Remember that book the society used to quote from a lot in the 60s - about the world being too dangerous a place to live in by 1975 (now out of print)?
Looks like they have a replacement for the new century, and I bet quotes from this book will be appearing in a Watchtower near you soon:
In his new book, Our Final Century, the astronomer royal predicts that we're doomed. Well, almost. The subtitle is not quite so hopeless: "Will the human race survive the 21st century" it asks. Ultimately, Rees concludes that we have no more than a 50-50 chance of surviving.
I'm not familiar with that book, but just wanted too add my two cents. I'm still amazed how Christians (and JW's) seem to have a difficult time accepting that the only way out of this life is by experiencing a physical death. From Armaggadon to the Rapture...death just ain't gonna happen to them.
A few weeks ago during a rare conversation with my older (fence riding) sister she told me, "It's not getting old that bothers me, it's the dying." And that speaks for far too many in my opinion. Each moment could be our last, and I find people who fear dying place too much emphasis upon what someone else tells them to believe rather than being satisfied with the quality of their own life.
Dmouse -- that book you cited was one of their all-time 'best sellers', "The Truth that Leads to Eternal Life" published in 1968. (Of course it's not the truth, and it leads... nowhere!!) In a later edition of that same book, the Society's editors brazenly changed the quote to say "(Soon) the world will be to dangerous a place in which to live", replacing the date with a "soon". This is evidence of their desperation to prove a point. Common sense would have dictated that they should have removed the entire quote.
Granny Linda -- your point about the fear of death is probably becoming true for more and more elderly JW's who had been promised all their life that Armageddon was "just around the corner". My own parents have labored under those false pretenses for 50 years. Damn the WT Society for sucking in so many, using them up, and not caring.
