Around 1600 AD, Galileo challenged the Catholic Church's long held view that the Earth was the center of our Universe. This resulted in Galileo’s trial and in the end Galileo was forced to recant his theories and was sent to house imprisonment. Galileo never again spoke about the theory.
Finally,
in 1992, spacecraft had been launched on its way to Jupiter, the
Vatican formally and publicly cleared Galileo of any wrongdoing.
It took about 400 years for the Church to admit they were wrong.
My jw uncle who was 40 years old in 1995 told me that he knew something was up in the year 1995 when a Watchtower magazine made a hint mention of a change in the generation that would not die. He said they were now slyly changing the word “Generation” to mean something else. But they didn’t elaborate too much. He called the Circuit Overseer who was a close friend and the CO also caught the implication of what was happening but he told my uncle to wait and see if more new light would come out in the months to follow.
My uncle wrote a letter to the Society and ask what they meant in the magazine by generation and they gave him the same answer as the CO, which was to wait on the faithful slave as they would give more new light in the months to come.
So my uncle waited. And waited, And waited.
It was not until 2008 ----some 13 years later and my uncle was now 53 years of age, that new light was printed saying that "As a class, these anointed ones make up the modern-day "generation" of contemporaries that will not pass away "until all these things occur."
So my uncle did the same thing as before, called the CO, wrote the Society and both told him to wait on new light
Two years later 2010, my uncle was now 55 years old and another change came that the lives of the anointed who were on hand when the sign began to become evident in 1914 would overlap with the lives of other anointed ones who would see the start of the great tribulation. Again my uncle Waited for more information.
Then in September 2015 my uncle finally turned 60 years of age, and was now considered “Elderly” by the young jws. He heard the JW Broadcast on jw.org explained that the generation included any anointed that Overlapped with Frederick William Franz. (They extended the end to another 80 years.😩)
At 60 years of age my Uncle found himself in this predicament. Born in the Religion, pioneered, served as MS then elder all his life, worked odd jobs all his life, and now the generation that would not die, - would die which meant----HE WOULD DIE!😩
At this point my uncle went through a mental breakdown for about a year. (which I didn’t know at the time) But now I know the whole story.
By this time my uncle had no choice but to stick it out and hope Jehovah would fix this mess.
2020, my uncle turned 65 and the pandemic closed all kingdom halls and stopped field service worldwide. My uncle stepped down as an elder, does not support the WT financially, and is officially PIMO.
2022, my uncle will get his first Social Security check in a few days. He will be 67 years old.
1969 AWAKE said “if you are a young person you will have to face the fact that you will never grow old in this present system of things”.
Who knows how many jws are in the same shoes as my uncle. In the organization but as a PIMO and not as a true believer.
My uncle says the most he will be around is perhaps another 30 years if he is lucky and covid doesn't kill him.
In 30 years we will have a clearer picture of whether the Watchtower will survive or become a small religious cult of a few thousand believers.
It seems like it takes a while to bring down a religious cult but NOT REALLY.
What really happens is that 30 years is a life time for many. If a person is Born in, and he does all he can to be loyal to "Jehovah" and at 30 (1st stop at maturity) he becomes an elder, it only takes 30 more years and he becomes a senior.
Too late to leave at that point and lose your family, you network, and your hope.
These are the ones that will not leave. They will die in the organization whether they are true believers or not. Maybe somehow God will work it all out---they hope.
But what's the point of leaving at this point. The best part of your life is gone, the Watchtower used it all up, and nothing you do will restore your youth.
It's not that it takes long, it's that life is so short.
