Everyone here has read Mt. 25 and knows the illustration of the virgins with the lamps. I have mentioned this illustration in conversation with several dubbies, to draw attention to their foolishness in following Watchtower's false reasoning.
In the illustration, there are two kinds of virgins, or people. Those who take extra oil containers and those who don't.
I ask, what is the ONLY difference between the two groups? Is one set of virgins more chaste? Better looking maybe? LOL
No. The only difference is the oil containers.
And what does the oil container provide the holder with?
One word. TIME.
The lamps all burn with the same brightness. But not for the same amount of time.
The foolish virgins who fail to think ahead about the long wait to come, who convince themselves that 'they know better' as to when the bridegroom will return, these take no oil container.
In their cloistered mind, they figure that they know when he will come back, and 'much sooner than everyone else thinks'. Yes, they are brilliant! They have it all locked up.
The wise virgins, on the other hand, fully accept Jesus' words, that "nobody knows the day and hour" of his return, and they understood that his absence would be of duration. So, they plan accordingly. The "dig in for the long haul". They prepare to wait as long as it takes, patiently.
Today, I see may JWs whose lamp is running out of oil, or is empty already. They have lived for a day, perhaps not a day as was made by the ghost of Watchtower past, (1914, 1975etc) but a day of their own mind's making according to the Watchtower theology that they have consumed for so long.
I am hearing horror stories that have no happy ending. Dubs that are running out of cash and have no option but to do manual labour well into their declining years. Yes, their oil is gone.
It can result in horrific circumstances.
Ver sad.