Could This Be The Watchtower's Endgame?

by metatron 57 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  metatron

  Suppose you had a business that didn't make money. You would try to make the thing more efficient and probably lay off

  some workers to cut costs. If it still didn't make money, you might shut it down to save the assets.

  Unbelieveable as this may sound, could the Governing Body deconstruct the organization and begin to shut down most

  of the preaching work? Crazy as it sounds, we need to consider that totalitarian organizations can get stuck with

  masses of dependent people they need to 'get rid of'. Suddenly, China discovered that capitalism was good. The

  Soviets left Afghanistan and walked away from Eastern Europe.

  I think that legal reasons do not completely explain what has happened. Something deeper is going on.

  Suppose the placement of books and magazines loses money. Suppose the assemblies barely turn any coin for them.

  What alternative is left? Shut it down!

  metatron
• 

  ninja

  will the last person to leave the watchtower please switch out the new light
• 

  easyreader1970

  I am convinced that something is going on. Even before this, it seems like for the past couple of years they have been gradually positioning themselves for something. I am doubly convinced that I don't know what it is. There is a severe "qualified brother" drought due to old age and retention (mostly retention here lately). Are they just trying to find better ways to deal with the lack of men or is there something else in the works?

  I have never thought the WBTS was evil or had truly ill intentions, but there have been times during my association when it seemed misguided and even out of touch with its own people.

  Still, I get the feeling that all of this recent stuff ("this generation", "Witness only" Watchtower magazines, the demise of the book study, fish in nets, etc) is part of a greater plan and purpose of which I cannot conceive.
• 

  minimus

  When people have no money, they cannot contribute. When the religion decrees that education is bad and therefore limit the $$$ potential they could get, the Organization is in trouble. The Society has taken advantage of wills , real estate and estates. Very smart on their part. In the 90s, they stopped making profits off of donations from magazines. When I see how oldtimers suggest that the WBTS is simply a money making publishing company, I have to wonder, how??

  The publications are essentially free to the public. I knew many JWs that did NOT regularly pay for the publications. The Society no longer makes money from these things. They make money from the bigger things I mentioned earlier. If the amounts of court losses have made the Society lose a lot more money than we believed, they could simply be cutting back on everything. But from a local standpoint, the Witnesses that are left are essentially cash poor in most places. They can barely pay utilities, never mind anything else!!!
• 

  Meeting Junkie No More

  I have now come to expect that the REAL REASONS are all money motivated. There has to be a reason for the change of name from 'Congregation Book Study' to 'Congregation Bible Study'. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that the lawyers are already aware of some change in governmental regulations concerning religions/charities and the Society will run afoul of those by not having their meeting names use the word 'Bible' somewhere in order to come under the 'Christian' rubric. Perhaps that is why they have already incorporated some company with the name 'Jehovah's CHRISTIAN witnesses'. Gotta be a money reason, imho. By focusing on Satan, gas, burdens, etc. the real reason is buried and nobody will give it a second thought. Perhaps they will actually study ONLY THE BIBLE! Wouldn't that be a switch? Catching up to Christendom?
• 

  minimus

  Jehovah's Christian Witnesses and Cong. Bible Study simply highlight how mainstream the religion is.

  I think we are not thinking of something else----there could be one less guy in charge at Watchtower now. If he's gone, they might be going into a slightly different direction.
• 

  Quirky1

  Metatron,

  Shut it Down

  Let's hope so.....

  Quirky1
• 

  metatron

  It might help if the men on the Governing Body actually had a higher education. As it is, their only response is to cut back

  on everything, putting them in danger of starting a death spiral in which every downsize is met by less response from

  publishers. Instead of building more internal infrastructure, they simply tear down what little they have.

  Godspeed to these holy fools. They will find out just how severe the Armageddon Addiction among publishers is.

  It's going to a sad time for many old timers. Actually, that might be an opportunity to get some broken families back

  together.

  metatron
• 

  easyreader1970

  Come back to me next year, but I am thinking the name change is because there won't be any more books studied. When was the last time the WBTS actually released what you might call a "meaty" book? Lately the books have been easy material that is meant to be presented in the ministry, not personal study material.

  I think what they will do is incorporate what is now part of the Ministry School, the Bible reading, into the Congregation Bible Study. Some portion of the Bible itself will be studied for that segement of the meeting, instead of having someone do a 10 minute talk on it. There may even be an update to the All Scriptures Inspired publication and this is what will be used.

  The Ministry School will then focus solely on presentations.

  Then the Service Meeting will continue as always.

  That's what I think just based upon the "milk" books they have released over the past few years.
• 

  Peppermint

  "There has to be a reason for the change of name from 'Congregation Book Study' to 'Congregation Bible Study'. "
  
  I thought about this too. Maybe they are going to stop publishing books altogether. With sites like jw.org they can get all the information out on line. They can use the congregations locally to print it and distribute it (Paid for with local contributions of course) Just think how they can cut cost and workers if they did this. Then the upper ups can all retire to Patterson blaming the cost of living, paper costs, distribution etc.