Not sure James but the point of his argument was; 'you can't turn your back on young ones for a second'.
there were always all types of speakers in the org.
myself, growing up a "witness", must have heard all types of talks, and given by all manner of speakers, especially on sundays, when almost every week we would get a "visiting" brother giving the public talk.. sometimes, you would have a "great" speaker, all fluent and animated.
other times we would get a comical speaker, one who would maybe purposelly get a few laughs outta the audience.
Not sure James but the point of his argument was; 'you can't turn your back on young ones for a second'.
there were always all types of speakers in the org.
myself, growing up a "witness", must have heard all types of talks, and given by all manner of speakers, especially on sundays, when almost every week we would get a "visiting" brother giving the public talk.. sometimes, you would have a "great" speaker, all fluent and animated.
other times we would get a comical speaker, one who would maybe purposelly get a few laughs outta the audience.
In the mid-eighties, one of the MS's in our congregation gave his very first public talk.
He was a real 'hick' and his theory must have been to make the biggest impact possible during his first talk.
It was full of completely shocking, outrageous stories designed perhaps to stun us all into being better JW's.
Among the highlights was a story warning against pre-marital sex that concerned 2 infants (both were 3yrs old apparently- yes THREE years old) that were caught committing fornication in the car while the adult quickly left them to go into a store to buy something.
This was greeted by audible gasps from the gob-smacked audience.
whats worse than being an adult jw?
when i was a kid i always had a bad concience all the time.
i believed i would not survive armageddon for the fact that i didn't like going to service and i didnt like going to the meetings.
In the 80's we had religious instruction at high school and for one hour per week, an old-school, fire and brimstone elder and me would sit outside somewhere (because there wasn't enough students in his class to justify giving us a classroom) and go through the yearbook or some other article that he chose.
In my final year of high school, religious instruction classes were not mandatory because of extra exams etc.
After missing just one of his classes, the elder caught me at the next meeting and informed me, 'I'm probably going to die at Armageddon if I continue missing his class'. I was 14 yrs old.
True story.
This is above and beyond the daily grind of being a teenage witness and my experience is very similar to that expressed by many other posters on this topic.
I could go on and on.
at around 4 minutes into the september 2015 video splane said "for the man and the baby to be part of josephs generation they would have had to have lived at least some time during joseph's lifespan.".
this is the lynchpin of the wt argument, that two lives must overlap to be considered the same generation.. let's take an example of twins who are born just a few minutes apart.
obviously, these twins are the same generation as each other.
My grandfather witnessed the second world war. Although I was born decades later and knew my grandfather well, I did not witness the second world war and therefore cannot be a part of the so called second world war generation.
Only if you were alive when an event occurred can you belong to that generation.
i don't have a great reference point on my observation other than my local area but i was wondering if this was a widespread thing.
... in the last two years in my former congregation there have been 6 people to disassociate for "apostasy," 6 disfellowshipped for various reasons, and numerous ones reproved.
these are just the ones i have heard about.
i just thought i would mention this on the off chance they might be lurking here.
the two quotes are.
(1)vincent toole ="i've never heard of the term 'theocratic warfare'".
Bumping this thread, it has some important quotes.
it seems like there has not been as much discussion here about the rc testimony on day 6 (4th august) as there has been about previous days.
i was quite surprised by rodney spinks' testimony, which was a marked contrast to the bungling and inarticulate testimony of the elders that appeared before him.
spinks seemed reasonably co-operative, and a lot more willing to concede points than anyone else has been.
When I knew Rod Spinks he was a truly 'black and white ' type of witness. He left you in no doubt as to your status in the congregation based on the amount of witnessing you did.
He always came across like he believed he was the smartest guy in the room.
Most of you will probably understand what I mean when I say that this guy is one of the reasons you left the organisation.
i was just a teenager and have a vivid memory of sitting in a chair doing a microphone for the sunday meeting.
everyone was commenting that it didn't mean the end was far off, and it didn't change the condition of the dead, or the 144,000, or the trinity so we should still remain faithful.
this is my first memory as a kid being just a teen that i ever had a single doubt.
Found the article (not Time magazine).
Apocalypse Later: Jehovah's Witnesses decide the end is fluid
Jehovah's Witnesses decide the end is fluid
From Newsweek magazine, December 18, 1995, page 59. Article by Kenneth L. Woodard, with Joel P. Engardio.
THE THIRD MILLENNIUM is just four years away, and you'd think that Jehovah's Witnesses would be ecstatic. Ever since the movement's inception in the 1870s, the Witnesses have insisted that the world as we know it is about to end. According to their unique Biblical calculations, the countdown to Armageddon commenced in 1914 -- the first world war was a major sign -- and Christ would establish his millennial kingdom on earth "before the generation who saw the events of 1914 passes away." For countless Witnesses, this prediction was good reason not to save money, start a career or make burial plans. As one of their leaders famously preached in 1918: "Millions now living will never die."
Now, it seems, all millennial bets are off. In last month's issue of The Watchtower, the sect's leaders quietly acknowledged that Jesus was right in the first place, when he said that "no one knows the day or the hour." All previous references to timetables for Armageddon, the magazine now suggests, were speculation rather than settled doctrine. The year 1914 still marks the beginning of the last days. But those who hoped to witness the battle of Armageddon and the establishment of God's kingdom on earth will have to wait. Henceforth, any generation that experiences such calamities as war and plagues like AIDS could be the one to witness the end times. In short, the increasingly middle-class Witnesses would do well to buy life insurance.
If this serious revision of expectations takes the edge off the Witnesses' apocalyptic profile, it also buys them time. The generation that was alive in 1914 is rapidly disappearing, and the the sect's current leadership shows every sign of digging in for the long haul. In recent years the Witnesses have been on a building spree: they just completed a 670-acre educational center in rural New York state that includes 624 apartments, garages for up to 800 cars and a dining facility that accommodates 1,600 people at one sitting. Officials of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (the Witnesses' official title) deny that the leadership felt a generational pressure to change. "The end is still close," says Witness spokesman Bob Pevy. "We just can't put numbers on Jesus' words."
So far, the new interpretation has caused no noticeable decline in membership among the 5.1 million Witnesses worldwide. But then, they rarely air their differences with outsiders. "Believing the end was imminent gave a special urgency to being a Jehovah's Witness," says Ray Franz, a former member of the society's governing board in Brooklyn, N.Y., who left the church in 1981. Older members, especially, heroically risked their lives and reputations by refusing blood transfusions, military service, allegiance to the flag and other acts prohibited by their faith -- all with the expectation that they would soon live forever in the paradise of God's new kingdom on earth. Charles Kris, 73, a retired autoworker from Saginaw, Mich., served three years in prison with 400 other Witnesses for refusing to fight in World War II. "It was prison life, but I took advantage of the time to study the Bible and witness to other prisoners," he recalls.
But for Kris, and especially for those younger Witnesses who have no memory of the rough early days (the Nazis interred many Witnesses in concentration camps), preaching God's message is more important than witnessing the end of the world. "I'd like to see it happen," says Kris, who still hands out tracts door to door.
"But if it doesn't happen in my lifetime, I won't be disappointed."
i was just a teenager and have a vivid memory of sitting in a chair doing a microphone for the sunday meeting.
everyone was commenting that it didn't mean the end was far off, and it didn't change the condition of the dead, or the 144,000, or the trinity so we should still remain faithful.
this is my first memory as a kid being just a teen that i ever had a single doubt.
I think I missed the particular study that discussed the changes. ( always a slacker).
I was in my 20's and while sitting in a dentists waiting room I was reading through a 'Time' magazine article with the title ' The end is fluid' , or something similar. I'm still ashamed that I had to read a 'Time' magazine to comprehend what the change meant.
The magazine discussed the new changes and I have to confess, it was the first I had heard of it, even though I was still attending regularly and witnessing. No one had mentioned the new changes to me and I don't remember anyone discussing it.
When you think about it, this WT article should have had a massive impact on JW's around the world and got everyone buzzing. The fact that it didn't proves that most people are asleep or have had the critical thinking beaten out of them with the 'happifying stick'.
Anyone that becomes a JW after 1995 (including born-ins) will never fully understand the expectation about 'the generation' that everyone felt for decades and decades leading up to the end of the 20th century.
The 'overlapping generation' is a concept that makes no sense on any level.
this appeared on the abc news website this morning.. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-06-09/sale-of-jehovah-witnesses-halls-an-expansion-plan/6533544.
and here are the halls.http://www.commercialview.com.au/211-yorktown-road-craigmore-sa/commercial-for-sale-details-8894836 http://www.commercialview.com.au/8-james-street-crafers-sa/commercial-for-sale-details-8890348 http://www.commercialview.com.au/53-woodside-road-lobethal-sa/commercial-for-sale-details-8915140when is the branch going to sell your hall?
My Grandmother didn't become a witness until she retired from work.
Soon after she donated a large amount of her retirement money to the renovation of her hall in a small country town in rural N.S.W. Australia.
A few years later the hall was sold and the cong. merged with a neighbouring town.
After questioning the C.O. as to why the hall was sold because she felt a bit ripped off that her money was gone with no benefit to her or the local brothers, she was lovingly advised by the C.O. that it was fine and not to 'worry' because her donation was helping with the 'world-wide' work.