Yet, God’s people as a group [emphasis added] will survive because they are taking refuge in Jehovah.—
This quote from a recent Watchtower - see reference above in Blondie's post - shows that the writers even want to keep the rank and file on edge about whether or not they will survive. Notice the phrasing "Jehovah's people as a group will survive..." This phrasing-caution is not new. I recall old time JWs - among whom I count my maternal and paternal grandparents - quoting excerpts from the then-current literature warning that even among Jehovah's people, not all would make it through the Great Tribulation or Armaggedon or whatever "buzz" word they then had for the "war of the great day of Jehovah". My maternal grandfather would search the eyes of each of his grandchildren listening in full attention to his words as he sought to solicit from us confessions of anything sinful we might have been trying in vain to hide from Jehovah.
Looking back, he was "simply" doing with practically every other loyal witness was doing: Striving to ensure all those in his trust made it through the end of this wicked system into the next. He was not a hateful man at all, but very loving, so there's nothing to forgive. However, I have no doubt that the impetus for his fear-based "sermons" was the Watchtower's "writing department" that would have known that loyal witnesses would be sensitive to the phrasing of the publications and warned one another accordingly. How revealing that this aspect of the writing-style continues - albeit relatively more muted than in times past.
Stay on edge, God's people; if you don't, you might not make it - and you wouldn't want that to happen would you?
