It seems to me that they're slowly dismantling the date theology that ties the end times to this period in history. First, they updated the generation teaching to mean a figurative generation, thus removing the possibility in the near future when all who were alive in 1914 are dead. Then, they abandoned 1935 so the annointed will never die off, and prove their belief that the annointed will see armageddon wrong. It just seems to me that the abandonment of the 1914 doctrine will follow. Maybe not now, but I'd say in probably 20-25 years it will probably go. If they remove all specific dates from their theology, then they can sustain the "it's coming soooooon!" trip indefinitely.
Do you think the society will abandon 1914?
by B_Deserter 37 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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journey-on
They'll come up with something. If they just quit emphasizing it and start stressing something else, in a few years it will be like 1975 is now....just a slight miscalculation. After a while, if it's brought up, it will be like "Oh, that's old light. We don't pay attention to that anymore."
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JH
I'll be anxious to see 2014 model year cars at the kingdom hall parking.
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greendawn
Surprisingly they seem to keep the JW naive drones under the impression that armageddon is near 12 years after they changed the meaning of the 1914 generation making the big A potentially centuries away. They are playing with their members' longing to see the end coming soon. No doubt they intend to keep this up since it serves well their interests.
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R.F.
I think that as the years go by they will have to abandon it. Either that or concoct a hysterical explanation as to why they still hold to the doctrine. I too believe, however, that they are in the process of abandoning it.
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journey-on
It won't matter. Not long ago, my sister told me if Armageddon doesn't come in her lifetime, well, she'll die knowing she endured to the end and her hope of a resurrection will still be there.
If they abandon 1914, some will leave, but the die-hards will stay no matter what. They've got too much invested in it.
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steve2
In about 200 hundred years, the few huddled adherents of the Watchtower Society might abandon the date....but I suspect that by then, either the Watchtower or some other like-minded end-times group, would have seized onto some other Biblical code or date of significance.
Let's not forget that end-times dates soon fade from memory and even history. For example, who remembers 1844 - the date the Adventist Miller set for the end of the world? His influence was HUGE - even after the world did not end. Adventists metamorphised and Charles Russell, heavily under their influence, came up with his own unique interpretation of scripture, leading to several splinter groups, each harping on about how important 1914 is. Yawn
Charles Russell's cow is only one of many in the paddock. There are plenty of others waiting to be milked.
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stillajwexelder
YES -they will be forced to - but not just yet
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SB
my prediction: there will be an entire year of assembly programs around the world about keeping the faith despite changing doctrine, "as the light gets brighter". Then, the 1914 bomb will drop, and those w/o faith in the ever brightening blinding light will be DF'ed, and the "strong of faith" will get promoted in the congregation and then the new recruits will know nothing of the1914 scandal. it will be thrown in the pile w/all the other failed years that are explained away.
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Junction-Guy
When they dropped the literal generation of 1914 in 1995, that pretty much ended the 1914 doctrine, or at least the effectivenevess of it. They fixed a very major problem before it became a problem. If they had only dropped it in 1993, my life course would have changed dramatically. I was living under a timeclock back then and rushed into marriage, skipped college, made alot of hasty choices.
I believed the 1914 generation, and I believed that my time was running out back then, based on the lies they were teaching.
I hope this cult is utterly wiped from the face of the earth, by the hand of God no less.