventies the church grew rapidly. I can't find the numbers now, but I recall that it was roughly equal to the witnesses, and many of us believed that Armstrong was stealing most of his stuff from us. Following Armstrong's death in 1986 the church hit some hard times. His son took charge for a time but eventually amid a scandal church leaders disfellowshipped him.
Church leaders then set about trying to "mainstream" the church. This led to numerous splinter groups forming. In 1997 the church was recognized by the National Association of Evangelicals. It has about 30,000 members.
I think trying to mainstream the Watchtower would have similar results. The super hard core JW's will form their own groups that still reject the trinity, hell fire etc. Back in the day I knew some elders that would love to install themselves as the new GB. Others will wonder off and do nothing, or find some other church that suits them. The problem being for decades the witnesses defined themselves in terms of what they are not -- specifically nothing like all those other churches.
If the WTBS is to survive it must answer one question: what's the point? It they can't come up with a good reason to be a witness everybody will just go away.
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MrTheocratic
I think some on this thread are to optimistic. The average Jdub is not going anywhere. These people are so brainwashed that if the GB came out and said "they have been lying all along, and they are sorry for the pain they have caused", these people would still follow.
One Elder, serving for 40 years told me today " The organization is preparing us for the great tribulation. When the Government comes looking for us they now will not be able to tell who the Jdubs are because now they will blend in with the world. This is Jehovahs way of protecting us".
In my mind I thought " What the F#$!
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ozziepost
@JeffT
The problem being for decades the witnesses defined themselves in terms of what they are not -- specifically nothing like all those other churches.
If the WTBS is to survive it must answer one question: what's the point? It they can't come up with a good reason to be a witness everybody will just go away.I think you’re exactly right, without the points of differentiation, what is the point of their existence?
IMO they have to maintain much that is onerous in order to justify themselves. If they don’t, then just like the Worldwide Church of God, they will “wither and die”.
Cheers,
Ozzie 🍷
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ozziepost
One Elder, serving for 40 years told me today " The organization is preparing us for the great tribulation. When the Government comes looking for us they now will not be able to tell who the Jdubs are because now they will blend in with the world. This is Jehovahs way of protecting us".
I don’t see this as being unusual, just a further evidence of ‘cognitive dissonance’.
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Vidiot
Jeezus… JW-brand cognitive dissonance should have it’s own special classification. 😵💫
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Vidiot
What JeffT and ozziepost said.
Authentic mainstream reform would - for all intents and purposes - take everything about JWs that they held up as proof they alone have “The Truth”, and flush it down the toilet…
…up to and including the all-important claim of being “God’s Exclusive Earthly Organization”.
They’d be just another denomination with an embarrassing past… no different from all the other churches they spent decades condemning as “false religion”.
Except for the lifelong institutionalized, there’d be no real incentive left to even be a Jehovah’s Witness.
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wannabefree
Thank you Jehovah. I got rid of my suits and ties a decade ago and grew a beard. Now I can go back and fit right in.
On second thought, no.
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mikeflood
Well, I guess everything is on the chopping block now ..
These are my predictions, and these changes are loooong overdue.
Baptism, for legal challenges, no more baptism for minors, you're gonna need of legal age of consent. Maybe re-baptism for minors already in the Borg when they are 18?
Women, (it's incredible they're wasting half of their members....) at least allow them to become ministerial servants...an easy change, remember Romans 16:1?
And last but not least, pioneers have fulfilled their purpose, if you are spending in good conscience more than, let's say 40 hours preaching you could consider yourself a pioneer....no more bothering about reporting hours...who wants a two tier rank and file? Besides that would represent a good amount in savings...
However, don't give them ideas. ..