jim brady wrote:Does anyone on this site recall ever hearing from the BKWSU that the 5,000 figure is purely symbolic and not to be taken literally?
Never, ever, never ... not at all!
It was all set in stone, rock solid, as inarguable FACTS to be learned by rote and taught. Interestingly enough, I was asking the PBKs the same question because I thought it had to be symbolic but their answer was no. 5,000 years equals exactly 5,000 years to the second - though no explanation of how or why.
I agree that the BKs have a lot to gain by whitewashing over these, that their tendency has been to water 'The Knowledge' down to make it more palatable, and I would have to question the ethics of building an empire on one set of rules and then once established, changing it to another. But would I expect it ... sure! Indeed, another poster on this forum suggested that Sister Jayanti was already hinting at just this and that it was a sign of things to come. Let's face it, there are only so many times you can cry wolf over telling folk the End of the World is about to come.
The strange thing is, even if they did drop the numbers and became utterly vague about cyclic time, I think that the same number and type of folk would still joined them. May be a few more Westerners would stick it. Could I expect them to extricate it from the public face of the BKWSU ... the websites and media are already being re-written. Another poster mentioned that a high level meeting was taking place to discuss BK service on the web. Perhaps all that stuff will become the arcane mysticism of interest and accessed by only a few and that the general body of BK will just become "Reformed" in the same as Reform Judaism difference from the Orthodox. The PBKs being the Orthodox BKs.
To make it nothing less than a corporate PR job, it would require a personal statement, and apology, on behalf of "God Shiva" as to what it was all about and why he perpetuated such thoughts.
Soon, despite all their criticisms of us, we will become like some Old Guard, the last place left faithful to the true Knowledge.