Which was scarier... the torture scenario or the Armageddon scenario?

by Gopher 32 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  xjw_b12

  For me it was the GT.

  I remember hearing talks from the platform, on how the authorities would threaten harm and death to the children of parents, to make them renounce their faith in jehovah, I thought "hey, that's me" Then all sorts of pictures would race through my mind, of all the horrible ways they could hurt me. It did give me nightmares.

  Armegeddon, didn't frighten me, because unlike that poor little girl and her dolly in the "purple picture" I wasn't going to be swallowed up by some great chasm in the earth, as I was a good little dubbie.
• 

  Elsewhere

  I remember when I was a little kid (elementary school age) and my dad would "prepare" me for the "persecution" that was "soon" to come"... if you ask me describing such brutal acts to a child, and then saying that it will happen to him is abuse in of itself.
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  Gopher

  Elsewhere said:
  

  describing such brutal acts to a child, and then saying that it will happen to him is abuse in of itself.

  I couldn't agree more. Armageddon was going to be where God's angels came and saved us faithful little JW's from the bad old world governments and their armies coming to hunt us down.

  But the stuff BEFORE we were to be "rescued" from this evil system by God's war against all JW-haters, that stuff really scared me. My own dad said (in the 70's) that we had to prepare ourselves for the very worst of times. One of our family's friends said "you have to expect to DIE".

  And even the WTS joined in with quoting the Bible verse that said "all those desiring to live with godly devotion in association with Jesus Christ will also be persecuted". Of course they applied that solely to JW's -- and true they applied that verse to day-to-day persecution (which I rarely experienced). However, it wasn't too hard to connect the dots and apply that scripture also to the coming "great tribulation" where JW's would supposedly escape by the skin of their teeth.

  What a nightmarish prophecy the WTS served up for us, and it really hit me hard as a child.
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  nilfun

  In my child-time mind, at any moment the Nazi's could burst through the doors of the Kingdom Hall and spray the place with their tommy guns; snipers could pick us off as we parked our cars at the Convention. As the persecution intensified, the bodies would be stacked like cordwood.

  Once, while out in service, a leaf fell from a tree onto Mom's forehead. Her hand flew up to her face and she screamed because she thought that a householder had shot her. The persecution had begun!

  Strange little "practices", much akin to fire drills, occurred at odd times. These persecution pop quizzes always caught me off-guard and were extremely upsetting.

  Talk about stress!
• 

  itsallgoodnow

  I was more scared of the torture, because I was taught it would be like Nazi concentration camps, which I thought was worse than a quick death from a fireball from heaven.

  Nice way to think of your future as a kid, though, gotta hand it to them.
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  Scully

  My parents became JWs around the time when the persecution in Malawi was heating up. I can remember sitting in a school auditorium for a Circuit Assembly and hearing how people were having their homes burned to the ground, men being shot and killed by military people in front of their families, women and young girls being gang raped in front of their parents and families. The Fortunate? ones were able to flee and become refugees in neighbouring countries. All these atrocities because they were In The Truth?.

  Not long afterward, there were parts on the Service Meeting about how to go door-to-door during times of persecution so that we could escape authorities. I was conscripted into assisting in one of these demonstrations on the platform.

  This was the time coming up to 1975 and we were really expecting something to happen, but knew that The Great Tribulation? and the persecution of JWs had to happen before Armageddon? could come. The FLQ Crisis in Quebec added to the speculation that Critical Times? were upon us.

  The fact that someone who was a small child at the time of these events has a very clear recollection of them 30+ years after the fact, including the overwhelming sense of dread that I felt about the nearness of Armageddon, should make it painfully obvious that this sort of thing is extremely harmful and traumatic to the mind of a child. I sometimes wonder if these acts of psychological terrorism have contributed to or have even been at the very root of the clinical depression that I have experienced off and on over the years.

  When I look at the disturbing images that we have been fed in WT publications over the years - especially those that have children as their intended audience - I have to shake my head and wonder: What the HELL are they thinking???

  Love, Scully
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  galaxy7

  Armageddon scared me the most.I used to get so scared whenever there was a storm outside

  the pictures in the paradise lost book helped perpetuate my fears that lasted long into adulthood.
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  FlyingHighNow

  [Final note the WT$'s "Paradise book", was released the year of my birth.I literally cut my baby teeth on !!! I still remember the smell of the bookbinding glue,it smelled like peppermint.It probably had toxic lead in it too]

  Yeah, lacing the brains of babies with lead makes them more malleable and absorbent to WT brainwashing. Didn't you all know that? Danny, you have a PM.

  Flyin'
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  franklin J

  I was also raised as a JW. As a young child I was petrified of the "tribulation" and "persecution and torture" that I was taught would happen to me. ( sick, sick , sick) I remember askiing my parents if it would be considered wrong to carry pain killing drugs on me at all times to avoid the pain of being caught and tortured. Is that a sick question? I am almost embarrassed to admit that... alas, I was young ( about 10) and a brainwash victim. I remember my mother telling me to trust in Jehovah. ( yeah, well thanks for the well intentioned advice mom; but you were a victim also).

  My children will never know that emotional pain and fear.
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  SAHS

  My dad used to tell me when I was quite young, ?Just wait till the Great Tribulation. You?ll really be shaking in your boots then!?

  Since childhood I?ve had a re-occurring dream that there was a literal big, dark storm in the distance with multiple funnel clouds coming my direction, and I was trying to run away from it (I used to be scared of tornados). It doesn?t take too much of a genius to make the connection with that re-occurring dream and Armageddon.

  It is Armageddon that I?ve always feared most because since just before puberty, I?ve never thought of myself as surviving it. My dad used fear of the ?sin against the holy spirit? to keep me in line. (He even used to tell me, referring to himself, when he was frustrated and having fits of temper, ?You?re looking at a man that definitely will not survive Armageddon.?)

  Since I had some unnatural desires (who wouldn?t being a JW at puberty in my house), I thought that I must have already been condemned, and therefore ? well, like I said, it is Armageddon that was the big adrenaline producer for me. Nice ?future? for a young child to have to think about.

  ?SAHS