by The Searcher 82 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
Kind of like the godawful home contractor who ripped us off, then he packed up and scurried off to another state, started up under a new business name, and beat the law suits filed against the old company! We were told we couldn't sue the new name, and the former business had closed.
Yep, I can see them pulling this ruse. Conniving dirt bags, where are the fruitages of the spirit, and a little bit of integrity?
OneFingerSalute: I don't believe for a minute that there is a real chance of a name change.
I understand your feelings, however, if you had tried 25 yrs ago to tell me that the JWdom of that time would become what it is now, I wouldn't have believed it. For example, I could never have imagined that the FDS would, in JW theology, become the GB, but it did. I could never have believed that the whole feel and look of JWdom would change as it did.
I'm just open to the possibility of a name change and find it extremely interesting to observe what's going on in JWdom. I really do think that behind the scenes the leaders are scrambling to find the right spin to put on the situation, are considering some perhaps shocking changes, are exploring various options, etc. All the evidence lately, to me, inidicates that something's brewing. Those guys aren't up there focusing on deep spiritual things like the rank and file think they are. Their minds are on secular things. The rank and file ain't gettin "the truth"; they're getting spin.
Kind of like the godawful home contractor who ripped us off, then he packed up and scurried off to another state
Didn't happen to have initials JWC did he? Sounds like a JDubya contractor I know of who did the same thing, and now lives south of OK. USA.
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@Magnum
I agree with your assessment. I have seen the changes since the early sixties myself. I just feel that they have too much invested in trying to prove they are true witnesses. I may be wrong though, and will be the first to admit I was if this happens.
A name change would make those baptised after 1985 a nonsense but I guess they could overcome that by making the congregation take a pledge.
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The changing of the name of the entire organization is a remote improbable possibility , what I do see though and this has happened before is the changing of the name of the titles of the main pieces of literature the organization produces, the Watchtower and Awake.
This has happen before and the top GB heads know that as well.
I foresee the dropping of anything to do with the name Watchtower all together.
The reasons should be obvious.
If they are going to retain all publications from the year 2000 any future name changes won't mean anything.
I will go out on a limb:
1. The use of the word "Watchtower" will continue to be phased out (as indeed it already is happening). The Watchtower masthead will be a thing of the past.
2. The official nomenclature "Jehovah's Witnesses" will remain tightly in place - but they will unofficially interchange it in their addresses and publications with "Jehovah's Christian Witnesses", "Christian Witnesses of Jehovah" and "Jehovah's Worshippers" and variants thereof.
I say unto you, "These things shall indeed come to pass, and when you see them, you will fall down upon your knees and recognize that it was I who told you."
OneFingerSalute: That being said IF it were to happen I can see it being spun as "new" light more clearly defining what they do.
Witness: "attestation of a fact or event." So Jehovah's Witnesses must be able to attest to a FACT or event. I think we all can agree that there isn't really any proven Bible fact or event they can truthfully attest to.
Worship: "a form of religious practice with its creed and ritual, reverence offered a divine being or an act of expressing such reverence." Now THAT would fit the JDubya's much closer. The reverence they show God, and their peculiar creeds and rituals.
Good point. And they could spin it something like: "So by calling ourselves "Witnesses", we might give the impression that we just focus on attesting to facts or events, but by calling ourselves "Worshippers", we focus more on our reverence for God, which includes being witnesses."
Heck, I don't know, it's just fun speculating, guessing, watching the situation. The name change might not happen, but I do believe we are going to see some interesting stuff in the not-too-distant future.
