1914- responsible for the biggest decrease in JW's?

by joey jojo 22 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  waton

  Matthew 24:34 give us confidence that at least some of “this generation will by no means pass away” before seeing the start of the great tribulation.” Watchtower 2014 Jan 15 p.31

  jj: here you can see the twisting by wt writers of the original text.

  Jesus said that all these things will come to pass, then the generation would die (like it did in the first century). "all these things" obviously includes the disaster bigger than Noah's flood. aka Armageddon. that Jesus mentioned as fact in the prophecy.

  The start of the GT is only a blip in all that.

  wt says : generation dies at the beginning

  "Jesus" says: generation will die off long after it is all over. (Jesus spoke to an anointed survivor 30 years later)

  Even outright contradictions will not really sink in, here, or in wt land.

  no shrinking of membership over absolute doctrinal error, sad but true, truth does not matter.
  
  
  
  
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  WTWizard

  You want genuine growth? In Europe, America, and Australia, this is not going to do the job. Altering these "a generation" is not going to keep people in those lands active. And without this, where are they going to come up with money and missionaries to send to Africa so they can keep those numbers propped up?

  You might get people in parts of the world where ignorance is supreme with this. Try this in Nigeria, Cameroon, The Congo, Burundi, and the areas surrounding this, and most people there will fall for it. But, who is going to be willing to help if they realize the whole jokehovian system is bogus? No one is going to learn to speak French (much of Africa is French speaking) or Spanish (as in Latin America), suffer the hardships, and do all that hard work for a bad religion where they can't even keep the narrative straight.

  Not to mention the persecution. Last I knew, the work is banned in Burundi (besides, anyone interested in missionary work there needs to become fluent in French). What other countries will be next? And, even where it is legal, you get tribal persecution--and who wants to learn those languages? All for a religion where "the truth" keeps being altered like this.

  Sure, they might see growth there. But without missionaries, those congregations will be left to flounder. Not to mention, there is no money coming from America or Europe--there goes the means to spread more of those worthless bibles in the Third World.
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  joey jojo

  TonusOH-

  "But it's a complicated and messy concept, and you can no longer just say "the generation that saw these things is getting older" because (A)you already abandoned that idea and (B)everyone knows you can just extend it again. So you cannot create the urgency this way. "

  Waton-

  " here you can see the twisting by wt writers of the original text.

  Jesus said that all these things will come to pass, then the generation would die (like it did in the first century). "all these things" obviously includes the disaster bigger than Noah's flood. aka Armageddon. that Jesus mentioned as fact in the prophecy.

  The start of the GT is only a blip in all that.

  wt says : generation dies at the beginning. "

  Maybe this will be the end game for the org.

  If they were to declare the start of the great tribulation today, it could be stretched long enough to allow the previous teaching to fade into obscurity.

  By subtly changing the wording of the prophecy and saying the anointed will be gone before armageddon, they have just solved the generation problem once and for all.

  Declaring the GT has started would jump-start the enthusiasm of the members and bring inactive ones back to the org.

  The period of the GT is indefinite, so by the time the current generation dies off, the governing body has had plenty of time to switch things up again.
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  road to nowhere

  The decrease in counted numbers may not show. A cynical lack of zeal is showing. Look at the half still zooming, most with no picture as an indicator.

  If the shunning dogma ceased who knows what would happen.
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  Phizzy

  For me, the 1914 rubbish was THE reason I left. I read the prophecy in Daniel and decided there was NO WAY a sane person could make a prophecy out of it that went further than what it says in the chapter, that it was fulfilled by the temporary madness of the King ending after seven years.

  An Elder said he would come back to me on it, and prove 1914 to me. He never returned. I then researched on line and found that the date 607 BCE for the destruction of Jerusalem was wrong, wrong totally and without doubt.

  Therefore this meant that No 1914 = No 1919 choosing of a GB = today's G.B are self-appointed Charlatans.

  I then spent many hours researching everything J.W , and the whole House of Cards that is their teaching and Claims fell down.

  You and I have been conned by a massive, money making Scam.
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  punkofnice

  2010- overlapping generation first mentioned- some anointed survive Armageddon.

  That was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Not the only thing but up there with other nonsense that only a dangerous cult could play games with.
  
  
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  blondie

  The WTS taught some time before 1925, that the end was coming in 1925. In 1925 95,000 members attended the "memorial." In 1926, only 25,000 did. Quite a drop in membership. (for info on this teaching https://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/1925.php ) "The converse occurred after 1925 came and went without incidence. Memorial attendance dropped by three-quarters, from 88,544 in 1927 to just 17,380 in 1928. (Watchtower 1955 p.366; Yearbook 1929 p.55) (Jehovah's Witnesses in the Divine Purpose p.313) It is estimated that as many as 75% of publishers left the religion and by 1935 memorial attendance was still only 63,146.3 It took until 1940 to once again reach the same number of Watchtower followers as the pre-1925 era."
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  TonusOH

  I remember reading about that, maybe in Crisis of Conscience. I think 1925 had a huge effect on any future predictions. Because they rely on out-of-time urgency, they never stopped predicting the end of the world. But they tried to use language that wasn't as clear and definite as Rutherford had repeatedly used regarding 1925.

  Of course, they still slipped up from time-to-time. Most of the times they hinted at a date, they would occasionally use language that was all too clear. Unless they think that "the next few years" refers to more than 80 years.
  
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  blondie

  TonusOH, very good answer, sums up the WTS thinking but how they can't resist even setting a date even after 1925. I remember one jw told me that jws couldn't know the "day and the hour" meaning literally a day or hour, but they could know the year, from 1966 up to 1975 when jws realized the end wasn't coming then. It also shows why the WTS had to come up with the "overlapping generation" doctrine.
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  dropoffyourkeylee

  I say that virtually nobody actually believes the overlapping generation thing. They may say they do, but no, it makes no sense to anyone.