a few days ago, there was renewed interest in a 12-year-old thread which, among other points, argued the watchtower's days were numbered.
several current posters expressed the view that the wts has not been impacted by any "critical mass" and that it speaks to the immunity of the watchtower to any such "critical mass" event.
i thought the topic warranted a renewal for wider consideration - with the "benefit" of "12-years" hindsight - so have duplicated one of my responses: .
Steve,
What you have said sounds right on the money.
Furthermore, the WTS has long recognised this itself - that in fact its greatest enemy is apathy. Thirty years ago, I can recall very stern warnings being issued by the Circuit Overseer on that very subject.
If the day does indeed come when the "organisation" is no more, it will have been brought about by the ordinary rather than the spectacular.
Bill.
i have a new poll at jwfacts.mobi/pollsarchive/ as i am very interested to see what people have moved on to believe.
as this is considered sensitive by some, you can answer anonymously at the jwfacts.mobi/pollsarchive/, or answer on this thread.
this is what i have created in the list, but feel free to add comments, corrections, or options i have missed.. .
Totally religioned out would best describe me!
Bill.
isn't this guy like the greatest anti-hero of all time?.
as the series wears on it is getting more and more difficult to sympathise with the guy.
but i must admit i stuck with him pretty far.
I have to say this before I completely laugh my head off !
- down in this part of the world, the term "rooting" has an entirely different meaning to what it evidently has in North America.
Bill.
for those claiming to be the biblical christ-messiah, you are wrong.
i am the christ!
and, i can prove it.. ----.
Although said in jest, this one is as plausible an explanation as any others I have seen!
Bill.
i think freddy in this talk shows how delusional he is and was.
to know all this stuff and still feel that the organization has the truth gives truth a new meaning.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmkdwk5svxm.
may your faith be strengthed in god's earthly organization right up to the final end!.
I tried to listen to this one, but after approximately 40 seconds, I became so violently sick that I had to give it away!
Bill.
a publisher in a congregation doesn't represent the watchtower organisation (due to legal reasons/insurance etc) .
they just represent themselves as individuals.
so why are publishers supposed to hand in their reports to the congregation/wts?
There is nothing like trying to have it both ways!
- individual publishers are expected to jump when the GB says jump.
- yet when quizzed about who is directing this activity, they are expected to say that it is a "personal" ministry.
Imagine if it WAS a "personal ministry". No territory maps, no Field Service Groups, no WTS dress code, no end-of-month Field Service Reports required, publishers free to present whatever literature they saw fit to use, "Bible Studies" using just the bible (or whichever bible study aid an individual publisher decided was most appropriate) . The beloved Watchtower Society would dearly love all that!
"Personal Ministry" all-right, next thing they will be trying to tell us the tooth fairy exists!
Bill.
for example, they pride themselves in what they don't believe such as immortal souls, the trinity, hellfire, etc.. some exjws still believe it is the "truth" and support the basics.. .
Like many others, I found out the hard way to trust nothing that lot ever said, or put into print.
Anything ever written by the WTS - unless corroborated from another source - I would automatically dismiss out of hand as being fictitious (or at the very best, misleading).
Bill.
jehovah's witnesses don't have a message.
they have an alternate lifestyle.. for persons put off by teachings of eternal torment they offer eternal sleep or a paradise earth.. for christians disaffected by tepid sermons and rituals they offer a vital lifesaving field service ministry.. in a world saturated in sex and exhibitionism, loud rude music and apathy they offer modesty of dress, cleanliness and worldwide family.. they are seen by the world much the same way as the amish only more modern.. people find their teaching quaint or laughable but think they are sincere and eager for postive change.. .
this is a brand more than a religion.. when the average person looks at jw's they see loyalty.
Terry,
The operative word here is "appear"!
Bill.
.
i know there are numerous examples of crazy, whacked out stuff that the wtbts taught that most of here now realize were just that...... crazy and whacked......... but do you know how insane some of the stuff in that original 1961 bible was?.
I might be going against the grain here in saying this, but I was actually quite impressed with the thing when I first encountered it.
When my newly-converted JW grandmother gave me one as a present back in 1964, the mainstream churches were still using the King James version - and the archaic English in that used to put a lot of people off, including me.
At least the "Witnesses' bible" was written in modern English (little did I know!)
Bill.
on my way in to work this morning (saturday), at 6:05 am on a commercial business street in chicago, i saw two sisters and a brother bundled up in winter clothes and doing "street work.
" it wasn't that cold, so i guess they started even earlier when they needed their scarf and gloves.
there was absolutely nobody else walking and all the businesses were closed.
If this world was really facing an imminent catastrophe, like the JWs are supposed to believe, then they would need to use more effective means of warning the public than standing on an empty street with a couple of magazines at some impossibly early time of the morning.
They would instead more likely be using similar methods to those used by our local emergency services whenever there is a bushfire alert;
- i.e. Warnings firstly broadcast over the Radio and TV, then evacuation warnings sounded out from the loud hailers on the emergency service vehicles.
This, too, is what would be done if any other imminent catastrophe was really going to happen:
- resorting to any other means of sounding a "warning" is an admission by default that the event you are warning about is not actually going to happen after all!
Bill
