Posts by Bungi Bill

33

Ray Franz blamed for 1975 false prophecy

by EndofMysteries in

i was raised a jw and as a kid my family made brief mention of apostates in bethel that falsely prophecied about 1975 and were kicked out of bethel.

i was shocked after i got out and learned that him being removed had absolutely nothing to do with 1975. i think that partial lie spread is what kept my relatives in.

1975 a big let down/false prophecy, then they are told that a governing body member and many in bethel are found apostate and cleaned out, etc.

Bungi Bill

They started touting 1975 in 1966, with the realease of the book Life Everlasting in Freedom of the Sons of God. (The offending words may be found on page 29 of that book. ) This happened at least five years before Raymond Franz was appointed to the GB.

No, the 1975 debacle originated with his uncle, the WTS's resident madman theologian , Frederick Franz. (FW Franz wrote all their books in those years. This showed up in his writing style, as well as in his kooky ideas!)

When 1975 proved to be a non-event, the WTS then tried to blame it on just about everbody but the actual culprit.

All this reminds me of the typical six stages of a project:

1) Wild enthusiasm

2) Deep despair

3) Panic

4) Search for the guilty

5) Punishment of the innocent

6) Promotion for those not involved.

Although this saying was intended to be presented in a tongue in cheek manner only, I still do believe we saw all six stages happen amongst the JWs over the matter of 1975!

Bill.

21

This website finally helped me understand the claim of 100% failure rate

by ILoveTTATT in

jw
friends

up to about 5 minutes ago... i still had the notion that maybe jw's predicted something and got it right... that the league of nations was going to rise and become the united nations.

i think that jw prophecies/predictions are like a shotgun: shoots many projectiles, one of them has got to hit.

you cannot predict 5 different things and then, when one of them gets partly fulfilled, drop the other 4.5 things, change the 1/2 thing you predicted that was right and make it seem like that was the only thing you predicted, and make the entire one point fit after the fact.. reading watchtower literature throughout the years (1879 till now), and then coming here and getting awesome explanations from people like leolaia and other researchers, i finally understand the claim that most apostate websites make: the wt has a 100% prediction failure rate.. they were lucky that something big happened in 1914... but now i am much wiser and i know that everything they predicted for 1914 did not turn out as they predicted... 1914 has been a date with many different hats... from the start of armageddon, to the beginning of the last days... etc.... thank you very much jwn for completely opening my mind.

Bungi Bill

"You cannot predict 5 different things and then, when one of them gets partly fulfilled, drop the other 4.5 things, change the 1/2 thing you predicted that was right and make it seem like that was the only thing you predicted, and make the entire one point fit AFTER the fact."

ILove TTATT:

-you nailed it in a nutshell, like I have never seen before!

Bill.

33

"Why would everyone be included this time...unless something special is about to happen?"

by Separation of Powers in

jw
friends

so, i am talking to a long time friend, you know, the non-judgmental type that doesn't really mind that i don't go to many meetings and am never out in service.

he tells me that the annual meeting is coming up and that the whole congregation is invited...well, at least the active "approved" whole congregation.

he speaks with an excitement that puzzles me, like he just got invited to the locker room of his favorite football team when they won the superbowl.

Bungi Bill

I cannot but feel that this is just one more case of "Much Ado About Nothing"!

Bill.

14

Did your parents force spiritual goals on you?

by Comatose in

i was thinking today about my childhood.

i knew from a young age that the proper response to a question about what i wanted to be when i grew up was pioneering, missionary, bethel, or c.o.

i was taught from childhood not to want to be a fireman or astronaut.

Bungi Bill

Julia,

"rednecks and JWs" - sum sit up perfectly!

Bill.

33

For lurkers and newbies who think Jehovah`s Witnesses are better people than most

by smiddy in

why dont you look up on the internet crimes comitted by jehovah`s witnesses , i think you will be very surprised.the majority of cases are comitted by dedicated baptised witnesses , not newly interested ones that you can excuse away.and the crimes range from anything minor to outright murder .. and remember ,jehovahs witnesses are only a minority religion and yet crimes comitted by them far outstrip the national average.. i`m sorry i cant put up the links .i`d appreciate it if someone can .thanks heaps.. smiddy.

Bungi Bill

When I remember my time from before the Watchtower madness took hold, I actually knew a lot of better people who were not JWs. There are, of course, some very good people amongst the witnesses, but no more so than amongst the population in general. They certainly don't have the monopoly on this, like they seem to think they do!

Bill.

88

Anyone here, have you had enough religion for the rest of your life?

by restrangled in

jw
friends

thats how i feel,..... no disrespect for those who find another way or place to worship.

i for one cannot stand any religion on any level.

how do you feel?.

Bungi Bill

That would describe me perfectly!

Bill

18

Do JW still hold to their 1984 Doomsday deadline?

by bytheirworks in

jw
friends

did jw's predict the world would end in 1984?.

the september 21, 1984 issue of chrisitanity today on pages 66-67, ran an article entitled: "do jehovah's witnesses still hold to their 1984 doomsday deadline?".

that's as far as my search has gotten me and it isn't on chrisitanity today's web-site.. can anyone find this article for me?.

Bungi Bill

If anything much was ever made about 1984, then it must have been strictly a local matter. Certainly where I was during those years of the early to mid 1980s, nobody suggested 1984 as seeing in Armegeddon - but then again that could well have been because memories of 1975 were still fresh in most people's minds!

There was indeed a surge of growth in JW numbers during the 1980s, but this had little or nothing to do with the date 1984:

- starting in 1982, a concerted effort was made to contact persons who had either formerly "studied" with the JWs, or who were publishers who had become "inactive."

As a result, for a number of years during the 1980s, the total annual increase in publishers actually exceeded the number of those baptised each year:

- something that is easily confirmed from the Annual Report, as listed in the Jehovahs Witness Yearbooks for those years. (Also something that has never happened either before or since).

Also, unlike the post-1975 crash, this situation continued for several years after 1988:

- thus strongly suggesting that 1984 had very little to do with it!

12

Wanabee Elders & Ministerial Servants

by minimus in

jw
friends

there were a lot of wannabee elders and ministerial servants in the congregations.

if you were a male and baptized, it was expected that you "reach out".

everyone wanted to have a position.. wives and mothers of men wanted representation too.

Bungi Bill

Minimus,

Things seem to have changed since yours and my time in "The Truth."

These days, the universal complaint appears to be that they cannot get enough "brothers" interested in "reaching out" for these "privileges."

Anyway, the feedback we are receiving in more recent times is that the JW congregations are suffering from an almost dire shortage of elders and servants.

Bill.

27

Is the Watchtower a Communist front?

by bytheirworks in

in the chinese language you have 2 versions: traditional & simplified.. ever since the watchtower opened a field office in hong kong, they have made the watchtower study magazines into two versions: traditional & simplified.. the watchtower's communist roots go back further than that.

charles taze russel in his early watch tower (notice there is a difference between watch tower aka guard tower.... & watchtower aka enochian magic, aka justice league, aka league of the just men 1834, aka communist league 1847) predicted some 36 years in advance that there would be a communist revolution in russia.

it was called many things but in 1918 it was officially called a communist revolution, exactly around the time when the government began arresting rutherford.. when you do the research you find that the last communist meeting was held in allegheny pennsylvania, exactly where & when russel began his watch tower.. don't you find it strange that the watchtower is able to produce so many worker bee jw's, who operate like mindless robots???.

Bungi Bill

I for one am not given to replying to provocative statements!

Bill.

27

Is the Watchtower a Communist front?

by bytheirworks in

in the chinese language you have 2 versions: traditional & simplified.. ever since the watchtower opened a field office in hong kong, they have made the watchtower study magazines into two versions: traditional & simplified.. the watchtower's communist roots go back further than that.

charles taze russel in his early watch tower (notice there is a difference between watch tower aka guard tower.... & watchtower aka enochian magic, aka justice league, aka league of the just men 1834, aka communist league 1847) predicted some 36 years in advance that there would be a communist revolution in russia.

it was called many things but in 1918 it was officially called a communist revolution, exactly around the time when the government began arresting rutherford.. when you do the research you find that the last communist meeting was held in allegheny pennsylvania, exactly where & when russel began his watch tower.. don't you find it strange that the watchtower is able to produce so many worker bee jw's, who operate like mindless robots???.

Bungi Bill

I very much doubt that Rutherford's one and only attempt to ingratiate himself with Hitler had anything to do with Socialism.

While the term "NAZI" is an acronym derived from the words "National Socialist Party", that is where the resemblance ended between Nazism and Socialism! (As others have noted already, the Nazis were a Fascist group. As such, they were every bit enemies of Communists and Socialists as they were of the Western Democracies).

Hitler's response to Rutherford's overtures was to declare war on the JWs; and he, too, from that point onwards never had a kind word to say about Hitler. Der Fuhrer actually loved the Witnesses so much that they even had to wear their own special identity badge - a purple triangle - on their prison uniforms!

Bill.