Watching from the outside - and a question at the end if TL;DR

by unfamiliar 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • unfamiliar
    unfamiliar

    I grew up in a jw family. I was the youngest, and I never really felt like my questions were answered in a satisfying way, so i kind of gradually faded and I was thankfully never baptized (hooray for me). I kept going to family study time until i was about 27 (! my dad loved these things) but at this point I stopped, and I told my family that I didn't believe in the same as them. My dad is a controlling alcoholic, my mum brainwashed in general, my sister believes this stuff, but my brother doesn't quite. He was baptized so he is trying to fade without it being noticed, and my family doesn't really know except me.

    I have quite a few friends" on facebook from my childhood and growing up, and it is strange for me today to see this all from the outside. Posts that say stuff that is just blatantly not true, ignoring facts and just generally being very gullible and not researching things they post (not just religious things but everything else, this is true for a lot of them and it's weird to me how they are getting to be in their 30s (my age group) and up to their 70s and still as gullible and living in their own world).

    So, QUESTION! The other day two of these women both posted a video of an elderly couple, the old lady had alzheimers and the old man was taking care of his wife and being adorable. A lovely thing to see. But underneath one of the women commented that yes, even if that was lovely, "the sad truth was that once the alzheimer sets in properly, it'll all be so sad" followed up by a shocking (to me) "I am so glad we don't have to grow old in this world before the new world comes!". The other woman agreed and said something along the lines of "yes, aren't we lucky, I can't wait, hope it comes tomorrow <3"

    Okay, so what the... Is this the thing now? Do they think people in their 30's won't grow old and that the new world will be here before that? Really? I am so confused. Is this a common belief now with the JW?

  • OrphanCrow
    OrphanCrow
    unfamiliar: Okay, so what the... Is this the thing now? Do they think people in their 30's won't grow old and that the new world will be here before that? Really? I am so confused. Is this a common belief now with the JW?

    I am not sure why you are confused, unfamiliar.

    Is there a single person who is/was a JW who didn't believe this? I did - I was raised to believe this way back ages ago.

    Nothing has changed...of course they believe this - I am pretty sure we all did! Why would that change? That is a fundamental core belief of every JW, past and present.

    I was thankfully never baptized (hooray for me)

    Hooray!

    I wasn't baptized either. I avoided the dunking and escaped before that could happen.

  • dubstepped
    dubstepped
    Where have you been, lol. When I was a kid in the 80's I wasn't supposed to get old enough to drive, graduate, get married, certainly not approach 40. Armageddon is always tomorrow for them and they can't wait for billions to die so long as they get to pet pandas one day earlier.
  • cappytan
    cappytan

    Back in 1969, they promised young people that they would never fulfill a career or grow old in this system of things.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFQs6jnAe6A

  • OrphanCrow
    OrphanCrow
    dubstepped: Where have you been, lol.

    Haha! That is what I was thinking, too.

    Unfamiliar, where the hell were you during those 27 years of family study? Daydreaming or taking bathroom breaks?

  • DesirousOfChange
    DesirousOfChange

    Do they think people in their 30's won't grow old and that the new world will be here before that? Really? I am so confused. Is this a common belief now with the JW?

    Thankfully, it is not as common of a belief among JWs as in the past.

    All of us in my generation (the real kind, not the "overlap") definitely believed this. After all, we had the chronology of the end of the 6,000 years of Adam's creation (thank you, Freddie) and we KNEW that The End was coming before we got old.

    It should be obvious that although this belief is still be taught from the Kingdom Hall and Assembly Stage, the majority of 30-somethings DO NOT accept this. Please note the flood of new members here, most in their 20s and 30s (by my observation). They ain't buying this sh!t. Too bad for the ignorant and gullible who still are.

    Doc

    CAPPY TAN: Great video. Short. Sweet. Concise. Just like a sledge hammer.

  • unfamiliar
    unfamiliar
    I'm just going to reply to everyone at once, haha. Well!

    I am confused because all I heard growing up was that we will never know when the day comes. I never ever heard anyone saying that we will not grow old. I do know that quite a few people who are now in (around) their 70s and up used to think thought they wouldn't grow old in "this system", but this was kind of talked about as something they had misunderstood and so they would actually grow old in this system. I do live in Norway, maybe things are a little different here? I know they are all supposed to believe the same thing, but..
  • Magnum
    Magnum

    All I know is I was told my whole time as a JW that the end was imminent, and there was much printed in JW literature that indicated that. In the early 70's I was told I would never drive or finish high school. In the 80's, the generation was to expire in about 1984 (then it was extended until 1994). JWs thought the end was imminent in the late 1800's and all decades thereafter. They thought millions living in the early 1900s would never die.

    I'm not around them anymore, so I don't know what their mindset is now, but I think the literature still says the end is imminent.

  • neverendingjourney
    neverendingjourney

    From the WT book "Children" published in 1941, pgs. 366-367:

    Armageddon is surely near, and during that time the Lord will clean off the earth all that is disagreeable. Then, by His grace we shall begin our life with a greater vision, and prolonged joy...From now on we shall have our heart devotion fixed on the THEOCRACY knowing that soon we shall journey forever together on the earth...We can well defer our marriage until lasting peace comes to the earth. Now we must add nothing to our burdens, but be free and equipped to serve the Lord...Eunice, my decision is made. I shall shun politics, religion, and commerce, and I shall avoid the cities...Our present duty is plain. We must now be witnesses to the name of Jehovah.

    A 10 year old child reading that book would now be in his or her mid 80s.

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