by scotoma 36 Replies latest jw friends
I need to clarify something here. I posted the title as referring to Splane. But we don't know if he was the sole originator of this concept.
He is an easy target because he gave the talk. Most likely this was voted on by the GB. We will never know who thought it was a good time to bring up typology.
They have been going through a lot of crazy ideas ever since the Oracle (Fred Franz) died. Not that his stuff wasn't crazy. But it had a certain consistency to the madness.
Problem with the GB today is that they were trained on the ignorance and amateur bible theology of the past leaders of the WTS. publishing house.
And it worked! All it needed was a Rutherford to come along and turn it into a product. It was the serendipity timing of the great Depression and theapocalyptic message of the end of the world. Worked like a charm.
PS Add the hardships of the great dust bowl in the heartland (my family) and you got a movement.
It's funny how they invent something with absolutely no basis at all and then treat it as a rock-solid foundation for further interpretations.
Eventually they end up balanced high atop a house of card that only has one direction to go.
Eventually they end up balanced high atop a house of card that only has one direction to go.
Just one thing doesn't fit the house of cards analogy. These cards are glued together by the disfellowshipping hammer.
The whole WT religion is based on types and antitypes claimed with no justification by WT presidents.
Hasn't Splane ever heard of Russell's pyramidology?
Or Rutherford pushing the date 1925 based on OT jubilee cycles?
How about the WTS applying to itself most of the scriptures relating to the Israelites?
Jesus allegedly appointed His intrepreters in 1919. Those granted such a grandiose appointment not only have the mandate but should also be able to demonstrate the ability to interpret scripture correctly. The so-called FDS has failed repeatedly in that department.
Ding,
Splane discussed pyramidology in his talk. He treated it like a cute and quaint sidetrack.
Ho ho ho. Yes that was a crazy obsession of a few and it was long ago. Ha Ha Ha.
Problem is, that implies that the guys at the top know it's all bullshit, whereas the vast majority of available anecdotal evidence suggests that they really are full-on True Believers.
Yep, a perfect deception.
But the simpler truth, though hard to take, is imo the reality. Like people who question Federal Reserve policies as more damaging overall to the monetary system in the long run. No one wants to accept that yes, the controlled exit of the USDollar is part of the plan, but it must be controlled or else they cut their own engines.
Same with the sub-prime derivatives orchestration of 2008. Yes it was unprosecuted at the scale it was played out as, but no one seems to care their national institutional functions have all now been transformed. Banks are risky investment funds, governments are insurance agencies, Glass Steagall is basically "repealed", those are the simpler realities, but hard to accept.
Now billion dollar scoped expert con men, assuming a JW trusted veneer, for that kind of payout, is more believable than the former. They are either too dumb for the job, or they are in on it. The more one sees elaborate exit plan strategies in a well engineered JW "self fulfilling prophecy", the more I see experts at Bethel, playing the leader dolt hypocrite act, in a JW "anchor man" suit and tie gig. It was EASY for infiltrators and "outside contractors" to overtake the internal corporate structure of the slave labor fed JW billion dollar nest egg.
That is it is actually billions we are talking about, of course the incentive and the attraction of the long range expertise required could conceivably have come together in the WTBTS. And lo and behold the 1976 "Governing Body" Lord's of the ring Bethel dictatorial coup, on record, sure is a handy little development that sure seems to be the locus of the JW control, and the veneer of the cover, at the same time. The more one looks into it the more one sees the only answer is, Bethel's elites in the WTS and the corporations must be "in on it". "Dumb" is just the act and example for JWs to actually be the "dumb".
And there is no more backward, asleep yet overly busy and preoccupied billion dollar guards than JWs to pull this off on. It is all adding up to an opportunity to good to pass up for global level expert organized crime in the religious veneered sector, and JWs were extremely profitable because they were great slaves to add value to every dollar the slaves themselves donated. Free money! Free wealth creation! Another to good to be true blind cash cow scenario.
In any event the coming years will provide the answer at least in the true corporate future of the ministerial basis of JWs surviving or not, and how bad it will be hit. If you have guys delving in the hedges, with 900 million in four years of real estate asset liquidation, at derivatives scale magnitudes mind you, who are also setting up clear liability by Bethel policy, it lends to that same question, with a simple answer, yet that answer is the hardest one for JWs to accept.
Imo, Bethel is internally in on the score. The "prophecy fulfilling brothers!" is the perfect exit smokescreen, imo. That kind of engineering takes time and purposeful intelligence, and the score is going to be big enough to justify such expertise, and it is not uncommon in the real world and other big scores. The national sovereign debt dilemma is an example, but far larger, of another development that also indicates intelligent strategic design that benefits the global "master creditor". But like JWs, the masses in general are not keeping up with global financial issues, and in both cases gradual development makes it almost undetectable until we start placing the dots and another possible picture begins to emerge.
Imo, Bethel will go down in the overall context of national financial difficulties as they will work together on more corporations than just Bethel, and it was really a natural consolidation and absorption process of a global cycle, overall. Imo it is not "the end", it is a cycle of a number of years, but Bethel will sell that to JWs as simply "it's the end brothers and sisters!". It will be Bethel's end, the world system plods onward, and to Bethel who cares if JWs ever figure out they just got taken. In a way JWs deserve it, this is what one gets when they trust men, while claiming to trust God and Christ. Can't serve both masters.
When the smoke clears Bethel imo is the main "bad guy", but JWs will have to admit man worship and baseless assumption enabled the score overall as they fell into a handy coma overall. The beaten and abused "sheep" are probably who will break the real news to the spoiled JWs who will finally be taking their own beating.
This scenario rings familiar.
When Jesus realized that the apocalyptical "chronology" provided by Daniel was about to reach its climax, he undertook his final trip to Jerusalem, to openly confront the leading Saducees, Pharisees and Herodians, knowing that it would likely end up in his arrest and sentencing to death. However, he pushed forth that scenario, thinking that God would ultimately deliver him at the last minute and usher in the sudden manifestation of the Kingdom of God. In a way, upping the confrontation purposedly was a way to force God's hand to start Armageddon.
Perhaps that's the WTS plan all along. Perhaps they're playing a double game: On one hand, they're cleary preparing for the "long haul", consolidating assets, new world HQ, streamlining the hierarchy, big push towards online publishing etc. Also, there are signs that there are some prophetic interpretations that can be used to "delay" the end times almost indefinitly. However, this recent view of Gog opens the door to an interpretation of an agression from ANY type of enemy of God's people. And THAT may well be the media, the courts, etc. By bluntly defying the courts and authorities, maybe the leadership of the WTS is testing a certain "make or break" apocalyptic theology, where, by forcing the hand of the authorities to persecute them, they expect that would somehow force Jehovah's hand to act and bring about Armageddon. In their view, it may well be a win-win situation: If Jehovah interveines and Armageddon takes place, fine! - their apocalyptic wordview has been vindicated. But if nothing happens, they will simply regroup from the finantial and adept losses and carry on for the long haul, having their belief framework already adapted to survive for times to come.
Eden
“Vidiot”: “From what I've seen, hardcore True Believers would rather go down with the ship then jump ship, because jumping ship is tantamount to acknowledging that the ship is going down in the first place, and I'm sorry, but I simply can't imagine the WTS ever admitting that to such a degree (even if just by their actions).”
That certainly appears to be true, considering the more contemporary popular cults such as David Koresh’s Branch Dividians, Marshall Applewhite’s Heaven’s Gate, etc. – they do tend to try to play their game right to the bitter end (or sometimes a big fireball, literally).
“Simon”: “Eventually they end up balanced high atop a house of cards that only has one direction to go.”
I think that the WT has been trying to assemble their little house of cards in a big windstorm, because everything they try to construct (or contrive) just ends up being blown down by those two significant enemies of theirs: recorded history, and obvious logical fallacy.
“EdenOne”: “This recent view of Gog opens the door to an interpretation of an aggression from ANY type of enemy of God's people. And THAT may well be the media, the courts, etc.”
That reminds me of how “Judge” Rutherford would initiate those very provocative altercations whereby people would start preaching blatantly and defiantly against false religion and even the government right out in public, and any backlash they received was, of course, deemed “persecution.” You are right that “by forcing the hand of the authorities to persecute them,” that was just playing right into the hand of Rutherford’s contrived “win-win situation.” He might have thought that to be rather clever, but that only can be played out for so long (before people start to catch on, that is!).
Personally, I think that in terms of either the GB’s awareness or their plain stupidity of what they’re doing (or trying to do), it’s probably a bit of both: the GB knowing full well that things aren’t exactly adding up smoothly regarding the outworking of their WT prophecies; BUT, at the same time, I think that they overestimate their own capabilities and that they are, at least to some degree, self-misled – they just aren’t aware of how much they are. And, of course, in the end they are just yet another example of those who are consumed by their own defects of character – namely pride and greed. Religious charlatanry has always been thick on the ground – some make it big financially, some don’t. But to more and more folks, like me, it’s all really just a big bubbling cauldron of dirty puke!
