i'm not sure if any of you will remember but i posted on here six months ago about a correspondence i was having with my dad, an elder, about who would die in armageddon.
i was asking some tough questions about children being killed in armageddon and i could tell he uncomfortable with the answers he was giving.. i drafted an email in resposne to his email but in the end i decided not to send it in the interest of maintaining friendly relations.. .
last week, out of the blue, my dad sent an email link to the february 2012 watchtower article about armageddon and said it would answer some of my questions.. here is my response which is a critique of the feb 2012 wt article and some of the broader ethics concerning 'armageddon'.
Shades of Grey
This question is just another play with words... It asks if JWs believe that they alone will be saved but it doesn't ask the more relevant and specific question which is: "Do Jehovah's Witnesses believe that they alone will survive Armageddon?". By asking the question the way they did, this gives them an "out". The "out" in this case is that they can now deviate the reader's attention to people in the past (rather than who exactly will surivive Armageddon).
very clever indeed...
hubris['hju?br?s], hybris.
pride or arrogance2.
(literary & literary critical terms) (in greek tragedy) an excess of ambition, pride, etc., ultimately causing the transgressor's ruin [from greek]hubristic , hybristicadjthey have been able to attract a core of followers, and, like the bullies they are, hold them through a combination of a fear shunning and the childish vision of eternal life in a new world.
Agreed...
although I probably would have chosen h aughty, malicious or avaricious ...
the society once even pictured jesus as clean shaven for many years in it's books.
beards were "sort of" banned.
i don't remember a single brother who had privledges with a beard....anyone else?.
There was a brother in one of my halls that had a serious skin condition that didn't allow him to shave... He was allowed to have a well-groomed beard and still go out in FS, give parts, etc.. Eventually, he was made MS... However, the elders were eventually forced to remove him after repeated "recommendations" from the CO (who thought this might cause some brothers to "stumble")... he was devastated and went into hiding for a long time...
with "memorial season" just around the corner, i am planning to put together a small brochure (or maybe just a plain-looking document on letter-sized paper) that exposes the embarassing fact that jws still hold their "memorial" every year even though, by their own teachings, they should have had their last one in 1914. i plan to give it to the next elder who stops by to "count his time" during memorial season.
but hopefully, this will happen before they start canvassing my neighborhood since i plan to distribute it to my neighbors as well.. i've just started this morning with the following "quick draft" (but i would appreciate your comments and insight... thanks):.
jehovah's witnesses, why are you still inviting people to "the memorial"?.
Shades of Grey.... thanks! I will include the part about the great crowd,,,
i have been meaning to post this.
just havent got around to it till now.
this talk was a couple sundays ago.
According to the WT, the ENTIRE book of Revelations is figurative or symbolic, except for the number "144,000"... that would need be a literal number in order for the GB to retain their authority.
But the main reason they are not ready to admit that "144,000" is NOT literal is becaused they have so much invested in this doctrine, that doing so would seriously diminish the sense of urgency required to keep the field service hours up.
so according to the yb, jehovah and jesus are quite the powerful invisible beings.
hundreds of thousands killed.
154 jws died.
FYI... I was in Haiti recently... the airport looked like a ghost town... the only humanitarian presence appears to be the UN... two years ago, there was no place to park airplanes... there were wide-body freighters from all over (Canada, Brazil, Europe, Asia, etc.) and the airport was gridlocked... some flights had to be diverted to Santo Domingo or Cuba until parking space for airplanes opened up...
Again, that was two years ago... and now the airport is a ghost town...
Regarding the JW families that suffered material loss as well as loss of life... I'm guessing the Watchtower got their money's worth with the publicity they received in the beginning and got out of dodge as soon as all the media attention died out...
if you want to skip to the new light or understanding, its underlined for you pleasure.
i think some will find this interesting.
we had the co tonight.
That sad thing is that most JWs won't ever realize that the WT changes it's teachings only after they are thoroughly bombarded with questions thay simply can't answer (not because they received a "progressive refinement").
am in the middle of noam chomskys book (yeah dont start screaming commie).
"media control - the spectacular achievements of propaganda.".
so much of it reads like a textbook for witchtower mind control and manipulation.
Sounds like a good read... thanks for recommending it.
we all know the watchtower organization is now in a defensive mode.
unrelenting criticism and critical information is rapidly coming forward exposing this esoteric cult.. are their hundreds of bethelites now understanding how evil their "faithfull slave" really is?
has the revolution begun?.
RICK... I SENT YOU MULTIPLE EMAILS ASKING YOU FOR EVIDENCE TO YOUR CLAIM THAT ELDERS WERE BEING DELETED FOR HAVING FACEBOOK ACCOUNTS... YOU SAID IT... I HEARD IT... WERE YOU LYING?
A SIMPLE YES OR NO RESPONSE WOULD SUFFICE.
we all know the watchtower organization is now in a defensive mode.
unrelenting criticism and critical information is rapidly coming forward exposing this esoteric cult.. are their hundreds of bethelites now understanding how evil their "faithfull slave" really is?
has the revolution begun?.
Is this possible...... Hundreds of Posters now engaged in a petition to remove Rick from this board?
YES
