see http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/75897/1.ashx for more comments
walk with god 2004 dc saturday afternoon
2:15 avoid any cause for stumbling
1995 sheep & goats after tribulation...
Yeah, I remember that one, but what about one just before that, in November 1995, when they reinvented the "this generation" doctrine, probably the most significant shift in thinking in modern JW history. No mention of that? Really? Unbelievable!
http://www.adn.com/front/story/5297369p-5234924c.html
atv riders form specialized search-and-rescue squad.
mat-sar: troopers welcome help in fast-growing region of state since many residents lack outdoor skills.. .
While you have to applaud their sense of civic responsibility, this is going to play hell with their weekend service activity, to say nothing of the meetings they'll miss.
Ergo, one concludes these six guys, who are all hunters (frowned on by the WTS), must already spend a lot of weekends on their ATVs instead of being engaged in "theocratic service." This is way different than a JW-sanctioned charitable operation, but at least some of the 'brothers' are thinking for themselves, and that's good.
i was raised by the society with the constant drumbeat in my head: "this generation will by no means pass away ...".
when i was a kid, "this generation" was defined as one who not only was alive in 1914 but was aware of the changes in the world.
they were old enough to know the world before 1914, the war on earth, the war in heaven, jesus' installation as king and so on.. .
Gary B said:
"The generation teaching was THE core reward. This was the promise Witnesses were working for . . . their payday. Many will deny that, but it's true. And it was taken away and nothing has been installed to take it's place. The big drift is well underway."
Pertinent insights like this are precisely why most of us spend time on this board. Gary, you nailed it. There's a scripture somewhere that says, "Expectations postponed make the heart sick." JWs had serious expectations for a long me and they've been postponed indefinitely. Now, most JWs are sick at heart about it. That explains what you call the "big drift."
If expectations POSTPONED make the heart sick, what happens when expectations are NEVER REALIZED? A more serious form of sickness sets in. And what happens when expectations turn out to be unrealistic and, if fact, total fabrications. That's when the heart takes a punch to the solar plexus.
In congregations all over the country, witnesses are manifesting the sickness in their hearts by becoming more critical of the "friends," more insular, less loving, and in some cases, more hard-line in their thinking. These are all defense mechanisms, a mass reaction to the heart-sick epidemic among them.
It explains a lot, including why former elders, pioneers and other "pillars of the congregation" are looking for the door.
