hogwash....nothing will exterminate the human race! in a hundred years or less we will have the technology to even prevent asteroid impacts and to create stations on other plantes of the solar system. its gonna take an interstellar event like a supernova (extremely rare event) in our neighborhood to get rid of us. and one thing is for sure, God is not gonna be involved in it.
Do Any JW's Believe The End Will Come In Their Lifetime???
by minimus 36 Replies latest jw friends
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teejay
JWs believing that the End is coming in *their* lifetime? Hmmm.... Must be a new concept. I've never heard of it.
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minimus
Yes, I know this concept is unheard of but, the truth is, there are a few die-hards that believe the end is "right around the corner".
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Reborn2002
My grandfather became a Jehovah's Witness in 1945.
When he was still alive, he proudly told me stories of how he inaccurately predicted that his daughter, my mother, would never grow up in "this system of things." He excused his error by saying he was overanxious and running ahead of the faithful slave.
By the way, my mom is now 56.
My sister was born in 1968. He said then in the pre-1975 hysteria that she would never grow up. She is now 35, married with a child on the way.
When I was born, he proclaimed that SURELY I would not live to an adult in this wicked world. He has since died, I have graduated from college, and the rest of the family still proclaims the end is still "right around the corner."
JW's are sad human beings reduced to willful ignorance and naivety by relying on the WT false prophet to instruct them.
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proplog2
do you have any idea how much damage eschatology is doing to you?
I live a very happy and full life. I have never been materialistic. I continue to read widely in the fields of science, philosophy, psychology. I don't agree with 90% of what I read in the "Reasoning" book. I don't suffer from anxiety attacks. I'm not depressed, or alcoholic. I don't believe in God, but I do believe in a God function.
I am a third generation JW. I don't go from door to door. I talk openly with my family about my personal belief system. None of my Children are "believers" although most go to the Kingdom Hall because they enjoy the network of people who at least make an effort at living moral lives.
My interest in Bible prophecy has been a life-long pursuit. My ideas about prophecy are not from any special revelation. I believe most of the Bible is Levite nonsense. However there is a coherence to the Bible's overall message about the destiny of man. Certain sequences of Daniel & Revelation match real events that are taking place now that are not simple probability. When you have a set of 10 events that occur each with a minimum probability of 50% you quickly end up with odds that would ordinarily get your attention. If someone is able to predict 10 coin tosses in a row it is safe to assume that they "know" something about coin tossing.
I continue to believe that JW's have a special role to play. It also makes sense that they won't understand prophecy beyond what they need to know.
Just as Jesus was rejected by a large number of his "disciples" because he didn't fullfill their expectations of what the messiah was to accomplish, I believe many are disappointed with their sojourn as JW's for a similar reason. It is sufficient for me that they are anti-nationalistic and refuse to kill others in the name of national defense. They are exemplary in this. That is the basis of their worldwide brotherhood. That is the purpose of Christian ministry - you don't have to belong to a certain national group to be blessed.
A lot of the complaints about JW's by former JW's are about personality conflicts. Wherever people are close and really get to know each other there is a tendency for certain conflicts to emerge. That's human nature. Somebody is always feeling slighted in organizations. Hierarchy is a natural human tendency.
Some of this is kind of rambling but I want to get accross that while my interest in prophecy is more than casual it is no different from any other field of interest a human might choose to learn about. Health & diet, Cigar Smoking, Cooking, Baseball, Music, telescope building, stamp collecting, politics, photography, you name it & there are people who have ordinary interest and then there are people who develop an extraordinary interest in these things. Prophecy is no different. Just fewer people are interested.
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freedom96
I thought they all think they will see the end come. Isn't that the whole idea? Isn't the society still saying that it is going to be any second?
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minimus
Proplog, most Witnesses would call you an "apostate" and maybe even a "false prophet".
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proplog2
Officially the Watchtower says the end is near. But even when they said it was coming in 1975 they were constantly engaged in long range planning. They started building projects in the early '70's that went way past the "end".
A lot has to do with your personality. People who are skilled in the construction trades tend to be more concrete in their thinking too. They think in terms of the here and now. Those in the construction trades have always been the back-bone of the congregations. The Watchtower tries to turn these "construction" types into teachers and you end up with some pretty horrible peformances. They treat humans as if they were "things".
Fred Franz was one of the few who had the luxury of living the scholars life. As the "prophet-in-residence" he usually went unchallenged. Idealistic, teacher, types were encouraged to burn themselves out in missionary work. The big motivator types who would normally have been entrepreneurs or sales managers were put on the road to keep people enthused.
The organization is built on the end being near. If the end isn't "soon" there is no urgency to sacrifice personal comfort to preach. After the 1975 fiasco is when you started to get a lot of assembly halls built. It kept the "builder-types" busy and gave them validation. I personally knew a couple missionaries who gave up their assingments after 1975. Without the end being close they saw no need to speak a foreign language and put up with unbearable heat, humidity & malaria.
Since Franz died they have lost their chief defender of "the end is near".
But, I feel that the loss of reason behind the vision is another "sign" of the end.
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minimus
like I said......Still, it IS nice to be able to talk about what we believe, isn't it. I'm glad we have this place.
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jgnat
...and who of us has changed our life for the better, thinking the "end is near" any day now? Or is it more likely to foster a bunker mentality, full of fear and suspicion? Proplog, you hung your hat on a very certain prediction, that turned out to be false. What are you hanging your hat on these days?
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/41342/1.ashx
Not knowing the hour or the day of my passing, I chose to focus my thoughts on other things, like how I can make this world a better place for my fellowman.