as has been noted on this forum and elsewhere, recent years have seen a flurry of changes coming to the jw organization, at blinding speed (at least, as compared to their usual glacial pace).. here's a thought that occurred to me as to why all these changes, all of a sudden.. 2 or so years ago, the gb had 11 members.
since then, sydlik & barber have died.
the votes for "drop the book study" were probably either 6-5 or 7-4 in favor - a majority, but not the required 2/3 majority.. now they're down to 9 members, and probably the most recent vote to drop the book study was 6-3. voila!
This assumes that a 2/3 requirement is still in place.
We learned from Ray Franz that there was a 2/3 voting requirement on the GB, but that was as of 1980. None of us know what has happened since then. At first, GB decisions had to be unanimous, but Knorr later instituted the change. Does the 2/3 requirement still stand? Must decisions again be unanimous? Will a simple majority suffice? None of us knows the answer.
not that i really owe an explanation for anything to anybody.
or if anybody is that concerned .
i understand and respect that simon had to do what he had to do - for reasons he explained.
I'm still a newbie - don't leave yet Mr. Flipper. We need you!
You got in just before the doors of the ark closed. Good for you.
It's interesting to note how this board has changed over the past year or so.
A year ago this thread would have been full of posts demanding proof of this change and perhaps even accusing the initial poster of being a troll. I suspect that the recent success rate of announcing the many changes before the congregations have officially been notified has drastically reduced those suspicions. It's as if we expect every rumor to be true now.
so my wife out of the blue says .
"i thought when we went under ban, everyone would still meet in peoples houses at the the book groups.
now they are doing away with that arrangement, what does it all mean.?
Oompa,
You and I seem to be talking about different things. You are correct in saying that the society has altered their end times’ eschatology many times in the past, but what makes today's situation different is that there is no backup plan to replace their failed framework.
All throughout the past they've had something else to fall back on when their dates failed. Yeah this or that may have failed, but what about this other date? When 1925 failed, they had the generation teaching to fall back on. They analogized it to the 40 years between Jesus' last days prophecy and the destruction of Jerusalem. They told their members that the end was just around the corner because the modern generation would be similar in duration to the generation of the first century. The sense of urgency remained in place.
When 1975 failed, they had a remade generation teaching to fall back on. This time the generation was those people alive during 1914. Since Psalms said a generation was 70 or 80 years, the end was just around the corner.
What do they have to fall back on now: the 1935 sealing of the anointed? That's been done away with. That was one minor, tangible doctrine that tied them to the end being close. What else? The eighth king of Revelation being around for a "short time?" The statue of Daniel Chapter 2 showing we're at the tail end of worldly governments? That's all I can think of. But neither of these doctrines carries the significance and weight of the "generation" doctrine.
I agree with you that when they re-make their doctrine, the vast majority of JWs will quickly fall in line, but that's yet to happen. Their doctrinal framework is currently in shambles. Any astute Witness should pick up on it, but I assume most are "waiting on Jehovah" to fix it.
so my wife out of the blue says .
"i thought when we went under ban, everyone would still meet in peoples houses at the the book groups.
now they are doing away with that arrangement, what does it all mean.?
The JWs are at the end of the line. Their entire doctrinal foundation is coming apart at the seams. They simply do not have an answer to the grand question: Why hasn't the end come yet?
Maybe they're trotting out a bunch of minor tweaks to keep the r&f distracted. Maybe the GB is a lot loss, too, and can't quite figure out what the hell to do. Regardless, even the most diehard JWs have to see through the nonsense. We were all promised a quick reward in exchange for our Earthly sacrifices and that reward is nowhere in sight.
They've painted themselves into a corner and have no idea how to get themselves out of it. My guess is they're trying to figure out a way to walk all over the wet pet without too many people noticing. Sooner or later, people are going to begin waking up en masse.
There's no need to get rid of them, they've never shown up to my door. Since I left my parents' house three years ago, I've only been visited by the JWs once, and that was because a neighbor of mine was a JW and sent an elder to "encourage" me.
well, nah, because jesus attended a wedding reception and provided kick a$$ wine.
but, modern day jw's are all about removing anything fun from life, so they should consider it for this reason alone.
one more fun thing bites the dust.
Carry out the "pagan origins" BS to its logical conclusion and JWs would not be able to drive a Mercury or wear a pair of Nikes, names of a Roman god and a Greek goddess, respectively.
for me, i had doubts from the beginning.
however, my 1st major doubt came as i had it confirmed that other people felt like i did about certain big issues within the org.
there were many, i realised, that just knew things were not right.
It took 3 full years between my moment of clarity and the day I moved away and stopped attending meetings. It was a slow process. It took my awhile to come to terms with the prospect that this might not actually be the truth. I spent some more time going out to meetings and questioning what was being taught.
It maybe took a year or two before I became sufficiently convinced that the religion was not "the truth" as I thought it was, but it still took another two years or so after I stopped going to meeting to gather the courage to actually allow myself to view "apostate" websites. It took a few days and then I became 100% convinced that the JW faith was just a big, filthy pile of dung. That was about two years ago. I've made close to a 100% recovery from those dark days of uncertainty.
I'm free to live my life now without the fear of impending doom.
i'm signing into this forum... hope more will join soon..... note... this forum includes the "active topics" button so helpful at jwd.
also, the site master is moxie, who has created a number of useful jw videos and a blog about jws and religion.
check out her youtube account at http://www.youtube.com/user/vancoffeechick.
Remember that you'll only have Jehovah's blessing if 1 out of 1,000 JWD members makes the transition over to JWR. The other 999 will be destroyed in Armageddon. Narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones finding it.
another point that might be sort of related: when we used to call unbap pubs "approved associates", and they were dealt with judicially to the point of no longer being approved associates, the cong was to treat them essentially like they were dfed.
that's the way it was at the time i'm referring to.
i'm glad that arrangement has changed!.
This is the new book. The old OM book said that UB Publishers were to be treated as disfellowshipped persons.
