….. The loss of them doesn’t really sink in until you realise what you have lost or are about to lose… so before I cannot post anymore and the JWD closes… a few thoughts.....
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“If you are a young person, you also need to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things. Why not? Because all the evidence in fulfilment of Bible prophecy indicates that this corrupt system is due to end in a few years.
Of the generation that observed the beginning of the 'last days' in 1914, Jesus foretold: 'This generation will by no means pass away until all these things occur.'
Therefore, as a young person, you will never fulfil any career that this system offers.
If you are in high school and thinking about a college education, it means at least four, perhaps even six or eight more years to graduate into a specialized career. But where will this system of things be by that time? It will be well on the way towards its finish, if not actually gone!
This is why parents who base their lives on God's prophetic Word find it much more practical to direct their young ones into trades that do not require such long periods of additional schooling… True, those who do not understand where we are in the stream of time from God's viewpoint will call this impractical. But which is really practical: preparing yourself for a position in this world that soon will pass away? or working toward surviving this system's end and enjoying eternal life in God's righteous new order?”
Awake! Magazine 22 nd May 1969 issue.
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If you were 16-18 years old on 22 nd May 1969 (typical school leaving age in the UK) then today in 2008 you would be 55-57 years old. Rather than ‘never fulfilling any career this system offers’ a person would be approaching the end of this career and now realising that retirement is imminent. By following the advice above, a person in 1969 who forsook a promising career and just took menial jobs, would have had a lifetime of mundane jobs whilst really struggling financially to raise a family for no reason, all against the backdrop of the non stop meeting attendance, field service, study and all the other time consuming ‘theocratic’ activities, simply by following the above advice.
This same person would be facing retirement now or in a few years with very limited resources again for no reason, simply the followed the Watchtower’s advice above based on their assertion that ‘the end’ was due to end in a ‘few years’
This more than anything else, even the most esoteric doctrine to me represents what is fundamentally wrong with the Watchtower Society.
You see, it matters not a bit what esoteric doctrine a person or group choose to believe in, providing that in practical matters of their lives are left for them to decide. But when career choices like this that will affect the rest of their lives in a detrimental manner, are presented as an almost essential lifestyle choice, then they are guilty of the most gross misrepresentation.
In their article above the Watchtower asks “But which is really practical: preparing yourself for a position in this world that soon will pass away?”
If we take what they say at face value then we are not only to believe their doctrine but also base our practical and everyday life decisions around it. They are effectively saying ‘look this is really urgent! Don’t waste your time over a career or pursuing money because the system isn’t going to be here. Family, house, kids, career, pension fund! Forget it! Just get out and preach because before you even sniff your 30 th birthday you’ll be well into the Paradise Earth.’
So… what prompts me to start a thread about this.
This is what my mother bought into in 1970 when I was busy being born. Ok she was 22 then and not particularly pursuing a career as such, but even so; she put everything else on the back burner ‘for the truth’. She was told by the Special Pioneer who studied with her that ‘your son (me) will never go to school’ in the mid 70’s. I remember being repeatedly told as I grew up that I would never go to high school/finish high school/start a job/get married/have kids because ‘the end’ was so close.
Today I am 38 years old with 4 children of my own. It is I who is the one planning ahead for the retirement and my own children’s future financial well being. Although I am not by any stretch of the imagination old, I am acutely aware of the importance of forward financial planning.
On 8 th August 2008, my mother was 60 years old! I can barely believe it. But what is sadder is that she has spent nearly the past 40 years banging on peoples doors telling them the end is ‘any day now’ with no real thought for practical matters.
She is in particular one of the poor souls who having followed that advice in the late 1960’s early 1970’s is now having rather belatedly to make plans for a time in her life she never thought she would see.
Her loyalty to the Watchtower has cost her dearly, she doesn’t speak to myself or my brother and has no contact with her grandchildren because they are ‘not in the truth’.
The Watchtower bears a heavy heavy responsibility to these people, and the life they sacrificed in futility for them.
So despite my personal loss, for the past 8 years or so I have lurked mostly and occasionally posted here, and as the end of this board is now in sight, I too will take this opportunity to thank Simon, his family and all the administrators who have provided this forum.
Like the relative you take for granted, you don’t actually realise the loss until it is staring you in the face. JWD was simply always there! If I ever felt the need to be re-assured and that I needed to clear my head, I just always found my way here. If I was asked to name the one source of help that helped me clear my mind of all the Watchtower crap, this was it!
There were many other sites out there, but it was reading other people’s experiences, laughing, crying, reading in disbelief what other people have gone through, laughing at the folly of foolish Watchtower doctrine, I only had to come here for that reassurance, and that’s what really did it for me. That I was not alone.
Thank you. Just for being there.
Craig