I don't have time right now to search for it, but didn't the WT website originally have a different response to that question re only jws surviving?
From the offical WT website ... new light?
by sacolton 22 Replies latest social relationships
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slimboyfat
Yes I think so Blondie. I think there was a question from readers from the 60s or 70s that left open the possibility Jehovah may select some non-Witnesses to survive in special circumstances - such as they live in Mongolia and never got a "witness".
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blondie
http://corior.blogspot.com/2006/02/do-jehovahs-witnesses-claim-that-they.html
An essay by Alan F...very good
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lrkr
Lets simplify their answer:
Part 1- No we don't think you have to be a JW to be saved
Part 2- What about those who were alive before there were JWs
Part 3- If you live today- you could still become a JW
Conclusion- we don't really judge anyway
So.....we asked the wrong question- Do JWs believe that only people who are JW's (or never heard from a JW) when the Great Tribulation comes will be saved???
Answer- Yup.
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Homerovah the Almighty
Isn't it just circumvented ignorance, surrounded and supported by a psychosis of fear.
and they wonder why is it that there are so many JWS that suffer from mental health problems !
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orangefatcat
I don't think they really know what they believe in anymore? Back and forth up and down all around. Thats the Watchtower for you. No new light, old stuff just in a pretty package. with no ribbon on it. Heaven forbid it might look to Christmas y. orangefatcat
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Gayle
It's like if one of their loved ones die now, they're relieved, that their loved one though not an active JW will be resurrected into the new world 'soon'. I have seen this and it causes them not to 'mourn' at all or for a mourning delayed.
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shamus100
This is very old light. This was in the live forever book.
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Snoozy
It sounds like the stuff we were taught in the 50's and 60's. The part about the JW's not judging made me snicker a little...
When we went in service we were told we were doing a separating work..wouldn't that be judging?..Sheep on one side goats on the other?
Snoozy...who knows the JW's judge..don't judge...judge...don't judge..etc.
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Confession
My day of Awakening: September 15, 2004. Less than three weeks later, I finally began to write down my thoughts, and the subject of this thread is what I started with. This is how I put it then...
10/4/2004
What follows is my attempt to comprehend information that challenges whether or not the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses is what it claims to be—and what I’ve always held it to be, namely the sole channel of communication from Almighty God, through Christ Jesus, to humankind.
At 38 years of age and having lived as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses my entire life, I came to believe that the only way to be found acceptable by God is to be a dedicated, baptized member of this organization. While this is a teaching of the organization, it is also true that the Watchtower Society definitely stresses the need to “make the Truth your own.” When non JWs would ask me, “So do you believe that only Jehovah’s Witnesses will get into God’s Kingdom?” I would answer in a typically diplomatic fashion.
“Only God knows who he will and will not allow into His kingdom; that decision certainly isn’t up to us. We do recognize though that He does not accept just any form of worship. We also know that the Bible teaches the road to life is ‘narrow and cramped and few would be finding it,’ while the road to destruction would be ‘broad and spacious and many would be finding it.’ So it’s reasonable to believe that most people are not on that road to life, and it’s probably unreasonable to think that a religion is the right one simply because so many people are members.” So, while we craft an answer that we hope will result in less controversy, the truth is—yes, Jehovah’s Witnesses do in fact believe that (among those living today) only those in this organization will enter God’s Kingdom.
If people pressed on this topic further, I would usually paraphrase what I’d heard a District Overseer, Brother Beagler, say. “Are you asking me if I believe I have the truth? Well, yes I DO believe I have the truth. Don’t you believe YOU have the truth?” I would then go on to show them the verses at Matthew 24:43-47. I would then say, “So that’s a question each one of us has to answer for him or herself. Who really is that faithful and discreet slave? I’ve answered that for myself. I believe the faithful and discreet slave is in association with the organization of Jehovah’s Witnesses.” I would then often take them to Ephesians 1:10, which speaks of “an administration at the full limit of the times, namely, to gather all things together again in the Christ…” I’d usually ask if they’d let me show them why I felt this was referring to the Watchtower Society.