What will be the reaction in the congregation when...

JH

We have many older brothers and sisters in our congregation, and surely the same in many congregations all around the world.

What will be the reaction in the congregations when all these older ones, who were sure they wouldn't die before the end, pass away and leave a vacuum in the congregation.

I don't wish these older brothers and sisters harm, but eventually they will be too old to follow and they will die away.

It won't be the same anymore, when they see these old pillars who stood so faithfully crumble due to old age.

JH

I'm surprised that hardly anyone of importance in the congregation died since the last 21 years, when I joined.

Time will come when many will pass away in a single year.

I grew up in one congo with many of these pillars...men and women I admired, respected, and loved... our congo split...concentrating most of them in the "parent" congo... I left that congo in 91 and went to the other...which I left in 2002.... I still live near by...and slowly am seeing them die...one by one.... one just died a week or so ago...I have good memories of her... I wonder how long her UBM will be love bombed before they give up on him? Esp if his JW daughter moves away again?

I can think of another elderly sister in the last congo I served that I left in 2006..... she is 88 now... I have heard she has been in and out of the hospital the last week or two....(if hospitals issued frequent flyer miles, she would be platinum level..... she goes at the drop of a hat).... I havent had the heart to visit her....because she will ask the wrong question..and I cannot lie to her..... and then the elders find out for sure about me..... breaks my heart.... and it would break hers.....better she have hope I might come back....even if it is false hope...

the congos mentioned are not the same now that the majority of the older ones have died off..and the ones behind them are aging now....when those start dying off....then I expect a quicker exit by the 3rd and 4th gen witlesses.

Snakes ()

Tuesday

Actually a variation of this question that I have, what happens when all the first generation witnesses pass away, when all that's left is the second and third generation witnesses who were never as gung ho as their parents who came in of their own valition. Maybe the orginization will become alot more leanient.

Layla33

I think this is a very good question. So many people thought they would never ever die. That was the selling point and the whole fear of Armeggedon. And the whole, "a generation will not past" etc. Well guess what, they are going to all die. Armeggedon isn't happening everyone and all those 1914 generation are dying by the dozen.

I really believe in the next ten years there is going to be a falling off like never before and they are going to restructure the entire belief system because they will have no choice. Because they attributed so much of their belief to certain times and generations, people are going to realize how fake they really are.

aniron

The ones who were in their 50, 60, 70's when I became a JW in the early 1970's have nearly all gone.

Such ones kept the congregation in good order. Then they gradually started to die off. They were replaced by younger men in there 30's 40's.

In a three year period we lost four good Elders, all in there 70's. I say good because these were guys who had their heads screwed on.

They were "replaced" by younger men. Guys who thought they were "Gods gift" to the congregation.

Watchtower Daleks, who "obeyed" every little WT directive to the letter.

I left not long after the last of these "gifts" came to power.

The congregation started to go downhill. For years we never had anyone DF'd. Not it seemed for the least wrong people were being DF'd.

Attendance has dropped, either through brothers stopped going, or they are attending another congregation in the area.

Wasanelder Once

The congregation that I attended was full of older ones. I know of at least ten that have died since I have attended. One was 93. They were all baptized in the 30's and 40's. All had the new system glimmer in their eye when they died. It's the ones left that are squinting at the unfulfilled promise that these had spoken of for so long. It strikes me how pathetic their hope was. Towards the end the were neglected by the flock who mourned the loss of those with white hair in the way of righteousness. Damn frauds. This is the biggest group of pretenders on the earth. The most two faced, self deluded and self absorbed bunch of religious nuts around. W.Once

moshe

Reaction? A reality check I hope and then exit stage right to the real world.

journey-on

It's already starting to happen. I've heard it so many times at the JW funerals I've gone to that "we weren't supposed to get this old."

Many are beginning to realize that this religion is beginning to crumble from within, especially as these old die-hards from the

early days of Nathan Knorr and Fred Franz die off. After 2014, I predict a mass exodus.