Hi Steve and Welcome.
Yeah, Botchtower really doesn't want people gettin' married 'cause they don't want you havin' sex since that's time not spent in Field Serve-Us. And can lead to having children which, once again, limits any time you can commit to the Borganization.
I personally felt that the end if the system could be decades away.
The 'end of this system' has been 'decades' away ever since it was written. Armageddon is a fantasy... a demented dream from an old man that was either high on shrooms or had mental illness (or both).
As a child I was being told crap like 'You won't have to go to high school or need a career because the end of this system is very close now. And you won't grow old either.' That was decades ago. Armageddon did not come. Every day that dawns proves that Armageddon is a pile of BS. And every day, Botchtower is proven .... WRONG!
I am now approaching 50. My hair is going grey, my eyes are changing, my skin is starting to wrinkle, and I AM growing old. I am now closer to retirement than the beginning of my career that I didn't need.
Every single member of my family born on or before 1914 has died. Every single one. So in my family, 'this generation' HAS passed away.
My Dad said to me a couple of years ago, "Heaven, I don't want to die." I said to him "Dad, I don't want you to die either. But none of us gets out of this life alive. Not one single person. And there's nothing anyone can do about that." I think he was starting to realize that what he had been told for years was not true.
