by czarofmischief 25 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I think the whole 120 Years Moses thing that recently came out was supposed to ease the fears of the average JW that they *MIGHT* have been wrong about the whole end of the world thing.
Remember when they said that someone had to be an adult when 1914 happened... then they changed it to a teenager... then a child... then a baby....
Now they are saying that someone, in theory, could live to be 120 years old. This new date range is just another thread for the JWs to graps at.
It's called cognitive dissonance.
Much like our own resident dumbass, they KNOW it's coming real soon now (tm), and yet they KNOW (intuitively) that it isn't coming soon, in fact isn't coming at all.
They hold competing knowledge within themselves, and it makes them crazy.
On intuition: they've (the witnesses) seen a lifetime of improvement in this world, they've seen the wisdom of those who say "why from the day our forefathers...." they see that it didn't take holy spirit for the bible writer to pre-predjudice them against reality, after all, if you wrote crazy crap, and wanted other people to believe it, wouldn't you then tell the people who you wanted to believe your crazy crap, that other people would tell them it was all just crazy crap?
I don't think that the average dub is expecting to see Jesus-Michael and the angels come from the sky and start slaughtering all of the heathen hordes, though I'm sure many ultra-orthodox JW's do.
There's plenty in the news to be scared about. So I think they have this vague expectation of a catastrophic, cataclysmic event, after which they'll finally get the return on the incredible investment they've put into the religion.
In my opinion, most dubs stay the course to keep what they imagine as control, when in fact they are being controled.
To admit they are wrong, would mean the DEATH OF THEIR EGO, and they fear,or should I say, (the EGO) fears that!
It just occurred to me that the dubs may well be right about Armageddon being close.
In my Geology class we have just being studying scientific (and other) methods of predicting those catastrophic / cataclysmic world events. A part of this was to look at the relguarity with which they happened and it appears that we are due one within the next twenty-five years or so!!!!
link
Anytime a news article about a parent killing a child my parents murmer in shocked awe "Having no natural affection"...when they watch the war coverage in Iraq they say "Things are so awful...the end has to be near".
It kind of makes you want to leave a copy of Medea by Eurpidies on the counter and photos from the Civil War.
Anytime a news article about a parent killing a child my parents murmer in shocked awe "Having no natural affection"...
But they do not think that thousands of JW's who have died from refraining from a blood transfusion is shocking. Dubs also have no idea of the suicide rates among disenters from them either.
I think the dubs are the reason gods gonna bring armageddon on.......even he can't tolerate them!
Gumby
"Dieing from not having a blood transfusion not shocking."
Of course not, coz they get ressurection guaranteed so what's to worry about?
if they are still attending meetings, they think the end is closer than ever. I had people upset I left because they said it is too close to the end to waste time out of the org...
I could be wrong, I think that most JWs will invoke the nearness of Armageddon in moments of stress, or when spiritually challenged... but I don't think that it's a very immediate presence in their day-to-day lives. The millenarian zeal simply is not there. And frankly, considering that most Witnesses (at least here in the US) were raised in the borg, and have been hearing the "end is near" mantra since they were babies, how could it have any immediacy to them? I don't think that millenarian zeal can last more than a few years.
I do know a small subset of dubs who talk about the "cry of peace and security" every time a peace treaty is signed, or about the "beast turning on the harlot" anytime religion is in the news. But even they still live normal lives. The only people who seem to be serious about the nearness of Armageddon are those who are "new in the truth", and they inevitably slack off after a couple of years.
