The Society has been teaching that you-know-what is right around the corner for so long that it's lost all credibility. What are the expecations like now? Do people still expect it to happen very soon, or are more people planning on things like higher education? What's being taught from the pulpit?
What Are The Expectations...Now??
by Cold Steel 27 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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prologos
From he pulpit comes PULP:
meetings about meetings,
listen, obey and be--contributing.
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jam
The end is right around the corner. That is what I was told by a
JW elder. He said trust me, it will be soon. LOL
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Faithful Witness
The end is definitely coming soon. The tower is falling, and the beast is lashing out in a last ditch effort to grab as much cash and ruin as many families as possible before the GB loses all its power.
To answer your question from the perspective of my JW mother, here is a conversation I had with her recently.
Mom: "I really feel like something is going to happen in 2014."
Me: "Oh! What do you think is going to happen?" (I have been reading ahead, so already know something is coming).
Mom: "I don't know, but it's going to be big."
Me: "What makes you think that?"
Mom: "You know, the millenium... and I just have a feeling..."
Me: "You do realize that a millenium is 1,000 years, and not 100 years, right?"
Mom: "Yes. I just feel like next year is going to be important for some reason."
If you want to see how desperate they are becoming, take a look at the November 15, 2013 Watchtower Study Edition. It reads like psychotic rantings from the Nazis. They are really starting to panic, as they realize that people might wake up and leave the organization.
100 years and counting...
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DesirousOfChange
If you judge the expectations of the Rank & File by their choices in life, they clearly do not believe the Big A is coming soon. Most are having babies; building/buying homes and bigger homes; traveling (and not to seldom worked territory); cruises; packing it into their 401(K) retirement plans; and having breakfast at Starbucks, McDonalds, or wherever it's convenient to sneak away from the Service Group.
NO ONE IS LIVING LIKE THE END IS COMING TOMORROW!
"Why?" you ask............ They don't believe it anymore either. They're just keeping one foot in the door.....just in case. And it's their social network.
Thus, to answer your question: NO EXPECTATIONS
DOC
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mind blown
I think with all the doctrinal changes my family is questioning. However, I think because they get pounded on a daily basis, with every natural event that happens or big shooting....it takes them right back to the Big A.......
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Cold Steel
What are the Governing Body members saying in their addresses? Have they backed off expectations or do they continue to fan the embers? After the many wrong guesses made in the past, would they fare better, do you think, if they backed off their statements, or does their success as a denomination depend on them continually whipping up expectation?
Does the Outfit continue to discourage higher education, vacations, larger houses, and so forth? And presently, can JWs go on annual, or summer, vacations without being criticized? I've also heard it said that there have been times when women in the Society actually fantasize about which homes they'll inherit after Armageddon. I wonder if men do the same thing when the've seen cool cars, motorcycles, gun collections and other goodies? I also wonder how such things, should they occur, be meted out?
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anonymouz
What's being taught from the pulpit?
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That the coming 8th King final globalization cycle of a decade duration is the instant "end of the world". (Dan11:42-45).
Of course they do not tell JWs what globalization is as an international government basic requirement to progressively fully control national financial and economic systems 100% (Rev17:12-18; Rev16:12-16); at some point within that overall cycle. (Dan11:42-43 phase).
That basic wealth control engine (Dan11:42-43) then facilitates the later worldwide national sovereign transfer of "power and authority" (Rev17:12-18; Dan11:44-45) to international globalized control because the wealth basis ("the silver and the gold") and national holdings ("all the desirable things of Egypt") are basically in globalist 8th King "master creditor" control and ultimate ownership to establish a globalized finance and monetary system foundation to aid the fueling of the final part of that cycle for the international government to ascend to "King North" world hegemony upon the "King South"bound national downward spiral guided into this globalizing funnel "gathering". (Rev16:13-16).
The at some point accompanying engineered global tribulation merely accelerates the process, and creates a global effect that makes world peace sound even more enticing at the end of that tribulation phase.
Thus a full recovery is eventually possible (Isa41:1), and guaranteed to help present that final world government, as a new order born from the engineered chaos cycle, that ends as "the tribulation of those days" (Matt24:29) into a worldwide "freedom from care" (Dan8:25) and world "peace and security" (1Thess5:1-3) as the greatest recovery of all human history, aided by religious institutional depostion of assets and power at the end of that approximate 10 year cycle from it's inception point in time to activate soon (Rev16:12; Rev17:15-16);
So Bethel is selling JWs instead a slam dunk version of Daniel 11:44-45 misapplied prematurely to aid the initial final globalization cycle start-up with a handy hoax, while the 8th King boys devour Bethel 100s of millions in set up self fulfilling prophecy assets globally, and JWs will buy it all as "the end of the world" that will not come for years, leaving eventually bewildered and stupefied JWs holding an empty bag while decompressing, while the Bethel elites eventually "exit stage left" with lots of loot for the wildbeast (never to be see again; Eze7:22) and JWs are left with a Rubix Cube 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle and "no light" and the wrong picture to put it all together from anyways, to try to figure out what just happened.
What will have happened is NOT what JWs expected, and that is what is being taught from the Bethel pulpit now to aid the coming period of illusions later.
That will delay any JW potential valid reaction for quite some time, and shut down the ministry temporarily. In the mean time the 8th King final globalization cycle can proceed full blast to world government completion with no potential JW obstacles, in theory.
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Etude
I've been out of it for so long, I hardly know anyone that's in to have an idea of urgency on their part. However, up until a few years ago, my nephew still believed that the end was near. I started thinking that the tactic was succesful because they keep convincing a new generation the end is imminent by using certain current events to show how they "fulfill" profecy (an old tactic), while carefully omitting events that would contradict that.
I recently heard someone comment that they read some figures showing that, in spite of the Iranq and Afghanistan conflicts, war is on a decline now compared to past years. That would go against the JW conventional thinking, but it won't stop them. They're good at slicing and dicing citations and statements to their benefit to convince the gullible.
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WTWizard
If I knew the end was coming for sure in 2014, I would be trying to get it out on the Internet. You know those annoying "Stop Iran" ads that keep popping up (which I love to click, once per appearance per page, on a separate tab only to close out that tab so I can maybe send them a message that they are wasting money on this smut)? If the end was for sure coming, I would be putting out similar ads, linked to a site where people could get the message and clearly what they need to do. I would not be worried about the deluxe version, since a year is not enough to learn everything possible. Rather, I would clearly state what I view as necessary for salvation. If I was totally certain, I would place it as "Necessary", "Would be nice", and "Not very important right now". That way, people could find what they needed to do in a single reading, and build on that as desired when time permits.
On the other hand, I would be prepared for the eventuality that 2015 comes and the end doesn't come. That would stop me from trying to get people to sell out, making unreasonable demands on people, or trying to cash in on the situation. Doing that could pxxxoff a lot of people when the window passes and nothing happens. For that reason, I would insist on being able to present solid proof not from some "sacred document" that the end was in fact coming during the window, and let people make their own decisions. I don't need to make that mistake of presenting confusing "proof" that the end is coming (OBVES, where are you on January 1, 2012?) or coercing people to sell out and waste their whole lives warning yet others (as did the washtowel, 1975 remind anyone of anything?).
And no, I don't have valid proof that any divine judgment is coming. However, I believe that if we go to war against Syria or we do stop Iran, there could be backlash in the form of a 1973 style energy crisis (the deluxe version, this time) soon after. I also believe that, with debt based currency, hyperinflation is a given--every year it delays buys me more silver, and means it will be worse when it does get here. I have thus prepared for rolling blackouts, hyperinflation, and an energy crisis with batteries, lanterns, chargers, LED light bulbs, and silver. The good thing--it matters not when it all collapses. It will be as ready if we get it tomorrow as in the year 2035. Plus, my rechargeable batteries will be as good for the next windstorm as for an energy crisis. And my LED light bulbs have already reduced my light bills.
Try that with pious-sneering.