by AllTimeJeff 29 Replies latest watchtower bible
I read the first "Study Edition" WT and found it very benign.
Maybe that's true, but beware of "benign". The last few months of WT studies have been basic, feel-good topics as well. But WT Comments continues to dismantle the WT into it's toxic building blocks.
Good point V. I should have said relatively benign.
There is no doubt that the JW lifestyle is absolute poison. 5 meetings a week, FS, we all know the drill. Now that the GB is becoming aware that they can't stop their flock from totally looking at the information about them on the internet, how do they buttress their untenable teachings against the power of independant thought? Restrict it wherever you can, while cutting off your enemy from looking at your game plan.
The GB views itself at war with apostates. (I need to think of a better name for us, besides ex JW's or apostates, but whatever...) We have the upper hand, because truth is on our side. That is the truth the GB wants to hide. They can't argue logic or facts, their only strategy is to restrict information. That is what makes this WT so interesting. While they continue to spew their typical nonsense, I detect a more nuanced strategy on the GB's part to keep people from leaving. This new WT format could be a part of this... imo
Generation pre-1995: Anyone old enough to have lived through 1914, then anyone old enough to understand 1914, and finally anyone born in 1914. The "END" had to come by 1994. Applied to all mankind.
Generation Post-1995: Anyone at anytime who sees the composite sign of Christ presence. Applies to all mankind.
Generation Post 2008: Applies only to the annointed who will "not pass away until all these things oocur" and will be coupled with the retrogression to pre-1935 theology of the heavenly calling being open to anyone whom God in His good pleasure seeks to call. Not replacements, but brand spanking new, freshly minted annointed.
The reason these changes are important is that the last existing marker for a drop dead date for the "end" was the number of the anointed, since only they can lead God's people (barf)
Once this marker disappears, as it will when more people begin to partake, two things- I think-- will happen:
1. The GB will have another flash of light and declare that the 144k must be a symbolic number afterall, since God keeps calling people to heaven
2. The Heavenly hope will be emphasized over the Earthly hope, leaving everyone who wanted to pet lions and screw their beautiful wives in perpetual health and virility, out in the cold, in the lurch, pissed off. And since treasures should be in heaven and not on Earth, why not forsake all things of this life and slave for the next? The end needn't ever come since at death you will be joined with Christ. Kinda like Christendom, huh? It's what they used to teach. It's what Russell believed. Not too far fetched. And in another 30 years, the majority of JW's will be wine and motza eaters at Memorial and the freak show will be the earth dwellers.
Good points Zack. It helps to understand these weird teachings more when you realize that JW's teach that the bible, specifically the NT is written to the annointed 144,000 only. (from their pov)
These changes illustrate the personality of the all new GB. Only Ted Jaracz is left, the rest are all new. These changes would not have occurred (i.e. monthy Awakes, members only WT's, more hardline stances on porn while settling the pedophile cases) without the new GB's.... I think it is inevitable that more changes will occur that reflect the beliefs and personality of the current GB.
Don't expect to find them in the public edition of the WT though.
To ban coffee you would have to ban tea.
They would also have to ban pepsi, coke, and chocolate.
I read the first "Study Edition" WT and found it very benign.
Not that benign. We are reminded right away that the world is going be destroyed, and that we are bloodguilty if we don't sound the warning. There are several guilt-tripping stories of people who sell their homes and quit their jobs to pioneer. Nothing new--but I think this is just the beginning of a clamp down. We had lunch yesterday with an active witness, and he feels the same way.
Generation Post 2008: Applies only to the annointed who will "not pass away until all these things oocur"
Zack, while I agree with all of the rest of your post, this is the part that can be misleading. The main change (maybe only change) in 1995 is the definition of Generation.....As long as it is not linked to a human lifespan, any change over to "anointed only" verses "earthlings" is totally non-consequential....as is the date 1914! That is the point I have been trying to make. That is why it would not even surprise me if we change that date again, just as was done when Jesus came in 1874 and nobody notieced then either. When the fortold END did not come in 1914, another date for Jesus coming came about..............oompa....and of course it never ends...
I wouldn't even call the first members magazine benign. They seem to start right in on telling them
to do their duty and preach. In some ways, you are right. It isn't as hard-hitting as some future ones
will be, but they are just getting started. They have to adjust the faithful to harder stuff.
I can see the future articles about donating money. That's what they want.
"...what about the 1914 generation thought?"
In a few more years the JWs will say "We never said that Armageddon had to happen before the 1914 generation vanished!"
Just as now many JWs say there was no build up of expectations for the year "1975"
--VM44
Thank you, AllTimeJeff, for this up-to-the-minute topic.
I do not consider myself an apostate, but call myself one of The Informed.
Compound-Complex, of The Informed Class.
