Jehovah's Witness! Nothing but a period in the world novel. (page 2)

carla

From a non jw perspective, I too find most people know nothing about jw's. As for outsiders thinking that jw's do not believe in Jesus, here's why- some people do know that jw's believe that Michael and Jesus are one and the same. Therefore in the eyes of outsiders jw's do not believe in the Jesus of the Bible. I would agree that there are enough crazy things that go on in jw land without having to make anything up about them. Their own literature is their own worse enemy. carla

patio34

To which I often find myself defending the fact that they do, while explaining that I (myself) do not. Yet it just does not seem right to say crazy fault stories about the Witnesses, when so many true crazy stories are just waiting to be told. --------Free2beme

Interesting analogy, but I think you give them more credit than they deserve, they are more like a book mite on the edge of a page in the world novel. ------Maverick

Hi Free2beMe---I've been in this situation so many times and it's ironic! I'm glad i'm not alone. Your analogy of being a period in the novel of the world is so good, but Maverick's makes a good point too!

I've been reading Collapse by Jared Diamond which explores past civilizations such as Easter Island, the Mayans, and Vikings. It seems even smaller the role JWs play in anything.

Pat

Sith

"Witnesses are really a non-issue in society"

Wouldn't you think that a religious organization that has taken on the mantle of being "God's Visible Organization On Earth", would be known for that? Wouldn't you think that the "Only True Religion" would be such a bright light in this dark world that it would be so glaringly obvious they couldn't baptize people fast enough? Wouldn't you think that an organization who believes that it is their directive from God to preach "The Good News Of The Kingdom" to all corners of the earth, would be known for that? Wouldn't you think that if the end of this system of things is so close, and the preaching work has to be fulfilled before that happens, Jehovah's Witnesses and their message would be much more prominent in the media? If the reason why people are going to live forever or die an eternal death is based on how they respond to the WT message, wouldn't you think it would be one of the main things being talked about today?

Instead, in these "Last Days", Witnesses are known as the kooks who don't celebrate holidays and annoy you on Saturday mornings.

Quotes

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That the world really does not notice the Witness religion, or revolve around it, when it seemed so important in the past.
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I agree completely. I think there is a human tendency to assume that one's personal world view is recognized and familiar to everyone else; in fact each person has a unique world view.

Your point also leads to this conclusion: *IF* the JWs have "the Truth" (ie we are living in the last days, warn the people before Armageddon) then they have done a terribly pathetic job of warning the world, and have not even lived up to their own standard of being god's messenger to the world.

For 100 years they have been "putting the world on notice that Jesus kingdom has been established and all nations of the world must accept Theocratic rule", and yet, I have yet to meet ONE person that knows anything about JWs (and their message) other than the things you already mentioned. They don't even know *WHY* JWs don't celebrate holidays/birthdays, nor *WHY* they go door knocking, so even the few things generally known about JWs are not at all understood.

One Billions hours per year??? Surely the least effective "advertise advertise advertise" -ing campaign in the history of advertising.

damselfly

I tend not to reveal that I used to be a Witness, as I learned that I would find myself 20 minutes later trying to explain to this poor "wordly" person what they believe and don't believe. The only information they knew was the "no holidays of any kind" sort accompanied by the poor cute boys who had made the mistake of falling for a witness girl and had the hearts crushed by the girl's family. Great job of spreading Christian love there.

Adonijah

I agree free2berne Jehovah's Witness are invisible and are not "a part of this world"...and the fact that you brought this point still mystifies you? Way to go Balaam...

jeanniebeanz

love2Bworldly

It's funny when I was a JW, I thought they were so well known and always seen door-to-door. But now I hardly ever see JWs out going door-to-door, but I often see Mormons on their bikes. So much for the 'great increase' that the BS society used to always talk about.

free2beme

I remember times when leaving conventions, in which Witnesses would be saying things about the new publications, like ...

"This is going to put the world on notice"

"This is going to get people to thinking about their life"

"This might cause some hearts to change."

... and so on. Yet from their point of view, they said these because they thought what they did mattered. They thought some newspaper was covering the Convention to spread the warning or something, or that a letter was on its way to the UN or something. Why not think this, we thought we were God's people and the one true religion. Yet the reality was, we were just that religion having some meeting together and rushing to all the local buffets after to eat. Ever drive by a church now with tons of cars in front? Do you wonder, "what major message is God telling them?" No, we think, "Poor people are missing out on a wonderful day." Well at least I think that. It's just weird sometimes to think what we did in the past and realize how small the Witnesses are really noticed today.

M.J.

As a non-JW its really amusing to read their delusions. I mean get a load of this:

***w69 12/1 p. 715 Final Woes to Enemies of Peace with God ***
Thus through the rise and spread of international communism a great flaming political issue was hurled in among the disturbed, restless, aspiring peoples of the earth.
How would it affect you emotionally if you saw a motion picture showing a flaming earth-mass like a great mountain being hurled into the sea, and a third of the sea becoming blood, a third of the living creatures in the sea being killed, and a third of the seagoing vessels being wrecked? You would shudder and say it was a horror picture! Well, those were the scenic effects that followed the blowing of the trumpet by the second of God's seven angelic trumpeters. Do you grasp the meaning of those scenic effects??Rev. 8:8, 9.....
Already as early as in the midst of the first world war (of 1914-1918 C.E.) the clergy of Christendom, together with their political and military allies, had decided that they had experienced enough religious trouble with the Christian witnesses for Jehovah God and his kingdom by Christ. They took advantage of the war conditions and of wartime laws to put to death the public activities carried on by these witnesses. They did not like to be notified that the "times of the Gentiles" had run out in the year 1914 and that these witnesses had been vindicated by world events in pointing forward for decades to that year as the time for God's kingdom by Christ to come into full control in the heavens, with authority to oust the Gentile nations from the earth. The cry of the clergy was, "Kill the witnesses!" That is to say, Cause these International Bible Students to cease from being witnesses in public to God's kingdom of his Messiah or Christ. With the aid of the political and military powers they succeeded in technically "killing the witnesses" by the middle of the year 1918, just some months before World War I ended. Thus the extensive public witnessing work ended, even those who were foremost in the witnessing work being put behind prison bars under long-term sentences, also the witnessing organization being badly disrupted, limited. The "witnesses" were as if in the "pit of the abyss."

Or how about 1/3 of the earth getting wiped out in Revelation really meant that Joe Rutherford had an article drawn up at a convention that was just SOOO scathing, making the world tremble in its boots!

Don't forget the 7 earth shattering trumpet blasts that stood for the 7 assemblies in the 1920s.

Or that the shame that the 2 witnesses in Revelation had to endure was fulfilled when J. Rutherford and his WTS cohorts were denied bail while their cases were on appeal.

Or that the 2300 days prophecied by Daniel culminated in an amendment to the WTS charter in the 1940s. I wonder why the world's scholars aren't debating whether the 2300 days ended when the WTS folks published the amendment or when it was notarized.

Jehovah's Witness! Nothing but a period in the world novel.

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