by ithinkisee 58 Replies latest watchtower bible
Why do they always phrase things like Jeannie on "I Dream of Jeannie", i.e., "Does that not warm your heart, Master?"
Because it's a question with only one possible answer, the one they want. "Does it not warm our hearts?" "Yes, of course it does." "Should we not be ever more vigilant?" "Of course we should." Are we not gullible idiots? "Of course we are."
All part of the mind control.
Jeanniebeanz: "I knew families who went out in 1975 and charged their credit limits to the maximum because they thought they'd never have to pay it off. Never saw so many sports cars, expensive jewelry, and dinners out in my life.
Sure enough, by 1977 many of these families were facing bankruptcy."
I am in no way condoning what the WT did re. 1975 but it is not their fault that people were stupid as mentioned in the above quote. To do that was entirely ridiculous and it is their fault, no one elses. My parents thought 1975 would be the end as well but I dont recall them doing this.
Sure enough, by 1977 many of these families were facing bankruptcy."
I sure do agree with this. There's selling your house because you're encouraged to do so (albeit not so directly by the watchtower) and there's going into debt because you think the end's coming. You cannot blame anyone but yourself for the latter - because the watchtower never encouraged people to do this!
Why do they always phrase things like Jeannie on "I Dream of Jeannie", i.e., "Does that not warm your heart, Master?"
LOL... Too true. (<---Jeannie)
bebu
Definitely a NON-PROFIT organization!! er non-prophet sorry
I also know one couple that the brother studied with me. He was adamant that the end was right around the corner and that Ii had to get baptised as soon as possible. Well a few years after 1975 their marriage ended up in divorce, they both turned to alcohol and he ended up dying a bitter person. My dad also sold our house just before 1975 as his reasoning was the system end was so near. He sold it to a brother that only kept it a few years and that brother sold it and made a tidy profit on it. If my dad would have kept it till he retired in the mid 80's he would have got almost 10 times as much money and would have set my parents up for the rest of their lives.
Will
It brought me tears (literally) to my eyes when I read this thread. Luckily I didn't caught up in all this! I was about -4 or 5!
Luckily, my parents did not believe that the end was that near (in 1975), so they didn't do as a good majority of the others did.
However, after leaving the org, my mother began to study on her own and at one time, back in the early 90's, she thought that the end was so eminent, that she wrote me, even though I was DF'd, and told me that I needed to repent, stop smoking and clean up my life, because the end was very near and we may only have a few days or months or so left. Well, as we can see, that didn't happen. We did move closer to my mother who was in CA and we were in OR, and we did sit around for about 5 years waiting for "the end", but it hasn't happened yet, and she's still waiting. I do believe that it will come one day, but to sell everything, throw your most prized posessions away is silly. enjoy them while you can, I say. I don't see a problem with Watching, but to give up everything and take a risk like that, especially with children at home is madness.
Ash
It brought me tears (literally) to my eyes when I read this thread. Luckily I didn't caught up in all this! I was about -4 or 5!
Nice to hear from you. I was a teenager at the time so the "loss" for me was primarily in delaying my tertiary education. At least I didn't lose a house!!!
Check this out..... Did this guy learn his lesson?
***
w67 2/15 pp. 118-119 "From a Weak State . . . Made Powerful" ***26
There is a pioneer brother, still serving in the south of New Zealand at eighty-seven years of age, and his faithful pioneer wife is even a few years older. He sold his business in 1914, so that he could enjoy at least a few months of "colporteur" pioneer service before the expected big crash came in the autumn of that year. He is fond of quoting Jeremiah 20:7: "You have fooled me, O Jehovah, so that I was fooled." For though he had expected his pioneer service on earth to be for a brief season only, it has stretched out through more than fifty rewarding years, together with trials and reproaches. And at last reports, he is still going "strong," like Samson. Would he have had it any different? No! Moreover, he encourages young people to have the same viewpoint that he had back there in 1914. Make the most of the golden opportunity of pioneering the good news NOW!
And here are the tape-recorded remarks made during the August 1974 "Divine Purpose District Convention" in Utrecht, Holland (cited in Singelenberg 1988:26):
"The youth has a bright future. Many of us suffered from misery, sickness and death. You don't have to experience that any more. The new order is near... There will be a very special Service Meeting in the week of 8 September 1975. Invite everybody. And what will then happen? Well, we don't tell. You think that if Jehovah makes such an appeal, that there's nothing unusual behind it? Yes? .... Well, sell your house, sell everything you own and say oh boy, how long can I carry on with my private means. That long? Get rid of things! Pioneer! Plan to shower people with magazines during these last months of this dying system of things! Everybody you meet!"
And of course, there was the infamous Sunutko talk from 1967 along similar lines:
