by Room 215 17 Replies latest jw friends
Openminded,
So you're awaiting God's vultures, are you?? heheh.... Don't you know that your innards are going to be strewn from there all the way to Eau Claire, Wisconsin and damn soon, if you don't get your arse back in the organization????
Man, it must be a daily test, going through what you are. Hang in there, man.
GopherWhy shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.
Mark Twain (1835-1910)
It seems improbable that very many Witnesses would question the "1914 Kingdom" matter. This is a divinely revealed truth, and only a few who were already on the road out of the org would question it.
Matters pertaining to the destruction of Human beings are a different matter.
There are many things in the Bible itself that are contrary to human compassion. The Org leaders know this in their heart of hearts and tend to avoid those passages dealing with children getting killed for their fathers sins, and not refer to them. The members, ordinary shop floor members, are all decent people basically, and would nt see anyone hurt, people killed, and they experience "worldlings" and know many of them are just good ordinary folk, and so they hold personal misgivings about Armaggedon Annihilation.
The whole problem is in the taking of every word in the Bible as literal. The World has to get away from this, The OT and NewT are in many ways contradictory of each other. Belief in Bible literality is on the way OUT.
The juggernaut is in motion. Nothing will stop it now, save a worldwide repression of thought by a World controlling authority.
It's not just in informal settings or social gatherings where you will here things like:
"even if we cannot fully understand, trust in Jehovah" and "it is not important to know all these minor details, Jesus choose simple ordinary men" and "that is for Jehovah to reveal in HIS own time" and numerous, numerous other such statements are the bottom line of their whole teaching.
This is important. This is where the buck stops in the organisation. Every single argument in the truth, whatever subject, whatever Bible version, whatever brother or sister always ends with the same force majeur.
A whole section of the United book (if I remember correctly) is devoted to the teaching that if you are unsure of some belief then simply trusting in Jehovah is all that is required.
I have always believed that there is a part of all JW who don't really believe it. Maybe 5% do, but the rest live double lives. Most shut their traps at work or in the company of their neighbours and they try to appear as normal as possible - until it absolutely can't be avoided any longer.
If they really, really believed "it", they'd all go pioneering, especially in areas where there are very few dubs. Coz if they really believed it, then Jehovah would provide.
Marilyn
If only they would practice that trust in Jehovah is all that's required???? Tell too many people that you're unsure and you'll get kicked out on your ass under the guise of "keeping the congregation clean". Moreso, they wouldn't have a way of keeping all those drones in line supporting their publishing empire.
Do I perceive "that there's a sizeable segment of the JW rank and file that quietly withhold unequivocal acceptance of these bedrock doctrines, opting instead to ``wait and see?'" You betcha.
In speaking with some long-timers in 'the troof' (especially elders) here in Oz, I notice that this is being expressed more and more over the past few years. Coincidentally during this time the number of publishers in this land has been showing a regular 1% decrease each year. I guess the change in the 'generation' teaching has had much to do with it. No longer is there the same sense of urgency. Without this, there is a little 'independent thinking' becoming apparent.
Nevertheless there is still the bottom line position for these ones that the WTS is still Jehovah's organisation.
I usually challenge them by asking them about the teaching of the 'seven bowls' of Revelation and ask them if they really believe it was the resolutions announced at seven annual conventions in the 1920s. Invariable they say No! and I include Bethel elders in that.
Cheers,
Ozzie
"It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."
Anonymous
Excellent thread, and I concur with all the replies. Especially since the whole "generation" thing, it does indeed appear that many jws are no longer buying into the Society's line. Many are now allowing their kids to engage in after-school activities (including me...I never could see a problem with it anyway), investing in the stock market, having kids, and all the other stuff mentioned in this thread.
A jw friend of mine and I discuss this stuff at times, and we both agree that God is more broad-minded than what the jws teach him to be, and that it's hard to believe that He will slaughter any who are not jws, plus, if one were to believe some of the more self-righteous in the congregtion, (and the Society as well) He will kill off many jws too who seem to be "spiritually weak" (they too are in grave danger).
So yes, I definitely concur with this thread.
DB, Oz,
Greetings. It's quite reveling what the friends will admit to in a social setting, helped along by a few drinks. Nobody I know I has been able to reconcile the idea that non-baptised worldings are betterof croaking before Armageddon, since they;ll go to Sheol and therefore subjefdt ot recall, whereas were they unfortunate to still be alive when the Big A hits -- well, it's curtains.
Besides, they exploit the rank-and-file by suggesting that baptised JWs can well be vaporised on God's Big Day because they've slackened off at meetings and in field service. So if its axiomatic that baptised people can get whacked, isn't its corollary that unbaptised people can get saved?
