Predict JW life in future

by ExBethelitenowPIMA 31 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  ExBethelitenowPIMA

  A sister said the other day at the ministry group “”what is all this talk that the end is still some way off” she said she has been waiting for decades and she was told there is no way it would take this long.

  Some others said in an annoyed kind of way yes they would have made different decisions decades ago if they knew the end still would not have come by 2023.

  how will the majority react in a few more decades time when the end still hasn’t come?

  why all that talk of sense of urgency decades ago?
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  LongHairGal

  EXBETHELITENOWPIMA:

  Yes, I understand JWs “who would have made different decisions if they knew the end still would not have come by 2023.”

  I assume these Witnesses you mentioned are younger and were either not around or not old enough in 1995 when that teaching on Generation came out. That was the last straw for me and I began my ‘Fade’ from the religion.. But, at least I was already in the workforce.

  For JWs who had an ounce of sense, this was a huge wake-up call to get a decent job and plan for their retirement. The year 1995 was almost thirty years ago and sufficient time has passed to have gotten that job and planned!!

  If any Witnesses ignored this and stayed in sleep mode daydreaming and didn’t plan accordingly, it’s hard to feel sympathy. I hope the ones you said sounded ‘annoyed’ aren’t in this category.. Because if they are older people, that ship has sailed.
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  resolute Bandicoot

  why all that talk of sense of urgency decades ago?

  “The only thing that needs to be done to enslave people is to scare them.”

  - Hermann Goering

  RB
  
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  JWslave77

  I graduated high school in 1995 and although to this day I still PIMO due to family circumstances I can't come to terms with that would change if I left, I went to college immediately after high school, and now 2 masters degrees later am the CFO of a financial institution. I'm not proud to still be PiMo but I'm glad I made some plans.
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  joe134cd

  I just hope the religion lasts long enough, to see out my elderly father.
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  DesirousOfChange

  I think there are many long time JW’s with such feelings. Some are maybe bold enough to say it, but only in a whisper. If they speak about it to loud or too often, they’ll find themselves in a back room meeting with a couple elders.
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  TonusOH

  I think the message will change a bit over time, in the way that it already has over the past century. Remember that, in the earliest days, the WTS set specific times for the end of the current system of things. 1914/5, 1920, 1925, for example. They learned some lessons and in 1975 tried to mix in some uncertainty, which did not work as well as they had hoped. When they initially eased off the (revised) 1914 teaching, it was by very quietly dropping the "this generation" language in the magazines.

  They have held on to the "the end is near, it is very near" talk, and that might be the next thing to change. Already, it will not be long for Lett's "last day of the last days" message to age poorly. At some point, the message will become more like "who knows?" They will continue to point to world events, but I think they will leave it to the rank and file to sort it out themselves, and hope that most decide to stay in.

  As more time passes, the old message becomes problematic. It is now almost 50 years since 1975, which means it is more than 50 years since they started the talk about 1975. If you had told any of those witnesses back then "the end will not arrive for another 50 years," how many of them would have sold their homes? Refused to have children? Refused to marry? Refused to prepare for retirement? Any JW who does the math will run into a very rigid wall made of cognitive dissonance.
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  Ding

  They think:

  1. I would have made different decisions if I knew the old system would still be here in 2023.

  2. Surely now Armageddon is CLOSER THAN EVER.

  3. I can't waver now and throw away everything I've worked for my whole life.

  4. I must maintain my integrity and stay loyal to Jehovah and his organization.

  5. I'll just keep my mouth shut and stay the course.

  6. After all, where else can I go?
  
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  TonusOH

  My mother is like that, Ding. I think it is a sunk-cost type of reasoning. She is in her 80s and joined in the late 1960s, influenced by the 1975 teaching. I don't think she could bear thinking that her life went nowhere while she patiently waited for an end that would never come. She has to believe, at this point.
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  XBEHERE

  1995 Generation change jumpstarted my MO part of PIMO...the CSA scandal and Dateline in 2001 pushed me almost entirely mentally out.

  Family ties keep me PI. So I smile when people in service groups talk about stuff like this. I was a child in 1975 so I have no strong memory either way but after 1995 I made sure I went to school, looked for a good employer that offers 401k and maxed my contribution out.

  If you were a smart JW back in the 90's and started to "wake up" shame on you for not preparing!