xjwsforChrist

SABASTIOUS SAID

What if you had information about future events in the world before they happened? What if you knew that something big was going to happen in the year 1914? What could you do with that information? All my life growing up I knew that the Watchtower was a prophet of God because they predicted the cataclysmic events of 1914. Before the date they were giving specifics about what was going to happen and when something DID happen in 1914 they patted themselves on the back for a job well done. For even if they got the specifics totally wrong, they still predicted a world altering event as did others at that time which they shook hands with. For some reason there were people who seemed to have a faint awareness of the gravity of the events that would take place in that particular year. One could say that they had so much faith in that particular year that they made sure to find "confirmation" within the pages of our ancient texts.

Consider the occupation of the Firefighter. Their entire job market centers around the existence of random acts of terror. Suppose one day that someone discovered we can end all fires once and for all without ecological harm? Likely most of the firefighters would start looking to transform their lives as their livelihoods were being forecasted as nonexistent in the very near future. However, there would also be a small percentage of firefighters, sociopathic most likely, that would approach the problem very differently. Instead of understanding that a world without uncontrolled fire is good, they would instead see a threat to their very existence. They would take every means necessary to continue the existence of fires even to the point of undermining whatever it is that is challenging them in the first place.

To postpone the future indefinitely they would really have to be the first to discover that their livelihood was at risk. They would then have to cover up the foundational pieces of information that lead to that discovery. Then they would have to develop a highly sophisticated lie that they could then sell to the public. It would even serve their purposes to develop propaganda that would demonize anything that could possibly lead in the direction of the truth which includes their figurative death. Eventually this lie would become impossible to cover up and exposure would lead to the end of the structure holding back the truth that firefighters are not required.

When I postulate such a phenomenon with the Watchtower Society their actions seem to make more sense to me. Prophecy was something that was widely accepted in ancient times. Today the way we look at prophets is very different and you could easily say that prophecy in general is passing away.

Can you imagine the satisfaction of life knowing that there are people who can tell the future for you? It could literally smite any worry you had about the world which is exactly how Watchtower adherents live their lives. "Got cancer? That's prophesied to be gone! It's almost like NOT HAVING CANCER!"

If you think about this explanation it works very well for an ancient population. You were given comfort as a parent because your child had a conceivably less chance of being subject to the same woes you faced. You wouldn't even consider that a lie because thousands of years later we are not facing the same woes, so in a way they were right all those years ago. Which is much like putting out emotional fires in times of deep despair. Their sages peered into the future with high intuition and were able to grasp to the hope they were incapable of logically putting together. What that did was give them the motivation to teach their messages of hope which are always in the midst of social and military collapse.

In our day in age we have Science which offers many, if not all, of the benefits of the ancient prophet. Instead of a mish mash of skills as the ancient Prophet's had, now we have skilled specialists. We have meteorologists, psychologists, economists, physics, mathematicians and many other variant specialized scientific fields all challenge the might of the ancient prophet. What this effectively does is snuffs out the modern day prophet by putting them in a game over their own existence. Which is why religions that rely on Prophets have fared so badly since the era of the Great Disappointment.

What we have today is a shadow of the majesty that was organized religion. Today the field is largely run by criminals and the pathologically insane. These are the ones that grasp onto their own selfishness until their bitter end, an end that should not be pitied. Most people have the sense to leave what is passing away before them, whereas others just seem to harden into wickedness and go down with the ship.

-Sab

AGUEST SAID

I totally get where you're going here, dear Sab (peace to you!) and I agree with 99% of it (I have to stop short on the science part because I do believe that science can "predict" many things related to the flesh, including a time when there's no more sickness/death (unfortunately, it won't be because of science as there simply isn't enough time for that. But given sufficient time... like, say, another 5,000 years, though I'm sure some believe a lot less... sure!).

But as to false prophesy, I can see that some (perhaps even most) conjure up "the excuse" at the same time they come up with the prediction ("Okay, so if this doesn't come true (and heck, it might not) we'll have to say that it must have been because of..."). Although, I think that just man's very nature and tendencies, along with our environment, virtually presents "excuses" for why a false prophesy didn't come true (I mean, besides being false in the first place) which don't require too much thought:

"Christ is going to come into his kingdom in 1914!"

"See? World War I has started and THAT is our "sign" that Christ has come into his kingdom!"

"No, no, faggedibout Christ's words":

[color]“Look out that nobody misleads ​YOU; for many will come on the basis of my name, saying, ‘I am [anointed]t,’ and will mislead many. YOU​ are going to hear of wars and reports of wars; see that ​YOU​ are not terrified. For these things must take place, but the end is not yet".[/color]

"'Cause we don't know about/understand that, yet. When we do (in, say, 1995), we'll simply change the time of the 'great tribulation' (which we say right now starts 1914) to some other time... only we won't say that we're changing it too loudly. Just let folks catch on if/when they can.

"We'll have to change the whole generation thing, too. Let's say we do that in, say, 1950-something... then again in 1970-something... then again in 1990-something... and again in early 20-something... I mean, it's not like those stoopid R+F sheep will GET it, anyway, right? So long as we keep 'em out of school... so that they don't learn to read/comprehend much past, say, 10th grade (4th, if we can get away with it)... we're good!"

Sorry, dear Sab... didn't mean to take over your thread with my dialogue, but I'd swear (if I were a swearin' woman) that this is what they'd HAVE to day... to even push their melarkey at this point...

But, I get and hear you!

Peace!
_________________
Paz a todos!

Su sirviente, compañera de estudios, y un esclava de Cristo,

SA

SABASTIOUS SAID

When I was little I remember waking up very early on a Friday or Saturday morning and immediately experiencing a feeling of dread and panic. My mind would desperately grasp for any train of logic that could possibly get me out of the multi-hour car ride with my parents to one of the tri-annual gatherings of JW's. Life for a JW kid can be so bad that you find yourself in a constant and desperate search for relief.

There is a family dynamic that is common among all cultures. This would be a father's desire for his children to succeed specifically the eldest. In the western world it might be a father pressuring his son to take up the family trade. In the mind of a family leader survival of the group is paramount, so any pain that is a means to that survival is highly glorified. Creating something from blood, sweat and tears comes with a certain sense of pride that can be a powerful emotional motivator.

Other cases could include a father sending their child to some sort of camp or boarding school. It's a cliche scene where the boy is calling his parents begging to come home from a place that the parents believe will refine their child for the better. This is much how I felt as a JW child. Every second of every day I wanted to phone home and beg my parents to save me, but unfortunately they were working for the boarding school. This puts the child into a primal survival mode as happened to me.

As I look back on it all I surely call the creators of such an environment totally and incomparably evil. Not everyone shares this point of view, but many are at least sympathetic to it. The question that haunts my mind is the why? The closing of the Age of Prophets serves as a perfect explanation, imo. What I existed within was a custom made environment from the ground up. There is natural supply and demand and then there is fake supply and demand. You have real economics that are a reflection of the human minds involved and then you have systems that are just designed to appear real, but actually are completely stale and hallow. This is why people who come out of the Watchtower have such a hard time at accepting the truth about the truth. That's why it takes years, because this particular fabrication is incredibly immense and detailed, but of negative worth. Which is hard for a mind to accept without dissonance.

Now it's become apparent to me that trauma is something that aids the Watchtower process. You can find literally every form of abuse happening in the families of the Society from emotional to physical to psychological and everything in-between. Why SO bad? A hint comes from understanding the pain and suffering that our ancients went through which they idealize. It could be said that Prophets arise because of suffering and are a completely natural phenomenon. Wouldn't it be great to have a world where we didn't require Prophets any longer? What would that world look like?

So like fighter fighters who start their own fires and then put them out the Prophets of today make sure their environments are one of pain and suffering (see Hitchens opinion on Mother Tersa). This keeps them employed.

At first I became very angry at this thought. Their survival would then be the cause of my suffering growing up and everyone's suffering on this forum. For them? Really? But when I really think about it they are victims too because there is suffering in this world and some people just only know one way to deal with it. Just like the father that sends his kid to boarding school and sees it through to the bitter end, if need be. Because he has faith in a system, but what happens when that system passes away or becomes corrupt? Will the father change with the winds or will he stubbornly hold onto tradition at the potential cost of his whole generation becoming soiled? The Watchtower says he won't change, in fact, they bet on it.

-Sab

AGUEST SAID



Your analogies here are spot on, dear Sab (the greatest of love and peace to you!). And trauma is something that aids all belief systems, religions, cults, and particularly the "harlots." Because Christ said that those who follow him would have to carry a torture pole and Paul wrote extensively about "suffering" for the Christ. NEITHER, however, meant the sufferings of the world, but rather the "sufferings" that the flesh goes through by means of us denying it its wants (Paul)... and the sufferings we might undergo for HIS sake (Christ). Everything else is part and parcel of this world... which belongs to and is a reflection of ITS "ruler."

That these harlots exploit this is what should NOT surprise us: in order to be successful in the "business" every "working girl" must be able to figure out... and exploit... the weaknesses of her "johns." Playing on our human nature to NOT want to suffer... and the results of man dominating man "to his own detriment" so as to CAUSE worldly suffering... is part of knowing that business.

As part of the world, such fathers... and perhaps our own fathers... were simply caught up. As perhaps their fathers... and their fathers before them... all the way back to ancient times... were.

Again, peace to you!

Your servant and a slave of Christ,

SA