by Finkelstein 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
A practical question concerning human psychology . It very well be that it was the JWS who were
responsible for first approaching this posing question to people to incite their interest and concern.
I can confidently say it was for my 20 something year old mother back in the early 50's.
Unfortunately people who did so, weren't completely discerning the probable commercial
aspects of the WTS. and its publishing house inherent agenda .
Almost everybody I ever knew who joined this religion did so because they had some kind of personal issues going on in their life - and the JWs seemed to offer them a one-stop solution.
I never knew anybody who joined them out of the fear of Armageddon.
As a matter of fact - you would practically have to already BE a JW to actually fear Armageddon - this is not a normal mainstream belief.
Yes thats right James
The other answer, problems within people's lives, putting themselves in a position of vulnerability.
The WTS. comes at people in more ways than one.
How many people came into the WTS. organization because of their own personal problems, such as divorces, death, drug problems etc. ...
But you have to admit the WTS. is proficient in exploiting fear to their own advantage and not just to attract attention to their published goods !
Armageddon is the JW Hellfire - it is used to scare people who are already JWs into doing what the Watchtower leaders want.
That too James , but what about people who never been indoctrinated by the Christian doctrine of hellfire ?,
such as people form the middle east ... India .... south east Asia ( Buddhism ) etc.
When considering that upon their very first study session, there's the implication that the world is coming to dramatic end soon
and also upon their first individual meeting attendance at a Kingdom Hall.
You JOIN for the PARADISE,
But you STAY to not get killed at ARMAGEDDON!
Actually, I think more people stay out of fear of being shunned by their family than fear of Armageddon. That is real, Armageddon is not.
When my parents joined many years ago they were very happy being Witnesses. My father was involved in politics and felt the Witnesses had the answer. They like some others felt it was the best way of life. They never joined out of fear as far as I know.
Armageddon became less and less real especially after 1975.
Reopened Mind
FINKELSTEIN- Good thread. My wife and I have discussed this at length and yes, that is ONE of the reasons as you mention that JW's have fear that they will die at Armageddon so they join the cult.
But another thing is that the WT society insidiously lures people into joining the cult is due to false promises of allegedly " living forever with no more death, sickness, or pain " . What this does is it plays on people's fear of death in general - making them believe that if they BUY into the WT Society's beliefs that they'll never even die a natural death ! Which is a total lie because EVERYBODY will die in time. As Jim Morrison of the Doors said, " No one here gets out alive. "
So many humans cannot face up to this very REAL fact of life- that we will ALL die. So people try bull$hit religions, cults, wonder drugs, anything, you name it to avoid having to face the reality of eventual death. So I feel this has a lot to do with JW's joining the cult , much the same as it does for MANY people who join a religion . Personally I take life day to day and enjoy the moment of the here and now - because nONE of us know what may be on the other side of our existence after death. Just my 2 cents
That wasn't what first drew me to the religion, because that was my fear of Hell, and JW's didn't teach that.
However, while I was studying, Bush 1 was in office, and we went to war with Iraq for the first time. This really freaked me out, because when it was over, I kept expecting to hear the Peace and Security cry. I felt like the world had changed very quickly and could always change quickly, so Armedgeddon could come with little warning. That caused me to ramp things up. I actually started having panic attacks, thinking I wouldn't be baptized in time. I was baptized a few months later.
