did jehovah's witnesses plagiarize hwa's false prophecy of 1975?.
http://livingarmstrongism.blogspot.com/2013/10/did-jehovahs-witnesses-plagiarize-hwas.html.
bangalore.
So did H.W.Armstrong predict the earth/world was going to be destroyed or not , or was it just ambiguous wording that people have misconstrued .
1975 in Prophecy, by HWA:
http://www.herbert-armstrong.org/Books%20&%20Booklets/1975%20in%20Prophecy%20 (1956).pdf
Can't get this to hyperlink for some reason - the system won't pick up the 1956 in parentheses, but it's an essential part of the URL. Try copying and pasting rather than clicking the hyperlink.
there's a new letter coming up next week to be read instructing the publishers to begin reporting the number of tracts placed in the ministry, including copies of kingdom news 38, annual invitations, district handbills and other tracts.
lol.
see, the borg is allegue about numbers, and why on earth do they tell you to start counting placement in the middle of a campaing, like the one they are doing now witk kingdom news 38 and not before it started??.
I thought we had always counted the tracts placed specifically in Kingdom News campaigns - not regular tracts, though. Wouldn't suprise me if they now wanted to count all tracts, as the focus does seem to have shifted to cheaper literature items for placement since the "complete donation arrangement" took effect.
did jehovah's witnesses plagiarize hwa's false prophecy of 1975?.
http://livingarmstrongism.blogspot.com/2013/10/did-jehovahs-witnesses-plagiarize-hwas.html.
bangalore.
The publications, for instance, mentioned it is not known when Eve was created, and it may have been years after Adam was created, and the date when the first sin occurred is also not known. So the implication was, as far as I can see, that the end was unknown, and most likely NOT come in 1975. Although, one WT publication SPECULATED, that it MAY not be far off from 1975. However, a lot of stress was put on Jesus words "that no man knows the hour", although the sign of the times indicated it was near. The WT never stated the end WILL come in 1975, not even the book used to introduce potential new Christians to bhe basic bible truth mention it.
Yes, they hedged their bets quite nicely by putting cautionary statements such as you describe into the literature. On the other hand, other statements were much more telling:
Reports are heard of brothers selling their homes and property and planning to finish out the rest of their days in this old system in the pioneer service. Certainly this is a fine way to spend the short time remaining before the wicked world's end.
Kingdom Ministry, May 1974, p. 3
Fifteen years from 1960 brings us to 1975. He predicted that by 1975 this world would be too dangerous! Interestingly, this date is also the one indicated by the most reliable Bible research as marking the end of 6,000 years of rebellion of men and demons against God.
Awake! January 8, 1968, p. 19
If you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things. Why not? Because all the evidence in fulfillment of Bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years. Of the generation that observed the beginning of the 'last days' in 1914, Jesus foretold: 'This generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.' Therefore, as a young person, you will never fulfill any career that this system offers.
Awake! magazine, May 22, 1969, p. 15
Telling people that the time is so short (in 1974) that selling their homes and property is a "fine way to spend the short time remaining" doesn't strike me as a very cautionary statement. Do you think they meant to imply that people's homes and property should bring them enough income to last them another 38 years (or more)? There were serious consequences to anyone who followed the Watchtower's advice, based on a prediction that you claim they never made.
Likewise, young people were told in 1969 (the year I graduated high school) that they would "never grow old in this present system of things" and that they would "never fulfill any career that this syetem offers." These statements were blatantly false. That magazine came out weeks before my high school graduation, and I am now 61 years old. I think I could have had a decent career by now, had I not paid attention to the Watchtower's advice. Instead of going to college, I aimed at pioneering, and have, as a result, worked much harder at jobs I've enjoyed much less than could have been the case. Another life messed up by believing the Watchtower.
Over 40 years later, the Watchtower is still telling young people the same things. Fortunately, it seems that nowadays, fewer and fewer are believing them, since the majority of JW kids today leave the religion as adults.
had a very long and frustrating debate last night.. .
jws like to say that god has the ability to foresee the future, but can chose not to look.
this, they claim, removes the problem of predestination/preordination.. .
I think the JW position is a rather confused mish-mash of all three options that you mention. God has the "super-power" of seeing the future (which is distinct from the God of mainstream Christianity who knows all things by his nature), much as Clark Kent has the super-power of seeing through solid objects with his X-Ray Vision. Just as Clark can choose not to look through the wall into the girls' locker room, God can choose not to see the outcomes that will be brought about by the free acts of human beings (as if there were such libertarian freedom). This is a form of a doctrine that pops up here and there in evangelicalism called "Open Theism." For this reason, Jehovah doesn't know who will be saved and who will not, because he has chosen not to look. JWs have a God who can be surprised. So when God said (after Abraham as much as offered up Isaac), "NOW I KNOW that you are God-fearing, in that you have not withheld your only son from me," it was because God really didn't know what Abraham would do (Gen. 22:12). This does create a bit of a conundrum for the JW, however, since, if taken as anything other than an anthropomorphism, this verse not only implies that God does not know the future, but doesn't even know the present, since the implication is that he was unaware of the present condition of Abraham's heart.
However, in JWism, Jehovah can also maneuver the events of the future if he wishes to in order to accomplish his purpose. Pharoah, Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus were all people that God specifically said would carry out certain actions relative to Israel. Did he thus deprive them of their free will? What if Cyrus didn't want to conquer Babylon? How would the Israelites been freed from bondage? God had specifically named Cyrus in Isaiah's prophecy, well before Cyrus' birth. What happened to Cyrus' free will? Apparently Jehovah overrides the free will of some people in order to carry out his purposes. Seems rather unfair, when viewed through a JW lens. The image one actually gets from JW literature, though, is of God as a master chess player who, while not directly overriding free will, maneuvers external factors to the individual in order to cause him to behave in the desired manner.
In short, I think you are trying to make sense of a JW doctrine the implications of which have never been fully explained by the organization, that is not understood by JWs themselves, and that is internally inconsistent.
talked to a congregation literature servant's close friend today.
i asked him what he thought about the "no bibles" situation.
he said the literature servant told him that there will be a new bible released at the annual meetin.
If people in the congregations are speaking authoritatively and saying that the new Bible release is a fact, I see two possibilities:
1. The rumor is false (or at least uncertain) and information from apostates (hey, that's us!) is actually leaking back into the congregations and being taken as fact
2. The rumor is true, and the new Bibles are already sitting at the Kingdom Halls for immediate release after the Annual Meeting program. They did that sort of thing before when Organized to Accomplish Our Ministry was released in an announcement after the spring Special Talk one year. The books were shipped into the congregations in advance and the elders were instructed to tell no one except the literature servants prior to the actual announcement.
i always wondered.......how many would still be in if there was no fear of being shunned?
i really believe the very few of active witnesses believe that the big "a" is right around the corner.
but, the fear of losing family and friends.......very powerful to keep people in line.
If shunning disappeared tomorrow, my guess is that 50% would walk away from the organization.
anybody know where i can really get some good understanding showing from the bible that their shunning practices are not correct?.
Not to be self-promoting, but a short paper I wrote a few years back analyzing some of their major proof texts for shunning is found on my web site at http://dispelthedarkness.org/index.php?p=1_10_Expel-the-Wicked-Man
apologies is this has already been discussed.
i came across this website www.
is this a new splinter group among jw's?.
I have to wonder if this sort of bubbling up of "anointed" Witnesses presuming to start their own web sites and offer Bible interpretation that differs from that of the GB might have had some influence on the new teaching of the GB alone being the F&DS. Otherwise, what claim would the GB really have of their teachings being any more correct or authoritative than those of other members of the "anointed" class?
so, yes, there will be a "new bible" released at this annual meeting.
worst kept secret ever.. however, the new bible will no longer be called the "new world translation".
again, this is pure speculation, but it would kind of make sense since the term "new world" is very mason-y, old-time jw-y, and doesn't appear in the bible anyway.. what they would call it, i couldn't even guess..
What I'm wondering if these rumors are true is, who do they have that is even capable of producing a Bible translation these days?
Maybe they will reissue Byington's translation and use that as their standard Bible. But, nah, Byington was too accurate for them...
who else is watching the new show "sleepy hollow"?
the series premiere is on right now.
in the first few minutes of the show.......it show a road leading into the small town.
Sounds pretty interesting, but I'll most likely wait for Netflix to get the DVDs.
