by jwfacts 50 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
"events may not unfold exactly as we might have hoped or expected"
Correction:
"events may not unfold exactly as YOU might have hoped or expected"
Also acceptable:
"events may not unfold exactly as SOME might have hoped or expected"
This is the still the Watchtower we're talkin' about here. "We" and 'might have been wrong' don't ever appear in the same sentence! ;-)
Dave
The following is a quote from "The Truth vs. the TRUTH" by Dr. Stephen Cox, Prof. of Literature, UCSD*:
Can the Society, or anything like it, have a future in an Internetted world?
Perhaps. There are several options available to it. The most obvious is to do what Raymond Franz tried to get it to do, a quarter-century ago: admit it was wrong. But this, of course, is the least likely option to be taken. Only one modern American institution has ever admitted that it was fundamentally in error — the Worldwide Church of God, an Adventist church that, influenced by the Witnesses, once referred to its members as "in the Truth," and to everyone else as out of it. During the 1990s, the WCG leadership surveyed its distinctive teachings and announced that they could not be squared with the Bible. The reward for its courage was the loss of 50–60% of its membership. This is an example that the Watchtower Society will be very reluctant to follow.
It is much more likely to choose one of two other options, roughly the same two that confront all other truth-challenged institutions in the modern world.
The first option is for the Society to keep trying to isolate its own version of truth from the checkable truth of the Internet. If it does that, the Watchtower movement will become a living fossil, a fellowship confined to people who, like the Amish, are content to remain in a world that predates the net.
The second option is for the Society to adapt its version of truth, bit by bit, to the fact-gathering capability of the Internet and the free society that the Internet exemplifies.
This second option is almost certainly the one that will be taken. Like other earthly authorities, the Society has a will to live at almost any cost. It will try to live even if the cost is a quiet coming to terms with its own mistakes. The real question is whether the speed of the Internet will give it time for an orderly evolution. We have seen, in Eastern Europe, how quickly glasnost can be followed by oblivion. The crucial factor may be the morale of the leadership, its ability to live with the same truth that normal people live with, while simultaneously acting as if it were still in possession of its higher truth.
*Complete article here: http://libertyunbound.com/archive/2003_10/cox-truth.html
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So far, the WTS is utilizing the first option.
I don't see them able to put the second option into practice. The Watchtower depends on having an inside track with the Almighty - without that illusion, they are nothing.
Convert to Christianity: Love their neighbors as themselves and show love of God through showing that love to neighbors. "Neighbors includes children who need protection, pedophiles who need serious intervention, teenagers who are going through changes and confusion, family, and all other inhabitants of this planet. Converting to Christianity would be too easy and sensible, so they won't consider it.
Regards,
SandraC
Not an org that deserves to be salvaged but for that to happen they will need to make major changes to do away with the things that mark them as an absurd cult, the blood ban, the dictatorial leadership, the psychological pressure on the members to be isolated from the world, the negative god image.
The point is that these things can't happen in reality though they should because if they do the WTS will simply fall apart.
Excellent comments. Keep them coming. I think this thread needs to be sent to the GB, it will give them something to discuss over the coming months.
Bizzy Bee, that article is spot on. If you ban the Internet the JWs will end up like the Salvation Army, full of old people that slowly die out. If you embrace the Internet, you need to be prepared to admit there were mistakes and that JWs do not teach absolute truth. It then becomes important to attract people on the enjoyable lifestyle of being a JW, rather than fear of Godly destruction for all that do not belong to the organization.
Bizzy Bee, that article is spot on.
Thanks for the comment, jwfacts. I got the link from Danny Haszard and I've been trying to get more people here to read it. It is written by a totally objective observer, that is, a non-witness. I think everyone interested in the future of the WTS should read it, especially those who are sceptical that anything will ever change regarding the WTS. They are short-sighted if they discount the power of the internet, which re-shuffles all the cards. And moreso every year...
If the WT lawyers have their way the Ny Bethel will be closed and sold, then everyting will be relocated to the Cayman Islands. The Caymans will provide a safe haven for the billion dollars is WT assets and a better climate for the elderly GB leaders to spend their final days.
Q.: If you were on the GB what would you do to prevent the ultimate demise of the WTS and Jehovah's Witnesses?
A.: You say that as if it is a bad thing. Why would any right-thinking person want to prevent the demise of the WTB&TS?
I propose a better question: what can be done to hasten the demise of the WTB&TS? The answer is simple; SALT THEIR FIELDS. If these 'developing countries" had libraries full of "old light" Watchtower publications IN THE COMMON LANGUAGES OF THAT LAND, and the information is readily available to the people via the internet, rationality will do the work for us.
get some humility and appologize - people would respect them more
If these 'developing countries" had libraries full of "old light" Watchtower publications IN THE COMMON LANGUAGES OF THAT LAND, and the information is readily available to the people via the internet, rationality will do the work for us.
Off track but good idea Nathan. There are plenty of Spanish sites, and I notice active Polish ones, but there are many languages that do need information provided.
