Posted by Camryn [camryn] on November 17, 1999 at 08:51:26 {xx2d.1sWpQCAoFoSdQ9.DroBvA4afs}:
*** An Opinion ***
Can 1, or even 13 members of the Governing Body do anything that will help the Society reform in a meaningful way?
It seems to me that the Society cannot be truly reformed until it first acknowledges it is not "God's faithful and discreet slave organization."
But, could the Society admit this and still exist as a world-wide religions organization with millions of members? I don't see how it would be possible.
Answers to the following three questions might help show if the above opinion means anything...
Qustion #1:
How many Witnesses on this list would continue to attend the Society's meetings and go door-to-door with the Society's literature, and attend all their assemblies, etc., etc., etc. if Governing Body finally admits that the Watchtower Society is not God's organization?
Note: If it were ever admitted that that the Society is not God's organization it means all the rhetoric about "going ahead of God's organization," "keeping up with God's organization," "guard against thinking independently of God's organization," etc. is meaningless. It means that all of their teachings that have required "changes in view point" were simply "false teachings" which came from "false teachers." With 120 years full of false teachings, who would want to stay with such false teaching organization?
I can only speak for myself... but if I was still associated with the Society I would walk away from it as soon as I knew that it wasn't God's organization. (Actually, that's exactly what I did do.)
Question #2:
How many Ex-Witnesses on this list would go back to the above routine if the Governing Body admits that the Society is not God's organization?
Again, I can only speak for myself... I would not go back.
Question #3:
How many non-Witnesses would get baptized as one of "Jehovah's Witnesses" if they became aware of the Society's true history of false teachings and prophecies and knew that "the Society is not God's organization?"
If I had been aware of these things I would never have been baptized by the Watchtower Society.
Therefore:
a) If all Witnesses leave the Society once they realize that it is not God's organization, and
b) If all Ex-Witnesses refuse to return to the Society even if it is admitted that the Society is not God's organization, and...
c) If nobody gets baptized because they know that the Society isn't God's organization...
...then what's left? Nothing, it would seem - except 13 (or perhaps 12?) aging and elderly men who live in Brooklyn, New York.
It looks to me that the only way to avoid the end of the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society of Pennsylvania is for the Governing Body to never admit that it is *not* (and never has been) "God's organization." But since it cannot be refomed unless it *does* admit such a thing... then apparently it just cannot be reformed!
If the above reasoning is reasonable, then I would encourge the 'GB Member'(?) to think in terms of "Liberation" rather than "Refomration." Rather then trying to help the other 12 Witnesses of the Governing Body reform the Society (which cannot be done), that he do what he can to help 6,000,000 Witnesses liberate themselves from their self-imposed captivity that the illusionary concept of the Society (i.e. that it is "God's organization") has created.
See "Captives of a Concept" at the folloiwng address...
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/1949/index.html
Camryn