Witnessing Work to Stop?

by Sea Breeze 32 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Sea Breeze

  My 87 year old dad called me for the first time in 16 years the other day .... just to chat. I was floored to say the least since he didn't even bother to call me when my mom died several years ago. He called again today to inquire how I felt about Jehovah's Witnesses. I told him that I hold no animosity toward JW's or virtually any other law-abiding group.
  
  Dad has always insisted that I must hate them since I left. Pure nuttiness.

  Anyway, he said that he was putting in around 20 hours a month until the corona virus hit. He told me that the witnessing work is over now and that the organization has instructed them to stop. He said he misses it. I asked him if that was a permanent thing or just temporary. He said that it was permanent until the Great Tribulation, then the final message will be given.
  
  This really worries me. Has anyone else heard anything like this?

  Thanks,

  Sea Breeze
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  BourneIdentity

  We’ve been told it’s on hold till the branch gives further instruction, which they haven’t yet. I think some JWs are just making assumptions.
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  BourneIdentity

  I’ve always thought it would be impossible to get JWs to preach the hailstone message. I mean, how do you get people to go door to door and say “your going to die soon”?! But let’s be honest, if the world governments shutdown all churches, I could see them totally onboard with it. I think any of us would be in sheer shock if that event happened. It’s never going to happen. The only way the GT starts for JWs is if they receive new light and say something else happens, that they were wrong on false religion ending. At that point, it gets harder to preach the hailstone message, lots of doubt would creep into their minds.
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  Sea Breeze

  Someone posted on another thread that elders and the GB are encouraging members to contact family members that they have shunned in the past. Has anyone else heard of something like this as well?
  
  Do yall think the shunning thing is about to be modified? Is Watchtower trying to send the message that if you come back to the WT you can now:

  1. Have a beard (since a JW is pictured with a beard in a recent publication)

  2. No longer have to do carts and door to door witnessing

  3. Your shunning can end if you stop questioning their religious rules & heretical beliefs

  It sorta makes sense. How else are they going to prop up their numbers except by reaching out to estranged family members?
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  slimboyfat

  I think it’s possible/likely that he was counting the phone call as preaching time, because JWs have been told to call/email/write to anyone they know to get their time in.
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  smiddy3

  It all over No Public witnessing ! No Bible Studies ! No Kingdom Halls!
  Just go on line ??? Whoopy!!

  That`s the e-mail message I got the other week from an old sister that still talks to us from time to time ?

  I agree with BI that some are just jumping to there own conclusions.
  
  
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  Phizzy

  JW's and active preaching are synonymous, it is deeply embedded in their Culture, in their DNA probably. But most do not like actual Cold Calling on Homes, which is why the Cart Work was a perceptive move.

  I can see that doing the actual " Knock Knocks" as we used to call them will die out, not just because of the preference of most JW's, but because the GB will see they are happy with alternatives, and the Org will save money by producing not one shred of printed matter.
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  phoenixrising

  I don't think they know what to do. Things are not doing what they think or say that will happen. If I had to make a guess I would say that the GB is most likely divided on what to do and how close the end is. Pure Kool Aid drinkings like Lett are most likely pushing that this is it get ready.
  
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  Anony Mous

  Your father is right, if you've been in the organization any time between the 80s and 2000s you have studied the apocalypse book and many other doomsday articles.

  The ending of the preaching work at the hand of the government was a prophecy that has now been fulfilled, the rest of the prophecy states that the "wild beast" (the UN) will attack religion (and Trump seems like the one to trigger that by defunding the UN or something like that) and then the great tribulation will start.

  The older JW have been hanging on to a lot of unfulfilled prophecy, even if they no longer teach them, many do remember them. It's another 1975 for many of the older ones I think.
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  Still Totally ADD

  So let's say they will no longer go door to door anymore. Does that mean a older one dye in the wool witness goes door to door on their own, are they now a apostate? This is truly a slippery slope they are going down if this is true. How could they be called Jehovah Witnesses? If they are not knocking on doors. Maybe it is just wishful thinking on their part. Still Totally ADD