New Video on Jehovah’s Witnesses
I posted a little while ago about the little boy who couldn’t see a future for himself outside of the JWs. All Jehovah’s Witness children grow up this way.
Watch this short new video to get a sense of the kind of message that all JWs – even children – hear ad nauseum. Notice the way non-JWs are presented, and the image of God that they create.
There is no room for love, compassion, or grace in this message.
I’ve heard Jehovah’s Witnesses trying to claim that the Watchtower Society never gave the 1975 date for Armageddon. They did – I remember it – and this video proves it. “Stay alive ’til 75″ was something I heard a lot as a kid. People made all sorts of decisions based on this false prophecy, and when 1975 came and went, a lot of people left. There has been a fair bit of historical revisionism since that time, as there has been for other dates that had been given.
This is the kind of discourse I grew up hearing all the time. I thought that I would never graduate from High School before the end of this wicked system of things happened and all the other people were destroyed and the New Order on a paradise earth (full of unified Jehovah’s Witnesses) would begin.
JWs believe that you have to be in the organization to survive the Great Tribulation. They make noises these days about God being the only one to judge, but no JW really believes that. They hear differently all their lives, and they know about the “theocratic war strategy” of lying to the satanic public.
JWs imagine the Last Days vividly – and often – and most would never have the courage to leave the organization, just in case it really is “the Truth.”
Ex-JWs might enjoy the background music on this, including the “From House to House” Sambo remix.
(Thanks to JB, JME, and Amanda)
More videos about Jehovah’s Witnesses (or resonant with exJWs):
I remember being told I’d never graduate high school or have to worry about having children in ‘this system’. I remember hearing that 1975 was close and then I would never have to have a childhood like ‘they’ (the adults) did and how lucky (oops, not supposed to use that word) I was. I remember being out in service and having people getting back in the car saying ‘man, that is a nice house, when this system ends, I’m coming back and claiming that one for me.’ Now, I have 3 daughters: a junior in college, a senior in high school and a freshman in high school.
I find it very interesting that they would put such explicit dates on the end of the world. Historically any group that has put an explicit date on the end, has suffered for it when that date came along.
Though I guess they did lose a lot of people when it didn’t happen in 1975. I’m just surprised that they didn’t suffer more. Usually a prediction like that is a death blow for the organization. At least it is with main-stream Christian groups.
Matthew 24:36-44 clearly states that no one will know when the end of the world is coming. So it seems a little stupid to make predictions.
Traci – I hear ya – and what a good example of “coveting.”
Jamie – Very perceptive – the JWs use that very scripture now while claiming that they never actually set a date. But there have been many dates. The founder was a Freemason, and timelines were always a fascination of the group.
Boy do I remember those dates being thrown around. Then the inevitable back tracking and saying oh no we didn’t specify this or that date. Ho Hum. I’m so glad I’m outta there! Good post girl!
Technically, the FDS is correct in saying they never said the world was coming to an end 1975, for they never put it in print. But as your video points out, it came through the Circuit Overseers”s and pictures, in the magazines. They were doing as they felt was the best formankind at the time. The Org. has never operated to generate a profit. It has never operated to be a mind controlling Org. but has ended up being so through crafty reasonings on the scriptures, and word combinations like “spiritual paradise”. I still truly believe they ment well, but there are a lot of us suffering from the control our parents gave them over our lives, while growing up.
I remeber 1975 all too well……I was 7 years old and just celebrated my birthday on August 2, 1974 ….my last birthday as a child.
My mother was studying with Jehovah Witness for quite some time that year and the society was putting out that Armageddon was fast approaching for 1975. The organization stated if you was baptized and had dedicated your life to Jehovah …you are your family would be spared and promised an earthy hope on a paradise earth. Sept 1, 1974, 3 weeks after my 7th birthday, my father drowed and died while we were on vacation and my mother got baptized on NOV 4, 1974.
My mother was putting in my ear that that we shouldn’t have to worry because she has gotten baptized and dedicated her life to Jehovah so we will be spared and my father would be back from the dead following Armageddon and the dead will be returning from the graves and my father would be home sometime shortly.
Well, We all know that wasnt the case and in the meantime, I had to see a doctor for both ..my father’s death and this false prediction of 1975.
There is more to write …however I prefer for all to read it.
My book…The Kingdom Hall…No More will be out soon .
My book discuss my 16 years experinces growing up as a Jehovah Witness while I lived in Hollis, Queens, New York.
Daniel Chamberlayne