Toto

That's the point - individuals may fall away, but the cult survives and often thrives.

ApostateAbe

For sure.

DCHindley

The JW prediction that the 2nd coming of Christ would occur in 1975. Obviously, when it did not happen as predicted, they had to backpedel if they were to avoid the shame of failure.

How they did it was to admit to "misinterpreting" the bible verses and then revise their interpretation of the 2nd coming to allow for its fulfillment without a visible return. It was "spiritual" and an invisible kingdom of god was instituted in 1975.

There were other possible coping strategies, such as abandoning the idea of a 2nd coming, admit they got it wrong and try again with a new date, etc, the selection of any one of which could be influenced by any number of sociological variables. Why did this solution win out over these others? This is where Festinger's dissonance theory is helpful.

DCH (break time boss)

aa5874

You have made a very SIGNIFICANT observation which is extremely relevant to the Jesus story and the so-called "Failed Prophecies".

1. "The JW predicted that the 2nd coming of Christ would occur in 1975".

Notice that it was JW and NOT Jesus Christ that made the ACTUAL prediction but were using their Scripture as if it was from Jesus Christ.

This is likely to be EXACTLY what happened around the 2nd century except that the PREDICTION of the 2nd coming of Jesus was also the same time the very first Jesus story was written.

If one actually READ the Synoptic type Jesus stories it would be noticed that the Jewish Populace did NOT know that the Jewish Temple would have fallen and did NOT know the signs of the day of Judgement.

In effect, in the NT, Jesus was NOT known to have Publicly told anyone of his second coming.

The prediction and signs of the 2nd coming are found ONLY in the Jesus stories.

So it is the authors themselves who MADE the prediction and the signs KNOWN.

The initial Jesus story most likely was written by an Apocalyptic writer who produced his PREDICTIONS using Hebrew Scripture but making it appear it was said by Jesus.

2. "when it did not happen as predicted, they had to backpedel if they were to avoid the shame of failure...

Again, we see the very same thing in the NT. The author of gJohn BACKPEDALS because the PREDICTIONS did NOT happen.

ALL the so-called "Failed Prophecies" are MISSING from gJohn. But what is MOST remarkable is that the author of gJohn ERASED all memory of the "Failed Prophecies" from his story.

The Johanine Jesus did NOT tell the Sanhedrin that they would see him coming in the clouds.

The Johanine Jesus did NOT tell the disciples that the Temple would fall and that the Sun and Moon will turn to blood.

The author of gMatthew wrote a whole chapter on the Apocalypse--ch 24.

The author of gMark used the whole of chapter 13 and gLuke 21 was used for the Apocalypse.

The author of gJohn did NOT use a single WORD.

The author of gJohn BACKPEDALED big time. The so-called "Failed Prophecies" were ERASED from gJohn's Jesus story.

The author of gJon wrote INSTEAD about the COMFORTER. He claimed when Jesus was gone he would SEND the Holy Ghost.

Joh 16:7 - But, the Synoptic authors claimed Heaven and EARTH will pass away.
Mt 24:35 - Mr 13:31 - Lu 21:33 - It was the authors themselves who PREDICTED the Apocalypse using the invented Jesus character and when the predictions FAILED the Jesus story was RE-WRITTEN and ALL MEMORY of the "Failed Prophecies" were ERASED from the story.

"Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away."---you won't find those words in the Johanine Gospel.

Heaven and earth did NOT pass away while the Johanine author was RE-WRITING his story so he made the words of ALL "Failed Prophecies" pass away and DISAPPEAR from memory.