by JH 27 Replies latest jw friends
I anticipate the fall of Watchtower to happen when they rejoin the UN (I think they will or already have under a different name) and Jehovah desides that is the perfect time to destroy the UN and all its supporters.
This is pretty good. Are you saying that they will find out they were right in a previous New Light, but too late, because they abandoned that light moments before this happens?
What Lill said makes an awful lot of sense. If they mess too much with the blood issue, they'll upset the elderly ones. But, as she pointed out, they seem to be laying the framework for "new understanding provided by Jehoopla."
I think they may ease it in gently, and when our parents die off, there won't be many left, between deaths of the elderly ones, who are really their backbone now, and others getting disgusted and leaving.
I rarely see a cargroup in my neighborhood now, but until somebody mentions it on the board, I really don't notice. I doubt anyone will even miss them when they dwindle away to nothing, unless something reminds the public..."Oh yeah, whatever happened to those pains in the *ass who used to bang on the door at supper time? Haven't seen them in years!"
I don't think religions really disappear, absent a Jim Jones-style kool-aid incident. I don't anticipate one of those, so I suspect that the Witnesses will probably be around for a good long time.
There are still Russellite-style Bible Students around, pyramidology and all, you know that?
I think it is already in a slow but steady decline anyway, and this will speed up as time goes on and expectations continue to go unfulfilled. Less and less members will buy the "new light" bs, research the doctrines and quit, until it is even more of a minority sect than it is now.
I think they will survive as a downsized version of the one today. The average JW at the KH has to have his WT fix every week- it would be too hard for them to start thinking for themselves and they are too proud to admit they have been wrong all these years,too. The blood issue will have to be eliminated. I see them eventually doing away with the anointed remnant,too. Everyone gets to partake on Memorial. If they eliminate the blood issue and shunning, then I will have no cause to berate them. If they do all the changes at the same time, then the brothers will be so focused on the 144,000 change and elimination of shunning that the blood change will slide through with little fanfare- they can simply say it's up to the individual and no disfellowshipping except for immorality.
Uh, you may not have noticed, but the WTS has been "tweaking" the blood policy for the last 30 years! One more tweak ain't gonna bring it down. Most of the friends have hardly noticed all the changes they've already made. The average Witness has very little understanding of the WTS's blood policy - the have the HLC to think for them, and are told where to sign on the new blood "cards" (pamphlet is more like it!).
There has hardly been any "new light" for some time. And that has totally backfired - the last new light was the change in the sheep and goats, the 1914-generation and the sudden disappearance of the King of the NOrth (not quite new light, more accurately, that was new darkness!). Those changes caused a lot of us to leave, not stay. As we discussed in another thread, there's no Bible scholarship on the GB. These are company men, hardly capable of any amazing new scriptural insights.
If the Watchtower does fall, it will be slowly. I've felt the Society is in decline, and has been since the mid-1990s. Some people will never leave, but growth in first world and Internet-accessible countries has slowed to a crawl. Education and access to uncensored information about the JWs will be the major factors, and the further we get from 1914. If they change that date, you'll see another exodus, probably larger than in 1976-9 and 1995-1998.
It will be the lack of new converts that will take the greatest toll, and it will be a long, long time before the WTS and JWs disappear. Not in my lifetime, I'm sure.
S4
I agree with under_believer on that one , as PT barnum once said ," There's a sucker born every minute". If the mormons and the catholics can last as long as they have then it's obvious the WTBTS has a very good chance of being around until the conclusion of this system of things , let's not stop there even , more screwed up religions that have been around too long include moslem and hindu or budist, people just love to create a system of control even if it's based on absurdity .
Even if they disappear with the capital they have they will easily be able to start another business that most likely will not involve religion as is the case now.
How do you anticipate the Watchtower's fall?
Eagerly.
I don't know about all that, but I do know my name is:
Brian Willis.
