the following is from the watchtower, october 15 1966, page 613, what has gods kingdom been doing since 1914?.
the year 1914 is now more than fifty years in the past.
yet it lives in the memory of millions of people today living.. the first world war that began then and the train of events that has followed are part of the personal experience of those millions of living people.
Brother, Brother. Just wait on Jehovah. I'm sure that by 2014, or at the latest 2914, the Kingdom will be well under way.
Jeff
Yes well maybe they should....if you look at the history of how God dealt with his people, then you have the answer, that is not so hard is it!
the current growth of jws no longer exceed the population growth, and in many educated countries it is now stagnant.
http://www.jwfacts.com/index_files/statistics.htm in 50 years the whole 1914 thing will simply be an embarrasing irrelevance, so for the religion to even exist in 2057 will take some major doctrinal changes.. decrease is quite common for christian religions, except pentecostals, who are experiencing tremendous growth.
maybe they have jesus' blessing.
They need to get rid of the GB and bringh things back to earth (so to speak) a body of elders, the elders are not elcected by the GB as their little elite minds would like to think, it goes to the local branch and they elect. As soon as this type of hypocrocy goes the better, and really start to do things the way the 1st century Christians did.
if you are looking for the simplest picture that shows how the wts calculates that jerusalem was destroyed in 607 bce, and if you want to understand basic problems with their method, this might be what you want.. http://au.geocities.com/doug_mason1940/wts_false_reasoning_for_607_bce.pdf.
(make sure that your pdf reader displays the whole page.).
doug.
I like scholar because he has strong faith.
there was a recent thread on whether the wts attracts emotionally disturbed individuals which is unlikely to be the case since so many jws do not fit that description.
later i thought perhaps the wts appeals to people that deep inside have a fear of death which is scientifically called thanatophobia (from the greek word thanatos which means death) an excessive and abnormal fear of death.
what do you think, many jws find it very difficult to come to terms with the inevitability of their (and everyone else's) death and the wts plays with this fear and makes them believe that the end of this world and immortality for the dubs are very near.
Trying to analize why one becomes a JW, I think it is because of the prospect of living forever for most, and for others learning about the bible and gods kingdom and name. The so called mysteries of what happens when we die and why so much wickedness, one must admit Jw do answer all those questions weather you believe it or not they do have answers most religions dont and use the bible to back it up, weather it is out of context or not.
I think 99% of people fear death, unless they really believe in life after death, I mean most people want to know what happens when a love one dies don't they. so if it isn't for a loved one it is for ourselves.
So to say most study because of fear of death, maybe a few but most I dont think so. knowledge of God is why I think.
i've long known, and most of you probably have as well, that there was something not all there with me.
mostly i put it down to me being bad.
questions i've never been asked before.
The self harm you mentioned is common with BPD "borderline personality disorder" it is a rotten name and they have been wanting to change it since the 50's, it is an emotinal illness and bi/polar is common with this disorder as is OCD "obsessive compulsive disorder"
It is not uncommon for a BPD to have both these other mental illnesses. BPD is one of the most common illnesses for women in the JW religion.
Usually people with this disorder come from abusive homes or have been neglected as a child, it is most common with women, and is one of the most misunderstood mental illness around, yet in America it is very common and millions suffer from this disorder.
Reading up on this disorder is very helpful as it may help those that have been diagnosed with bi/polar and feel that they are not getting anywhere just with medication alone, to look into coucilling or phychologist.
Cheers
if you are looking for the simplest picture that shows how the wts calculates that jerusalem was destroyed in 607 bce, and if you want to understand basic problems with their method, this might be what you want.. http://au.geocities.com/doug_mason1940/wts_false_reasoning_for_607_bce.pdf.
(make sure that your pdf reader displays the whole page.).
doug.
Scholar
I agree with you, I think that faith in Jehovahs word far excedes anything that Satan can dish up to stumble those that love Jehovah. Thanks.
if you are looking for the simplest picture that shows how the wts calculates that jerusalem was destroyed in 607 bce, and if you want to understand basic problems with their method, this might be what you want.. http://au.geocities.com/doug_mason1940/wts_false_reasoning_for_607_bce.pdf.
(make sure that your pdf reader displays the whole page.).
doug.
Scholor thank you for you're reply. I think the mistakes they have made concern the importance of dates. They stupidly put emphasis on dates which the bible says not to look to dates and seasons etc. because of this some of the members have been stumbled and much hard ship has been caused. Then the society turned and blamed them for being overly zealous, which you would probably agree, but I dont' , I am not saying that it is not the church that God was using I think because of the arrogance of the FDS it has become corrupted.
I also don't think that anyone that stays in the organization is stupid once they know that there have been mistake rather I think that they stay in spit shows a huge amount of faith, and not the ones to judge why they stay.
empty
my first week of posts here were very serious and all the wonderful, encouraging replies helped me very much.. so now i want to ask something semi-frivolous.
(actually it's one of the many things that don't make sense to me about "the truth").
why do animals die?.
They weren't created to live forever. But I do empathise with youre question and think it is valid.
The scriptures say we die because we sin. Animals don't sin, yet they die. So it is not a punishment that they die they were not created to sin.
lol what did i say they were not created to sin.
I think that animals dont' fear death but survival of their kind.
i just knew the gb would find a way to keep on going when the end never seems to come.
well, new light shining brightly we all recently learned that the 144k are still being selected.
no more need to "graft" new ones onto the broken branch.
maybe next year he (the speaker that touched the plate) may take of the plate,....spooky isn't it.
if you are looking for the simplest picture that shows how the wts calculates that jerusalem was destroyed in 607 bce, and if you want to understand basic problems with their method, this might be what you want.. http://au.geocities.com/doug_mason1940/wts_false_reasoning_for_607_bce.pdf.
(make sure that your pdf reader displays the whole page.).
doug.
A question for Scholar.
I have noticed that the majority of you're posts concern 607=1914, it seems that you're entire belief system must be around this date.
What of all the other erroneous teachings of the WTBTS and it's GB. Do you hold faith in the teaching that they have already been judged and given the holy role of FDS.
If you do then I would challenge that.
