“You know how I know that they're finished out there? The carts.”

by Athanasius 51 Replies latest jw friends

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  Athanasius

  The Watchtower's many legal problems and the JWs' use of carts in their preaching work, reminded me of a scene and dialog from the film PATTON.

  In a scene where Patton is viewing a battle site the morning after, he says to an aide about the Nazis: “You know how I know that they're finished out there? The carts. They're using carts to lug their supplies and wounded. In my dreams I saw the carts. They kept buzzing around in my head and I couldn't figure out why. Then I remembered: the nightmare in the snow -- the endless, agonizing retreat from Moscow. God the cold! The wounded, and what was left of the supplies, were thrown into carts. Napoleon was finished.”

  Now it seems that the Watchtower is doing the same. The JWs are loading their literature, supplies, the old and the sick on to carts. The old and sick JWs then sit there silently minding the carts. The physically healthy JWs who accompany the carts are in retreat, talking among themselves rather than make an effort to do any preaching.

  Of course this doesn't mean the JW religion will suddenly collapse. But it does indicate that they are beginning the fade into insignificance.
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  Finkelstein

  I was told by another practicing Christian of a different faith some 40 years ago that the JWS wont last due its false doctrines. maybe he was right ?

  The largest growth of this religion percentage wise happened 50 years ago when the WTS proclaimed that 1975 was going to be a significant year due to mankind's existence of 6000 years (used twice before by the WTS) .

  Well the WTS cant do that any more for obvious reasons so it has to sustain its by other methods and tactics such as adjusting existing doctrines or removing them all together.
  
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  Finkelstein

  The WTS/JWS isn't going away anytime soon, it has the cash and about 3 billion dollars wrapped up in real estate around thew world $$$

  Nevertheless a decline is nice to see, for the sake of humanity.
  
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  peacefulpete

  All the changes of the last 40 years have been consistently along the path from cultlike sect to denomination. It's actually ensuring it's continuation by making these adaptations. Group control dynamics change with group size, what used to work no longer does. That plus loss of charismatic leadership compel a sect to become more conventional. IMO, It's currently lodged, somewhat stuck between "institutionalized sect" and "denomination", using one popular classification of religious movements.
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  nicolaou

  I was told by another practicing Christian of a different faith some 40 years ago that the JWS wont last due its false doctrines

  False doctrines didn't spell the end for Catholicism, Islam or any other reality denying religion you care to name.

  I'm not saying Jehovah's Witnesses will last that long or grow to that extent but if they do fail (and I think they will) it won't simply be because their doctrines have been debunked. How many of us here became JW's because of doctrine? Not many I'll bet. It happened because our parent/s raised us that way.

  That's the link that needs to be broken.
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  alanv

  The large increase before 1975 had nothing to do with more JW children, it was because of people converting from other faiths. However now Im sure that any small increase mainly comes from JW kids getting dipped.
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  stan livedeath

  born in jw kids ? oh--you mean the ones the watchtower didnt want conceived in the first place ?
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  nicolaou

  alanv: The large increase before 1975 had nothing to do with more JW children, it was because of people converting from other faiths.

  Easy claim to make, have you got the stats to back it up? My guess is that conversions were higher pre-'75 but that they have only ever been a fraction of the baptisms of born-ins.
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  Anna Marina

  They are doing the 'green' message. Climate change, polar bear, bumble bees. They are aiming themselves at university students and the young.
  

  They'll keep going but I suspect they'll have to drop the Bible at some point. Or drop Jesus and Our Father or something.

  Maybe they'll change the name of the Awake back to the Golden Age and start speaking highly of the Greek and Roman gods and some special knowledge that was lost when Atlantis sunk. Then they could point out that Vishnu means the man Noah and advocate Transcendentalism.
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  slimboyfat

  Most people in my congregation (or their parents/grandparents) were baptised as converts 1970–75. It was a big thing locally, at least. A few go back earlier, and a few came in the 80s and 90s, but the majority 1970–75.