Plus belief is a
spectrum anyway. It’s not as if you have true believers on one side
and completely cynical JWs in name only on the other side. There will
be some in either extreme, but there are gradations too.
Here’s what I
think of that “Spectrum” of belief and how we can perhaps
understand “Gradations” in BELIEF.
When Rutherford the
Judge introduced the idea of a paradise earth for a GREAT CROWD, as a
separate prize for those more attracted to Earth than to Heaven, the
count-down began. The count-down being tied to the year 1914 and the
Generation that would not die. The Idea was that anyone who saw what
happened in 1914, and understood its significance, would also have
the privilege of surviving the Great Tribulation and Armageddon
without dying-----IF THEY REMAIN FAITHFUL TO THE ORGANIZATION.
This “Idea”
created a “Range of Time” that could be measured and counted on
for receiving a promise of Everlasting life ----if one remained
faithful to this New Religious Organization that was now claiming
that God had chosen as his “Only” visible channel on earth.
The Range of Time
being defined as; ONE GENERATION----Before the Great Tribulation and
the ushering in of God’s Kingdom of 1000 years.That meant--you had the chance of Not Dying!
So that first
generation, second generation, third generation, and some fourth
generation believed that ONE GENERATION was all this Wicked System of
Things could last. It was a promise that was specifically laid out in
the Holy Bible. It least it made sense back then when most people
didn’t even have a bible to examine the context of what Jesus meant
by “Generation”
Any person living at
that time and who witnessed or was aware of WW1 and Charles Russell’s
prediction of the year 1914 would inevitably be convinced that the
Watchtower Bible and Tract Society had something worth considering. I
have to admit, had I been born in any of those generations and
believed the Bible was God’s Word to mankind, I would have fallen
for it hook, line and sinker. Especially considering that in those
days there was no internet, and much ignorance in all fields. Heck,
most people had no TV, Telephone, or indoor plumbing. Only the
wealthy had limited things that we today take for granted.
So for the next 70
some years all those people that joined the WT organization were True
Believers.
But here is where
your “Gradations” in belief start to appear----------1975
After 1975 the House
started to crumble slowly. For those who had invested their life from the
beginning; 1930s, and now in their 60s or so,----- the best choice
would be to just wait it out another few years.
20 years passed
quickly and they were gone, leaving the 2nd - 3rd
and 4th generation to pick up the pieces. By the time the
2nd generation came into play, it was also to late for
most of them.
But finally the 3rd
generation entered the “Internet Age” Now exjw websites like
Free-minds, this one, and others started popping up. Then someone
published “The Gentile Times Reconsidered” and websites like this
one started discussing main doctrine of the Watchtower Organization
vs the Bible. Then the discussions started evolving into a Critical
Analysis of the Holy Bible and before long, exjws were questioning,
Noah’s flood, The Exodus of Egypt, etc.
So here we are now.
4th Generation of Jehovah’s Witnesses holding down the
fort. The Belief ideology of the 1930 has been diluted into various
strengths.
The only thing we
know for sure is this, the belief ideology today is of different
gradations for sure, but none of those gradations will ever come
close to the “Strong unshakable Faith” in the promise that;
The Generation that
saw and understood the events that started in 1914, will also be the
Generation that will witness the Great Tribulation-Armageddon-----and
never DIE!
Most born in jws
know it a farce. They are fighting to go to school and live their own
life. It’s a struggle for now considering the 4th
generation is carrying some belief of Armageddon, but that belief is
not as strong as the first generation of Jws. So a lot of conflict
right now in jw families.
That train of Belief
of the 1930s is long gone and as the years continue to pass, the
higher the probability that the membership will dwindle to less than
a million world wide in 30 years and up, when the last of the 4th
generation is also finally gone.
Only a complete
overhaul of all the doctrines, will allow such a religion that is
sustained by “Last days that started in 1914 ideology” ----------- to
survive.
You can’t keep
preaching 1914 in a world that continues to become more and more
educated and organizations like the Watchtower finally become easy
Targets for media and Government to expose them for what they really
are.
The Australia Royal
Commission is just the beginning of a Governmental agency finally putting its
foot down and exposing the Watchtower. Imagine 20 years from now,
