Development of a False Prophecy

by Ding 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  Ding

  Based on WT history of repeated false prophecies, here is the way these things seem to develop:

  1. Someone connects unrelated Bible verses and comes up with a date for the end.

  2. This date is "confirmed" by outside information, such as pyramid measurements.

  3. They share this "hidden knowledge" with others.

  4. They develop a following of people who are excited to be the only ones on earth who understand "the deep things of God."

  5. They promote the date.

  6. People laugh them to scorn.

  7. The faithful cry "persecution" and wait expectantly.

  8. As the date approaches, they get more and more excited.

  9. When the date is imminent, leaders get worried and start to hedge their bets through cautionary language.

  10. When the date comes and goes, they come up with some explanation (Adam-Eve creation gap, no year 0, etc.) and set a new date in the near future.

  11. When the later date goes by, they announce that they are done with setting dates.

  12. After several years go by, they lose followers are forced to decide whether to disband or start over.

  13. They set a new date and attract new followers who aren't aware of their previous failures.

  14. The cycle repeats.
  
• 

  EverApostate

  Your WT Modus Operandi is correct. Almost all cults operate the same way

  The word Prophecy itself is fraudulant. There is nothing such as a Prohecy. Nobody can predict the future.

  False Prophecy = False Lie.

  All lies are false. Does False Lie make any sense ?

  Thats my honest opinion.
• 

  Vanderhoven7

  Then they blame the rank and file for overzealous anticipation emphasizing the cautionary elements of their prognostications

  As the years go by they look at the blunders of the past positively with even a touch of humor claiming that everyone makes mistakes or the light gets brighter.

  Jesus came back in 1874 with 80 proofs to back it up, then aftet Armageddon did not occur in 1914, nor in 1918, nor in 1925, Jesus actually returned they discovered it was 1914.
• 

  Rocketman123

  Good explanation there Ding
  

  To really get the core understanding to why these endeavors happened by the leaders of the WTS. one should review what, why and how these prolific bible teachers taught and preached going back to their beginning of the late 1800's.

  Belief in Christ's personal return to set up his earthly kingdom—premillennialism—has always claimed adherents, but few people in the mid-1800s imagined it would attract more than a handful.

  
  

  Yet by 1875 a new kind of premillennialists called dispensationalism began to spread. Given the embarrassing recent history of premillennialism in the United States (see the story of the Millerites, page 31), its revival was nothing less than amazing.

  The new premillennialism came to the United States following the Civil War, after flourishing in Britain among the Plymouth Brethren. One of the Brethren's most gifted teachers was John Nelson Darby (1800-1882), a former priest in the Anglican Church of Ireland, who developed a new variety of futurist premillennialism. He called it dispensationalism, after the division of history into dispensations or eras.

  "These periods are marked off in Scripture by some change in God's method of dealing with mankind, in respect to two questions: of sin, and of man's responsibility," explained C. I. Scofield, who popularized Darby's system in America. "Each of the dispensations may be regarded as a new test of the natural man, and each ends in judgment—marking his utter failure in every dispensation."

  Dispensationalists quibbled over the number and names of the dispensations, but most American dispensationalists followed Scofield's seven-fold scheme: Innocency (before the Fall), Conscience (Fall to the Flood), Human Government, Promise (Abraham to Moses), Law (Moses to Christ), Grace (the church age), and Kingdom (the millennium).

  There was nothing especially radical about dividing history into periods. What separated dispensationalists from everybody else was their novel method of biblical interpretation.
• 

  Rocketman123

  One cant be dismissive to the fact that these identfing religious teachers were also executive directors and owners of their own publishing companies such as C T Russell and Zion's Watchtower.

  This must have played a partition redeeming role in the doctrines they tried to proliferate.

  Which took more importance is up to one's own personal evaluation and acceptance.
  
• 

  Vanderhoven7

  Had to rush the last post.

  Because Armageddon was so close, it was not time for the rank and file to marry and have children, nor could they get a smallpox vaccination to save their lives Then from 1967 to 1980, they could not get a cornea transplant to save their sight.

  But then some asked why the Jehovah who had led them all the way led them to make these mistakes that no other church in Babylon the Great had made.

  Then it was discovered in 1968 having accumulated all the proof needed, that there was no time to go to university or even plan for a career. In fact it would be dangerous. It was time to sell your house and concentrate on the preaching work. But when 1976 came around the rank and file found out that they were guilty of being overzealous again. Shame on them. They of course would have to pay for their mistakes by humbly delivering newspapers and washing windows to make ends meet. If only they had listened to Jehovah's organization in the first place they wouldn't have to work two jobs to support the families they were told not to have.

  Oops I see I'm in rant mode.
• 

  Rocketman123

  The fact is the JW religion as it began and grew is without doubt a false religion created by certain men who were inspired and driven to establish and create their own "Almighty" power and personal stature.

  Add in the fact that these men were also in control of a huge amount of money $$$ as they still are today, they are essentially living in the own Kingdom by their own personal endeavors and work.

  They have over 8 million subjects to back them up.
  
  
• 

  iXav

  12. After several years go by, they lose followers are forced to decide whether to disband or start over.

  13. They set a new date and attract new followers who aren't aware of their previous failures.

  14. The cycle repeats.

  This is very true, but the only difference now is new media and modern communication. They will rinse and repeat but the bleeding will not stop. They will rig the numbers like when the merged field service monthly reports to start counting tracts, invitations,etc. That will still not stop them losing numbers. Those at the top can see the decline but your average JW will just be happy to go along because he doesn't care much about the core beliefs.

  The rinse and repeat creates apathy like "crying wolf".
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  minimus

  Yes, they blame the rank and file for believing the BS.