I was invited to a small get-together by a long time friend. We both served as elders for years. He is in his late 70s. I will skip the details about how I was invited but interestingly the invitation was to me and me alone. I was told I could not invite anyone myself.
To my surprised, a group of about 100-150--???--- brothers and sisters rent a building and meet every few months. The youngest couple is 65 years old. These are all former elders, former regular pioneers, who are no longer serving. They have all stepped down. They are from all over the city, English congregations only. There was food and drink and association for about 4 hours. After a couple of hours one of the brothers got up and gave a little talk of encouragement.
Are you wondering what this is all about? Believe me, I was very curious what was going on. I will give you a brief rundown on what I observed. Afterwards I asked questions and it just confirmed what the brother said from the platform.
This group of JWs still believe that God is at some point going to intervene into man’s affairs. When—they are not sure. That’s the only thing they have in common with the Watchtower.
They don’t buy into the overlapping generation explanation anymore. They don’t approve of the JW TV. They think they have become part of the TV evangelical –Babylon the Great. They believe the Cart witnessing is a cowardly way of preaching God’s Kingdom.
They think the WT has lost focus on God’s will and it being caught in Satan’s greedy commercialism. They don’t go out in service anymore because they feel it is wrong to focus and preach JW.Org instead of announcing God’s Kingdom. Also they are not sure if this period is the last days.
They don’t support any of the financial projects that beg for more money. They still read the WT magazine but pick and choose articles they read. They download the magazines instead of ordering them through the congregation because they only attend the Sunday meetings once every couple of months just to see what is going on.
They don’t read apostate stuff.
There is no one under 65 years old. These are JWs who don’t believe the WT is being used by Jehovah anymore but still believe that there is gong to be divine intervention.
The brother speaking from the platform said they have been in contact with other groups of JWs like them in Phoenix Arizona, Albuquerque N.M. and different cities in Texas.
I believe the WT is starting to fragment from the inside just like the Bible Students did what Judge Rutherford took over after Charles T. Russell’s death.
They are not WT members anymore
And they are not Apostates.
There are something new.