Which was scarier... the torture scenario or the Armageddon scenario?

by Gopher 32 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Gopher

  For those of us who grew up in the JW's, there were a couple of scary scenarios presented, one supposedly to happen BEFORE Armageddon, and Armageddon itself.

  Before Armageddon, all JW's were going to be chased around by worldly nations because they would be the only religion left on earth, Satan's system having destroyed "Babylon the Great" (all religions outside JW's, we were told). So as part of that, JW's would be persecuted worldwide for being religious and proclaiming the "Kingdom".

  Now -- connect that with the actual persecution that happened to the JW's as documented in the annual "Yearbook" and in the pages of the Watchtower magazine. Sometimes the details of what happened to JW's when in confinement were quite graphic and frightening. Imagine the effect that those accounts could have on the young mind.

  Whereas for Armageddon itself, we were presented with pictures of the earth opening up and swallowing non-JW's (like the Bible says happened to Dathan, Korah and Abiram who defied Moses) and also pictures of large buildings and cars, etc. falling into great crevasses.

  Which was more scarier to the young mind -- the pre-Armageddon persecution / torture scenarios, or the Armageddon pictures?

  For me the pre-Armageddon torture scenarios were scarier for two reasons: First such persecution actually had happened to JW's throughout much of the 20th century, and secondly I had a really hard time picturing Armageddon (despite the best attempts of the WTS artists to put a scary scenario into our minds).

  Was anyone else freaked out by the idea that the world governments would come after you because you were a JW, and you were going to land in jail (or even worse)?
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  FlyingHighNow

  I wasn't raised a JW. I started studying at 17.Imprisonment and torture scared me more. This was especially true after I had children and was worried about being separated from them and them being frightened and tortured.

  Flyin'
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  Lieu

  Armageddon was, I guess, the scarier of the two. At least imprisonement, torture, and death meant I didn't have to go to the boring meetings. :)
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  Corvin

  DEFINITELY, the Great Tribulation was the scariest for me as a JW child. I was told that no matter what happened, even if they were to kill my mother and family in front of me, that I was not to compramise in any way. I was told that I might be taken away from my family and tortured, but I was to remain faithful no matter what because Armageddon would soon come to save me . . . OMG!

  What a bunch of creeps.

  Corvin
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  XQsThaiPoes

  After reading I believe GT will happen anyway due to peak oil, but JWs are internalizing something that will happen to everyone else on the planet too. Most likely the toruture will only occur during the endless sucession of wars when the only people refusing to bear arms is JWs just like in the present. Also the wars of the future will be over resouces namely nations battling for oil.
  

  The GT will come, but who in heck knows if armegedon is real (ie jesus coming down to kix some aczz). Disease and Sarvation is really what will kill most people like Jesus said. If you read his GT it is basicaly describing the effects of a great depression. To bad he didn't tell us we could have avioded it by weaning off the oil early. This aint gasoline and fuel economy btw this is sole dependance of oil to run an industrialized world economy period. We can't prevent it by putting up solar cells and driving Honda Insights. Just prepare for it, and get ready to starve. Who is going to take over the world to ration oil consumption until the population reaches sustainable preindustrial levels due to natural causes? Answer nobody! Too bad Bush failed. If he was smarter he could have made a larger dent in the world economy by preaching oils evils and enforcing global consevation. He is an old man and will be dead by the time I am living in the desert in the derelic hulk of my moms Caddilac Escalade jabbering about how the "WTS predicted all of this and nobody listened..blah, blah, blah," and "are we in the new order yet".

  That is the scarry part what if armegedon never comes will the WTS true believers claim it came shortly after the war and population die off, and we didn't see it like some other traumatic date in human history.... Then we will be preaching about living in the 1000 year test of mankind, and how this is the time to teach the unrighteous ,and be back to square one. It is easy to newlight the physical paradise out of existance replace it with the spiritual paradise and push the physical one farther into the future maybe 3114.

  http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
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  blondie

  Gopher, my siblings and I always asked about the children dying. See, we were minor children and my parent's meeting attendance was sporadic at best, sometimes nonexistent. We knew that the WTS taught that we were dependent on our parent's faith or lack thereof. We would pray to God each night that he not destroy us because of them. We prayed that the other children not be destroyed because of their parents.

  Blondie
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  LittleToe

  ...the only people refusing to bear arms is JWs just like in the present.

  You need to get edumacated. They aren't the only ones.

  That is the scarry part what if armegedon never comes...

  I thought you said they were going to get killed off during an oil-crisis, given their pacifistic ways?
  Ergo, there wont be any around to worry about it.

  Gopher:
  I always imagined the Great Trib. to be worse. I imagined it like Nazi Germany.
  The only time I got at all concerned about the big A was when I heard a talk on Zechariah, with the eyes and tongues rotting thing.
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  XQsThaiPoes

  I din't mean other people don't I was just being flippant. I was sayin more JWs will die in persecution than other religious groups. IF you look at most conflicts JWs tend to be the only ones that deliberately court persecution. Just like muslims tend to be the majority of sucide bombers. I was not saying the rest of the world is going to enjoy being lead into an orgy of war, just JWs will likely become "firm" and "take stand for Jehovah" eagerly assuming the more JWs that die martyrs the quicker they can hasten the new order. JWs are not pacifist BTW they are militants!
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  Undaunted Danny

  Meetings Meant Beatings; "No books from crooks". Childhood impressions, my first nightmares. Childhood impressions and Crayola crayons, peanut butter, Vicks Vapo-Rub, Play Dough. All these scents instill a sort of cognitive aroma. My first 'teething' book, was the "Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained" http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2919/night.html An apocalyptic primer. To instill a child with "detox Joe's" end of the world vision. The Armageddon nightmare spectacle at the end of the book, burned into a child's psyche, the horrific scene of the little girl falling into the abyss. All the wicked people who will perish, unless I go door-to-door and save them all. My first life impressions, trying to sit still through two hours of cult indoctrination, I better behave or Jehovah won't like me, and as a guiding reinforcement..... MEETINGS MEANT BEATINGS. [Final note the WT$'s "Paradise book", was released the year of my birth.I literally cut my baby teeth on !!! I still remember the smell of the bookbinding glue,it smelled like peppermint.It probably had toxic lead in it too]
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  Undaunted Danny

  http://www.freeminds.org/media/fredfranz75an.html Audio ( you might need a player) top, watchtower leader "flunky" Freddy Franz,saying that the world will end in 1975.. I WAS THERE MATES!! Mr franz's,popular catchphrase,regarding the 1 billion children murdered by the Jehovah: "...well,little nits grow up to be big nits..." I can vividly remember my surroundings in 1967, where i was::: ( age 10, in the men's room shitting bloody diarrhea from ulcerative colitis)when i first heard the 'prophecy'.. I also remember my exact time/place when i heard President Kennedy was shot..... . >>>> The point is,just being a JW was my hell on earth torture. <<<< The Undaunted Danny