Very well spotted Nathan Natas but the interviewee in this case wishes not to be featured in my film, so I am using the phone call as personal research only :)
If you would rather provide riveting footage for my film be my guest !
Could you help me with a little Witness history ?
by ukgirl 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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LisaRose
I was baptized in 1968 when I was 13. As a new convert I studied out of the blue "truth" book. This book was designed to be studied in six months, because they taught that the time left in this system was so reduced they needed to convert people quickly. There was a sense of urgency, we had to warn people they must become Jehovah's Witnesses or die a horrible death in only a few years. It seems incredible to me now, but I really thought the world was going to end in a few years and I would soon be petting lions in paradise. Life decisions were made based on this belief. Of course college was out, who needs that, the Awake firmly stated in 1969 that young people such as myself would not have time for a career in this system of things . People were commended for selling their house and living on the proceeds in order to preach more. Of course this was the end, things were so bad they couldn't get much worse, right?
It astounds me now that the Watchtower pretends that they never predicted the end would come in 1975, only acknowledging that some "ran ahead", nothing to do with THEM, THEY never said such a thing. Technically, maybe they didn't, but they very much manipulated things to the point that every Jehovah's Witness believed the world would end in 1975. From the belief that 1975 marked six thousand years of man's existence, a perfect time to start the so called thousand year reign of Christ, to the widely stated belief that the generation alive in 1914 would not pass away before the end of this system, it was preached from the platform, discussed at conventions and taught at home bible studies. Of course they put most everything that was in writing in such a way they could not be held accountable, this was not their first failed prediction.
I bought it hook, line and sinker, and it took me thirty years to figure out how completely I had been lied to and manipulated. Sadly most current JWs were not around then, or have since forgotten what really happened, substituting the Watchtower's doctored retelling of events for their own true memories. Such is the power of a cult that the lie becomes the truth and there are a whole new group of people to lie to. The Watchtower has been using the fiction that the end is close for well over a hundred years, it's useful to keep people afraid, because frightened people are easily manipulated.
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Pete Zahut
The following is a list of things going on at that time.
- Witness kids quitting school to pioneer.
- Witnesses ignoring Medical and Dental problems because the end was so close.
- Debt was incurred by many JW's who thought they'd never have to pay it and saving for the future was sign of your lack of faith.
- People were quitting jobs and selling homes to Pioneer out the remainder of the old system (including mine)
- The placement of tracts rather than magazines was instituted because the end was so near. Tract #3 was supposed to be the last one before the end.
- The JW's in Malawi Africa were under persecution for not buying a political card. (unknown to us all, the Watchtower Society belonged to the U. N.) There was a mass letter writing campaign to (Hastings?) Banda the ruler of Malawi.
- Russia was still a threat and it was taught that they would play a key part in Bible fulfillment about the end.
- There was an energy crisis/Gas shortage....people were lining up for gas that cost almost a dollar. This surely had to be the end.
- Jacques Cousteau was predicting there would be no life left in the sea by the year 2000.
- No colored shirts on the platform. No skirts higher than the middle of sisters knees, No sideburns or moustaches.
- Organ transplants were considered cannibalism by JW's.
- People were rehearsing at meeting, how to go undercover with the preaching activity and meetings during the Great Tribulation.
- The Book Study group meeting was called the "Rendezvous " and was to be our lifeline during the Tribulation.
- Due to the closeness of the end, interested ones would not be studied with longer than 6 months if they weren't progressing enough to reach the point of baptism.
- You could be publically reproved if you broke off your marriage engagement .
- Assemblies were 8 days long and were held from 9 AM to PM.
- Several new books were introduced at each assembly...each was considered ground breaking.
- The assemblies served full hot meals.
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millie210
If the mid 80s figure in to your interest that was when the Org decided to legislate sexual behavior between married couples.
A person could even get a scriptural divorce if their mate "made" them do certain sex acts.
Like so many things, they backed away from this not long after.