JWs unrecognisable compared to my grandfathers time

by ExBethelitenowPIMA 57 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  ExBethelitenowPIMA

  My grandfather who has been dead for 37 years would not recognise the borganisation today. He would turn in his grave if he knew the end didn’t come by 2023.

  back in the 1970s he really believed in the 75 thing. He was so disappointed and almost blamed everyone else why the end didn’t come. If anyone talked about making plans for the near future he would tell them off saying there is no way this old system will last much longer.

  The big problem is that very old doctrine was never meant to last this long.

  here we are 2023 and the next generation has grown up propagating old ideas from men who have all died already

  We are too far away from 1914 by now, but this new generation can’t think of a way to get away from it.

  how can they now? The overlapping nonsense was designed to buy some time, perhaps enough time for the current crop to be looked after in luxury but the next generation of top dogs will have to think of a way to get away from 1914 and 607bce. 77 week prophecy that we all know is wrong.

  Many times it is said in prayers at the KH about our reigning king Jesus. They believe he has been reigning king since 1914. But the further we get away from 1914 the more people will doubt this.

  my guess is at some point over the next few decades they will announce new light. They will probably do it gradually and the organisation will be unrecognisable compared to what it was a few decades ago.

  it’s constantly changing. There will be hardly anyone disfellowshipped from now on with the change that if someone says going to the JD will make them suicidal then nothing will happen. It’s a get out of jail free card.

  the reduction in ministry these days we only do ten mins then have coffee break

  elders have a much easier job, there is no preparation needed to take any items these days.
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  RULES & REGULATIONS

  The big problem is that very old doctrine was never meant to last this long.

  my guess is at some point over the next few decades they will announce new light. They will probably do it gradually and the organisation will be unrecognisable compared to what it was a few decades ago.

  
  
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  FedUpJW

  My grandfather who has been dead for 37 years would not recognise the borganisation today. He would turn in his grave if he knew the end didn’t come by 2023.

  I've said it before, my mother who was baptized in the 1940's made the comment shortly before her death, "If Jehovah's Witnesses were THEN what they are NOW I would have NEVER become one!"
  
  
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  MeanMrMustard

  The WT won't go out with a bang. It will go out with a whimper, slowly declining and shrinking. Somewhere along the way there will be a "come to Jesus" moment (pun intended), and the entire 1914/607/adventist root will be discarded. At that point the WT will be a bland Christian sect, no different than your local Baptist church, with a somewhat (but not much) larger membership, scattered about. Heck, probably people will me members of JWs and the local church.

  It will remain small, only gaining members among the truly religious.

  Probably won't happen in my lifetime. Maybe my kids.
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  Journeyman

  My grandfather who has been dead for 37 years would not recognise the borganisation today.

  Thirty-seven years? Heck, the organisation is barely recognisable from as recently as the mid-1990s!

  • JW Televangelist Broadcasting channel
  • GB members (and 'helpers') now given celebrity status; obedience and worship of GB ramped up
  • JW website
    
  • Old WT logo almost completely superseded by "golden calf" JW ORG logo stuck on every Hall.
  • 'Revised' NWT
  • Multiple songbook changes
  • No paper Bibles or publications at meetings - all tablets and phones
  • Disney-fied Bible videos, including Caleb & Sophia cartoons
  • TV screens at Halls and routine video segments in the meetings
  • Awful sub-christian-pop-rock 'original' songs
  • Removal of roles like District Overseer, Magazine Servant
  • Pioneer hours cut drastically
  • Theocratic School scrapped and replaced with watered down meeting assignments
  • Ministry reduced to bite-sized presentations, removal of Reasoning book and other more substantial tools
    
  • Watchtower and Awake mags drastically reduced in size (pages) and number of issues
  • Public witnessing carts/trolleys introduced, books and more 'weighty' placements removed for just tracts, magazines and playing video clips
  • NY Bethel, London Bethel both relocated and previous locations sold off
  • Printing operations scaled right back; European operations merged so all printing now done in Germany
  • Major congregation mergers, hall closures and sell-offs worldwide
  • FDS now just the GB, not all anointed
    
  • "This generation" now 'overlapping'
    
  • Numerous other beliefs 'clarified' - compare this list of just how many more changes have happened since 1995 than were made before then! (remove the b from borg) https://wol.jw.borg/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1200277174

  ... and I bet there are more I've forgotten!
  
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  Reasonfirst

  When I saw and heard Nathan K's talk to elders at Sydney's (then) Greenacre Assembly Hall, (it was then more than half way through the year) none of the anticipated events Freddy F had been predicting had occurred, and Nathan made that point clear, when he said, that there was now not enough time left for them to occur. Nathan was then quite sick, and would die in 1977, disappointment may having been a factor.

  As I later reflected on all that Nathan said, I realised that I had bought into a big con - just as the first generation of christians had.

  Not many years later I was out
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  LV101

  Going out w/a whimper could take decades -- I'd prefer a nuclear explosion into a safer, normal, mainstream religion. The religion scares people now -- it's that toxic.
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  BluesBrother

  I would add to Journeyman’s list the withdrawal of the Tuesday Group Book Study.

  That is still greatly missed by the oldies I know, the deeper study and a sociable cuppa afterwards did a lot to bond them together. Nowadays they complain they hardly know each other.

  Who does “Family Study”?
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  FFGhost

  There's only so many years decades centuries you can say "very soon now!" before people start thinking, maybe, just maybe, it won't be "very soon now".
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  Journeyman

  I would add to Journeyman’s list the withdrawal of the Tuesday Group Book Study

  Wow. Of course, how could I forget that one? That was a big blow to the bros and sisters.
  

  For years, the society had said that the book study group was the main contact point for every witness in the congregation - they even speculated that when the "great tribulation" came, it would be through the book study that everyone would be kept in touch with one another and sustained.

  Then the GB2.0 just swept it away (along with all their other changes), claiming some nonsense about saving brothers the travelling time and 'freeing' an evening for personal and family study, when everyone knew it was really 1) to avoid liability in case of anything bad happening in a private home, and perhaps even more 2) because they were paranoid that small groups were not teaching the party line 'correctly'.

  It's true that the quality of teaching in the groups was very variable, depending on how capable the elder or servant taking them was and whether the group had any dominant or overbearing personalities in it, but as BluesBrother said, the groups were invaluable in JW life (where there are few enough opportunities to socialise) for giving all the chance to chat and have a drink and snack together afterwards.

  The org still pays lip service to it in that every witness is still supposed to be part of a 'group' with a 'group overseer', but the arrangement is a shell of its former self and has little meaning beyond the Saturday morning field service group, while the 'book study' has become just another dumbed down video-playback show as part of the midweek meeting at the Hall. Officially, it's called the "congregation bible study" but practically noone calls it that because there's very little study of the bible involved (even less now than in the days when they had verse-by-verse considerations of bible books) - it's more a "reading of a book/brochure written by the WTBTS".