Welcome FFGhost ,you were around during those days ? I was a convert 20 years old in 1960, what about you ?
Anyone notice how when some of us older ones were in the cult.......
by mickbobcat 34 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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joe134cd
Freddie Franz is dead and so is his nonsense. Even as a PIMI Dub I never really brought into all the 1914- 1919, cedar point Ohio, crap.
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waton
it all was done to bolster the sincerely held illusion to be linked to great cosmic issues.
beethoven, bach did it through music, Einstein through equations,
Politicians,---
let us older ones ( I am past 90 ) reflect back on the good lives we had.
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joey jojo
How many people were persecuted , or fell out with their family, for becoming JW's, based on this , now erroneous information.
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Sea Breeze
The purpose of Fred Franz was to establish the basic rationale for the WT promoting the teaching that since 1935 people cannot be justified before God. (This is the central, albeit somewhat hidden teaching of the WT)
He did this by "proving" that Jesus already returned in 1914 and ended the gentile times. This corresponds to what Christians would call the Age of Grace...AKA "The Church Age".... which WT effectively shut down for adherents.
In OT Bible Prophecy the Church Age was not seen. It was a mystery. Below is a 100 year old chart illustrating. OT prophets could see the mountain peaks of history such as Calvary and the Millennium, but not the Church Age.This is why Franz made us study so much OT material, because it completely skips the Church Age... Of the 30 times "gospel of" is mentioned in the NT... only 4 times is it described as the Good News "of the "Kingdom". The vast majority of the time it is described as the good news of "Jesus Christ" or the good news of "your salvation".
The good news of the kingdom is primarily a message for those living during the great tribulation. The message during the age of grace is the "ministry of reconciliation". The WT completely ignores and rejects this ministry.
Once Franz "proved" that the age of grace was over (along with the offer of Justification) with all his prophetic books, there really wasn't much to write about except:1.Run Faster
2. Jump Higher
3. Try Harder
All this of course is against NT scriptures that state "by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified".
IMO, this is the basic template for understanding the history of the Watchtower and why they exist.
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Anna Marina
I think they write their lit like this.
1) One small excellent point.
2) Half a ton of waffly rubbish.
3) One small point that flatly contradicts the excellent point they made 43 pages, 9 magazines and 3 talks ago that everyone has now forgotten.
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molybdenum
"can anyone remember the big pink paradise book ?Stan livedeath asked
Unfortunately "Yes" I was forced to study it when I was a kid. Then came the "Babylon Book" I remember having to plough my way through all that information without understanding any of it at the Book Study. I thought that the "grown -up's" understood it but later I found out that basically no one had a clue what was going on. What a waste of time.
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waton
The good news of the kingdom is primarily a message for those living during the great tribulation. The message during the age of grace is the "ministry of reconciliation". The WT completely ignores and rejects this ministry.
SB: excellent reminder. for us older ones. in FF"s days we taught that the great tribulation had started in 1914, was interrupted in 1918, during the hiatus, until Armageddon,thus: the great crowd of OS would be able to scripturally " come out.of the great tribulation" .Now,
according to wt teaching, the great crowd does not really exist yet, or , anymore,, because the great tribulation has not started yet. and
when it does, the GB, all anointed will be already gone.
The "anointed" generation of 1914 will have passed before all things have occurred.
Jesus was wrong, wt right.
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JeffT
I was 22 when I became a JW in 1973. I had been on a spiritual search for some time, I was in a bad place in my life. The Watchtower seemed to have all the information I needed. The literature at the time at least FELT impressive. It also agreed with my world view at the time (anti-war, anti-government, etc). Had my introduction to the WTBS been through today's dumbed down books and magazines I would have kept looking.
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smiddy3
That about sums up how and when I started studying? the struth when I converted at age 20 JeffT.