Small details... (page 4)

Oubliette

Your friend needs to read this thread:

Is there ANY JW belief/doctrine that has remained the same from start to now?

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And then read this post from 00DAD on page 2 of that thread:

So we've got only two beliefs that have remained from Russell's time until now:

1. Soul Sleep, taken from the Second Adventists, which has two sub-beliefs:

No Hell
No Immortality of the Soul

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2. Gentile Times ended in 1914 which came from:

an idea advanced by John Aquila Brown in 1823
expanded upon in the 1830's by a farmer named William Miller
later tweaked by Apollos Hale and Sylvester Bliss, whoever they were
exposed as false in 1840 by John Dowling, whoever he was
reworked by Second Adventists, such as Barbour after 1844
then finally take over by Charles Taze Russell as an end time prophecy, with the Gentile times expected to herald the conclusion of Armageddon, NOT the beginning of the Last Days.

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So practically EVERYTHING taught in Russell's time has been since discarded except two basic beliefs, one of which he got from another religion and the other conceived of and then twisted and mangled by a bunch of crackpots all vying for one-upsmanship to prove their personal understanding of the incontrovertible Word of God!

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berrygerry

Your WT car is more like this:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWHniL8MyMM

paradisebeauty

Most of them do not want to wake up and here is why.

This religion gives them a sense of importance. The rest of the world does not understand "the truth". Only they do. The rest of the world will be destroyed, only them will survive.

I talked to a friend who does not go to meetings anymore and has waken up. Her sister is a devoted jw. She said that if her sister would see and accept all the facts about this religion and understand that it is not the one and only religion chosen by God, she would probably die in the same day. Her life has no meaning and no sense outside of this religion.

I also tried to talk to some jw's to reason that people will not be judged by the simple fact that they are a part of this organization or not, that other christians in other religions will be saved.

They can not and do not want to accept this. Most of jw's think like this. TheY can not cope with the thought of other people in other religions being saved.

All their feelings and thoughts of self identity and self-esteem are linked to this religion.

steve2

They have become the very kind of people they have so long and loudly denounced:

Smugly comfortable parishioners content to leave the teaching and the thinking to their leaders and stubbornly indifferent to the "ins-and-outs" of their own "church" history. "Go away, pest, you are making us feel uncomfortable," they spit out at so-called "apostates".

What an amazing transformation the churches of Christendom have wrought upon the Witnesses. Who's influencing who?

The old maxim is confirmed as timelessly correct: The sects of yesterday become the mainstream churches of tomorrow. It rolls on and on and on.

Zoos

"those are small details, the core of our beliefs hasn't changed."

Uhm...

In the beginning Charles Russell was the faithful slave.

Now he's not!

In the beginning Armageddon would be here by 1914.

Now it won't

In the beginning we prayed to and worshipped Jesus.

Now we don't

These and many other core teachings have been gutted from Watchtower's foundational teachings. I guess they have it in their minds that whatever teachings were lucky enough not to get the axe over the last 130 years constitute core teachings.

TheListener

Remember that jw memories only extend as far back as the actual witness themself. An old teaching that was changed long before someone joined but hasn't changed during their membership - hasn't changed in their opinion.

Then, when you do convince a dub that changes happen all the time and not much is firmly fixed, they are proud of that and see it as a good thing.

No winning with a dub.

sort of like this argument from my wife: I say world is terrible and bad- she says four horseman and end times signs armageddon right around the corner; I say world is better and safer - she says peace and security therefore armageddon right around the corner.

Vidiot

steve2 - "They have become the very kind of people they have so long and loudly denounced..."

That was well on its way a long time ago.

Small details...