I really hope they print this stuff. Sounds like they're willing to wage a huge gamble on exciting people about the imminence of Armageddon and becoming more cultish at the expense of alienating the rational ones.
Losch reveals newer new light at Australia Zone Visit
by Billy the Ex-Bethelite 118 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
Quandry
6. Unknown if FDS will survive Armageddon.
This is really a flip flop, isn't it? Seems like in over thirty years I heard they will be there, they won't, they will..........in fact, wasn't there a thread on this forum recently where some higher up said that some of the annointed would DEFINITELY survive?
-
jwfacts
They really are crazy aren't they. I mean actually nuts. It makes me worried that they actually WILL drink the Kool Aid one day.
I couldn't help thinking the same. Losch has given a list of things completely contradicting many former teachings, many admitted as being unknown and pure speculation. Much of the speculation is not doubt baseless and wrong, just as the former concepts they replace must be wrong (or there would be no reason to replace them), yet the JWs sit there in the crowd in awe, furiously scribbling notes and going to discuss these wonderous new beams of light from Jehovah. I shudder to think my family sat there in the audience lapping it all up.
-
V
I can't believe no one was recording this. Come on people! Give me something to work with...
-
5go
13. There will be groups of brothers after armageddon assigned to clean up the bodies.
God I hope that I die in armageddon or .....http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/15/129636/1.ashx
Nah, second thought I would rather not live through it.
-
moshe
40 years ago the GB used it's stooge, Charlie Sinutko, to proclaim to all the brethren at an assembly, "Stay alive until 1975!". They can't even come up with any catchy slogans today to rally their sheep.
-
Leolaia
This is all quite interesting. Each of Losch's revisions is eschatological in nature and togther they reflect the pressing need for the Society to update their eschatology which, in the face of passing time, has become quite untenable and which loses credibility each year. The most striking thing here is a shift away from figurative fulfillments towards literal ones. In Revelation, the appeal to "get out of Babylon" was framed in a quasi-geographical sense (i.e. as a city that burns alongside a river), and the traditional JW interpretation was entirely figurative (i.e. leaving a worldwide religious "organization" to go to another worldwide religious "organization"). Similarly, the scriptures that Jesus would be seen are now taken literally. Same goes with the celestial signs and the "roaring of the sea".
This this an interesting trend because some of the Society's most problematic teachings are those that make the awesome and fear-inspiring portents in Revelation and elsewhere apply only to the abstract "condition" of the WTBTS starting in 1919 or the Society's criticism of "Babylon the Great" way back in the 1920s. Many people find that very hard to swallow. At the same time, there is a need of new reasons to keep claiming that Armageddon is very close. The generation of 1914 is dead, 1919 and 1918 seem ancient history to our current generation, and 1935 poses similar problems of its own. Reinterpreting the "roaring of the sea" as a new sign of the end buttresses the claim that is now only based on a sundry collection of visible "signs". Claiming that Matthew 24:14 is now completely fulfilled makes the end seem close and it eliminates one of the reasons for believing that the end could not be so close (i.e. the fact that the Society cannot give an individual witness to everyone before Armageddon, and the fact that their activity is banned in some countries). The new view of Matthew 10:23 would give added support to the view on Matthew 24:14. Other changes, such as the matter of getting out of Babylon the Great, cleaning up the bodies of Armageddon dead, and the prophecy of seeing Jesus, may well set things up for further changes that we cannot speculate on yet.
-
5go
Other changes, such as the matter of getting out of Babylon the Great, cleaning up the bodies of Armageddon dead, and the prophecy of seeing Jesus, may well set things up for further changes that we cannot speculate on yet.
I think we have heard a change on this topic. The Watchtower has stated they do not know who individually will make it through Armageddon. They only know human organization will make it through Armageddon solely, the watchtower.
-
penny2
I shudder to think my family sat there in the audience lapping it all up.
I feel the same. Some of my family (including impressionable young ones) were there via a link up and I'm not happy!
penny
-
Gregor
This is what Losch saw when he looked out at the audience.
