by nicolaou 30 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Social Club?
Nah... the first thing my ex said when I presented her the evidence proving the GB is an evil slave was:
"All my friends are here. You don't mind if I stay."
"No baby, it's your life to screw up. Do whatever makes you feel secure."
Typical dub reaction. When the ivory Watch Tower goes tumbling down the social climbers are going to whine that someone should have told them.
nicolaou, I agree to a point, except you need to take into consideration what the cumalative affect of all the "watering down" of beliefs has on the cult-hood of the organisation over all.
As we see them ease up on blood, amend the "generation" teaching, not to mention reducing assemblies over the years and now fewer magazines, the organisation *bit by bit" looses it's cultishness, a major part of the jigsaw will be the loss of 1914 altogether which must inevitably happen.
Although this gradual affect may not be as dramatic as I believe some of us may wish, I think we are starting to see it now in the slow down in the last few years published "sales" figures and statistics.
I think the dates that the WTS talks about go over 99% of everyones head anyways, so it just doesn't matter what the WTS says, the rank and file will follow like little puppies, and pee on themselves with all the new light.
While it's true that most Dubs don't care about the 607 chronology (all they really care about is loyalty to the WTS), a core group at Bethel certainly does. As Ray Franz pointed out, any cultish group needs to have some core people who are keepers of the core doctrines, people who members can point to and say, "See! This is a person who can answer all questions about our doctrines." Unless the entire core group is comprised of charlatans -- which certainly exist in the Society's inner circle, but are not a majority, I believe -- the core group must have a sense of having "the truth" about most things. Otherwise they won't be able to work up enough drive to keep going.
The "intellectual" basis for The Fundamental Doctrine of Jehovah's Witnesses -- the notion that there is a composite "faithful and discreet slave" that speaks for God, is "represented" by the Governing Body, and was "appointed over all Christ's belongings" in 1919, is the 607 chronology. If the true believers in Bethel find that they can no longer justify the 607 chronology, then something will have to give. I have no idea what that might be, but I think that a major schizm is possible, followed by a big loss of rank and file members.
AlanF
I have no reason not to accept what you say Alan. However I do find the idea of a group of 'core believers' at HQ acting as some sort of 'engine' for the rest of the organisation a bit odd. For over 30 years I went to meetings and on field service and never really gave much thought to Brooklyn other than an infrequent, hazy admission of its authority. I almost never thought of the Branch Offices!
What 'drove' me was the genuine belief that I was serving Jehovah God. The Watchtower was Jehovah's Organisation and as such, if they said that Jerusalem was destroyed in 607 and that Adam was an eyewitness of Tyrannosaurus Rex and his buddies then I believed them.
I think I was fairly typical. I don't want to slight Jehovahs Witnesses but generally they do just accept.
Also, when I finally did start asking questions it was the start of an inevitable and unstoppable course to my abandoning the Watchtower Society. If a klutz like me could finally 'catch-on' why is it that Bethelites - with all the resources available to them - generally do not. Or am I wrong about that?
Nic:I agree with your personal observations. However Bethelites don't have a life. They have long days work, with meals prepared for them. They travel to distant halls, because there are so darned many of them and have VERY little spare time. Most complain of being tired all the time. Also they are often just young boys who are also "doing Jehovah's will", in the most mind-numbing of jobs, with little desire to study more than they ever had to.
Your misconception of them as spiritual giants is another urban myth that is propogated. Just because they give over more of their lives (like Pioneers and Missionaries) to "the work" doesn't make them any more spiritual than the next JW.
Just my 2p...
If the end of the Gentile Times were moved forward to the mid thirties, they would then say how appropriate cause that's when the door closed for the harvest of the anointed and the great ingathering of the great crowd began.
HB
There is a real spirit of complacency or 'anything goes' in the congregations these days. What really kicks you in the teeth when you step back from things and analyze is how much the meetings are all the same but are so different somehow than they used to be.. the subtle things. Its really obvious that that hope isnt even real for a lot of them. Its just a social club. They arent allowed 'worldly' friends so they really don't have anything else. They just don't know any different and don't even want to learn, or are too scared to. Its so sad.
The moral of the story? Act now!Well now that's something I won't be able to do ... just because I don't even remember the details of all those things 607 and all (was too young and not interested I guess for those stuffs to stick into my head), I for once don't feel to convince JW's about anything they are too damn programmed ... (they need to want to get there heads out of the sand - to want to live for real instead of expecting anything from God and by then from the Borg) ... I'm losing control with them, cause I just feel like to SLAP them at the end (I'm sorry) which is not a good idea of course ...
For all those that remain, that is all it could possibly be - a social club.
1) It is not as if the WTS teaches the truth about the bible - that is obvious to every onlooker. (It was this mistaken belief that originally attracted me to the Witnesses).
- They can never make up their minds about so many issues.
- Doctrine expounded in older WTS publications bears no resemblance to that in their current ones.
2) Their warnings about an "Armeggeddon being just around the corner" - and therefore the need to act as if a major catastrophe were indeed about to fall on us - have worn rather thin after all this time.(This, too, fascinated me at the time during the bad old days of the late 1960s - early 1970s).
3) Even their claim to measure up to Christ's description of true believers - that "they have love among themselves" - is a hollow one. There are just as many nasty individuals amongst them as anyone else.
Anyone who did remain could only be totally unconcerned about matters of theology and doctrine - or the Watch Tower Society's record as a false prophet.
There is an interesting parallel here with (of all things) the Nazi era. Hitlers Minister of War Production, Albert Speer, in his autobiography admitted that he, too, did not believe what they were doing was right. He went along with Hitler, though - because of the power and prestige that holding such a position commanded.
