by Magnum 39 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Magnum: I kind of like the fact that he wasn't a flashy dresser and didn't seem to want as much attention as the GB members do today.
You mean this:
Definitely a Glamour Fashion Don't!
In contrast to this:
Little Stevie Lett likes his little pinky ring!
Or this:
And o'l ToMo likes his Purple Ties!
New Day: what has shaken me to the core is the abysmal "generation" teaching with zero scriptural support, and the exhortation to blindly follow the slave, again with no backup.
What? You mean the use of the word "evidently" is not sufficient to convince you of the veracity of this teaching?
In today's jw world even more than I was a teenager, jws talk to few people and never progress from a simple 30 year old presentation. If they practice, it is on other jws who have no idea how non-jws think because they avoid association with them or listen to the judgments of jws from the platform.
Especially female jws witness in the school to other female jws who are given a script to use, a world where the householder never disagrees with the jw and ends up studying at the end of the 4 minute talk.
I have prepared some non-jws to deal with jws in a brief concise way and the jws run away and never come back.
New day: I became a Witness in 1980 and at that time we were supposed to and be able to defend what we believed, like no trinity, no immortal soul etc, now it is completely non-doctrinal. I became a Witness for doctrinal reasons and what has almost shattered my faith is not the other serious issues, though of course they are important, like power hungry elders and unjust disfellowshippings (close relative wrongly df and eventually reinstated), but what has shaken me to the core is the abysmal "generation" teaching with zero scriptural support, and the exhortation to blindly follow the slave, again with no backup.
I think they were in better shape when they tried to dig deeper into the bible. Probably the strongest witnesses were shaped by the Truth book and its predecessors, and it has degenerated from there. Of course it's always been whacked, but at least it was deep.
I don't think they are creating people now with a solid faith...only superficial, and it's going to be easily shaken, and it's only held together by a sense of obligation and guilt. We'll have to see what happens, but I don't think this has been a smart move for them.
Those of us who's parents became JW's back in the 60's or before, had no idea of the changes that had occurred in the religion before their time, back in 1930's and 40's. They knew nothing of the failed prophecies, miracle wheat or Bethsarim for example. We, their children, were indoctrinated before we knew anything about these things either. We were too young to do anything other than go along with what our parents told us to do. 1975 came and went but we were in it up to our ears before we started seeing the flaws in what we were taught. That's how the religion has grown and taken on a life of it's own over the decades. There's been a long history where a revolving door of people have been coming and going, each group having no knowledge of the other.
It's the same today but the difference is, the younger generation have been taught a dumbed down version of what it is to be a good JW. We didn't really know about the history of the religion but at least we could defend it's current beliefs. The young ones now have neither knowledge of the JW history or the skills that it once took to be a considered an good JW. Because of this, it wouldn't take much to knock them off the JW treadmill. That's where the internet comes in but the thing is, these days, you can be a "good JW" with very little effort or understanding of the bible or even the ability to teach or defend your beliefs. There's a feeble premise of wanting to save others but first and foremost, today's JW wants something to assuage their inner sense of mortality, even if doesn't make sense. In fact, the less they look into things the easier it is to maintain the notion that they have the truth. They enjoy the virtuous "I'm saved" feeling that can now be had by simply handing out a few tracts or reciting a few pat phrases. Those who are able, leave or have already left the organization. The others are choosing to ignore the evidence out there that is readily accessible. It's much easier to be comfortable and feel safe by not doing much, than it is to leave and have to face reality that you've been raised in a Cult.
Magnum, You talk about seeing older ones sitting around pools after assemblies having conversations about the deeper things. I remember that too!
Heck, I remember studying the "Babylon book" at 20 yrs old at the book study! I cannot even imagine a 20 yr old doing that today.
along with "things I cant imagine today" Village Idiot said
During my days as a witness in the 1970s, I and some older brothers who were ministerial servants would peer into the original Hebrew and Greek words of the Bible and at times even listen to apostate books and audio recordings in order to refute them. We were not typical of your average witness back then but it showed that there was some 'scholastic' ability among some of them.
