New Light

 

Apparently, the Jehovah´s Witnesses have gradually been changing their doctrines the last couple of years or so. So far, the most notorious change has been the permission for male members to have beards, while female JW´s are allowed to wear leggings?! Dude. 

However, other and perhaps more substantial theological changes have recently been made, as well. The video above (from an "apostate") was uploaded just the other day. The previous position of the JW´s was that non-JW´s who die before the Second Advent won´t be resurrected and hence will stay dead, while non-JW´s who are alive at that time will be killed by Jesus (that is, the Watchtower Society are "annihilationists" - non-believers are annihilated rather than sent to Hell forever). Suddenly, the Jehovah´s Witnesses take a more agnostic position on whether or not non-believers/non-members can be resurrected. They point to a Bible verse in which Jesus says that towns rejecting his gospel will be treated worse on Judgement Day than even Sodom and Gomorrah. But how can that be, since these two notorious dens of sin were destroyed by the Lord in consuming fire, together with all the inhabitants? To the Watchtower Society, this opens up the possibility that some of the Sodomites might nevertheless be resurrected!

But there´s more. Apparently, the Watchtower organization previously took the position that only those who joined before the Great Tribulation could be saved. Those who realize the truth only when the Tribulation has already started (or is just about to start?) will burn together with the unrepentant sinners. However, the most recent issue of Watchtower magazine suddenly declares the opposite: it´s possible to join and be saved even during the Tribulation. "Unrepentant apostates" will be annihilated, but that could imply that repentant ones will be saved - in other words, people expelled from the JW ranks could perhaps return to the fold during the last days. 

In a cult-like organization like this one, changes like these will be uncritically accepted by a large portion of the membership...but not by everybody. Expect defections and splits in the near future, as both "moderates" and the super-orthodox leave the fold. 

It´s interesting to note that Charles Taze Russell, the founder of the original Watchtower Society whose ideas were discarded by the epigones, actually believed that everyone would be resurrected and given a second chance to accept Jehovah. In other words, Russell was really a universalist. But perhaps it´s too much to ask that the Brooklyn leadership will take a deep dive and actually restore Russell´s strange new gospel. 

At least they can have beards or leggings...