by greendawn 44 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
But what about now? I think, because I still have a lot of 'j.w. think' still in my mind, that those like myself have decided, in their mind, that they will wait until 2014 and if the end has not come by then, they are going to leave.
How I figured that, I don't know, but it must be part of the way j.w.'s think. Always having the hope that the big A is just around the corner, etc.
Warlock
I'll give them this, though...they don't put as much work into their End Times Charts as some of the Left Behind folks (John Hagee, Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye). Religions/Preachers that give their Nancy Grace Garauntee on The End coming either have great delusional complexes or secretly get a kick out of fooling people.
I really don't get how it was just accepted basically without question, and I am included in that group.
Me too, Warlock. I knew many who were very troubled by the change at the time, (none that I can think of actually left). As for myself, it didn't seem to bother me that much, then. I guess timimg had something to do with it. When I was baptized in '88, I had a hard time with the whole 70 or 80 year thing, because we were already 74 years into this, and I somehow didn't see the big A happening by 1994. Also, it seemed somewhat like date fixing, (like 1975, etc), as if the system MUST end by the 80 year timeframe. So, I guess, when 1995 came around, (81 years), I simply assumed the change made sense.
What DIDN'T make sense, was the EXPLAINATION of what "generation" now meant. To this day, I still cannot explain the current understanding. From what I can tell, it somehow says, "this generation, (the one that sees the events of the last days), will not end until Armeggedon comes", that seems like a very weak explaination to me, but in fact that's all it seems to say. There is no more significance to the term "generation". It is effectively meaningless by the current definition. Very obvious to me now, btw.
j
Daystar it is a fact that accepting the absurd is not necessarily a problem of the intellect but the heart, it is an emotional thing beyond the rational, the need to feel secure though it is a myth that creates more problems than it solves. Warlock if you give any significance on that misty new 2014 date that means they have got you for 8 years more. It will be another failure in the long string of failures.
I truly believed what the watchtower taught about the last days and this generation, UNTIL They changted their definition of what a generation is.......back in 1995
I don't see how that pictures proves anything. Ever since there has been a wts or a jw they have always taught the we are in 'The Last Days.' This hasn't changed. If you bring this up to them they would say that to Jehovah what seems like a long time to us is just a day or two for God.
I think a more distressing symptom of this is how it shows that their "Truth" seems to be so elastic.
How can one expect to guide her life so rigidly (and they do rather demand rigid obeyance) by the laws passed down from the WBTS as "The Truth", when "new light" can come along at any time and trump it?
And if you were to use the argument that they're just coming to a better understanding of "The Truth", doesn't that necessarily make it less "The Truth" than just "The Opinion That We Happen to Hold At This Moment"?
This would all be resolved if they could just admit that they aren't guided by some infallible Holy Spirit and are just floundering around trying to make sense of everything just like the rest of humanity. That could be forgiven I think.
Warlock if you give any significance on that misty new 2014 date that means they have got you for 8 years more. It will be another failure in the long string of failures.
You know, this is the only place where you can be honest as an active, inactive, d.a.'d or d.f.'d witness and have someone respond in kind, in a way that is kind.
Greendawn, to coin a phrase from Star Trek "Don't you think I know that, Jim!".
It's just that the hope is always there. Sometimes right in front, sometimes way in back. I wish I had never known, but what was I to do. The teachings of the Witnesses stopped me from self-destructing. Isn't that ironic. They kept me from a life of violence and addiction, but some of those 'born in' suffer a life similar to the one I left.
What can I say without tears?
Warlock
Warlock I can understand how you feel, hope is the stuff of life.
What DIDN'T make sense, was the EXPLAINATION of what "generation" now meant. To this day, I still cannot explain the current understanding. From what I can tell, it somehow says, "this generation, (the one that sees the events of the last days), will not end until Armeggedon comes", that seems like a very weak explaination to me, but in fact that's all it seems to say. There is no more significance to the term "generation". It is effectively meaningless by the current definition. Very obvious to me now, btw.
Done4good
I couldnt sum up my feelings towards 1995 change better than you have.It is utter madness when we think about it now isnt it.Even madder the dumb acceptance by the average JW!!!At that point i totally ceased to believe anymore.....up to that point i was a 100% believer. Sigh....still took me another 8 years to break free though.Guess im one of the lucky ones,being i was a relatively young age when leaving.
sigh again
It's kind of sad that, if people don't wake up now, the next generation will be as lost as this one was. The Watchtower library doesn't go back into the 40's, it only goes as far back as the 50's. You really think somewhere at the HQ there aren't copies of the literature we had back in the late 1800's? They don't provide it on purpose – they are slowly phasing it out. In another 60 years, when are are all dead or close to being dead, the new Watchtower Library 2066 won't contain the old version of the “generation”, the pre-1995 version. It will only contain the boundless one – the one that is "some future generation". And then, to those that inquire, they can say, "check the records, we've always claimed that 'this generation' has been an unspecific one'" -- how sad. "Those who can not learn from history are doomed to repeat it" -- George Santayana. No one learns in the Witnesses (esp. the GB); they're too high above reality in their "Watchtower" to see the massacre taking place within their city walls. Until those old, bloated GB fools who are obsessed with micro-managing people's lives die out and are replaced with younger (hopefully different) members, nothing will change. I get the feeling the pompous old schmucks in the GB would rather run the JWs into the ground before they loosen the leash. More than likely the young men who inherit the Kingdom of God as built by Russell and revised by Rutherford will also be handed "Holy Instructions from Jehovah" that will contain information (written of course by the GB members) on exactly how to pilot the ship once they're dead. I think EVERYONE knows about the change in the understanding of "this generation"; deep down everyone knows. Just like they all know we made false predictions. And those that act as though they don't (the Apologetics) are simply buying into the lie with unmatched aggression with a hope that they can figuratively beat the so-called lies out of existence. People are locked in now, as they always have been, and most will die in deception not simply because they won't look – but because sometimes they can't. If my mom were to open her eyes after all she has said and done for the Witnesses... the embarrassment and the mental collapse would send her straight to the loony-bin. Perhaps denial is the evolution of a fail safe – the last resort to salvage a severely damaged mindset. This, of course, is my humble opinion – I know as much as those who are blinded.
