Pushing the JW.ORG

by Etude 34 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Juan Viejo2

  Changing the names of the magazines is very possible - if not almost necessary.

  The Watchtower has a lot of negative connotations for much of the public, while Awake! is only referenced along with The Watchtower, as in "here are copies of the new Watchtower and Awake!" No one ever refers to JWs as being "those people selling (or giving away) Awake! magazines."

  Changing the names of the magazines also has a great deal of precedence.

  "Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence" was changed to "The Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence." (1908)

  In 1931 the name was change to "The Watchtower and Herald of Christ's Presence."

  In January, 1939 it became "The Watchtower and Herald of Christ's Kingdom." In March of that same year it became "The Watchtower Announcing Jehovah's Kingdom." (Eliminated Jesus Christ from the mix...)

  In 2008, The Watchtower was split into public and study editions. In mid-2011 a "simplified edition" of the study version was also published.

  ----

  Awake! wasn't always Awake!

  From 1919 to 1937 it was known as "The Golden Age." Most of the article were by contributors, including officers of the Watchtower Society - especially wackos Clayton Woodward - and later Fred Franz.

  From 1937 to 1946 it was completely redesigned and renamed "Consolation."

  In Augsust 1946 it was completely redesigned and renamed "Awake!" and all contributors and writers were not identified - except for a few special "personal life story" articles "written by" or "as told by" certain special pioneers or ranking individuals.

  Some Watchower published books have also had their titles changed, their colors changed, and their sizes changed (and a lot of interior text and doctrines changed as well.)

  So it makes a lot of sense to combine the Watchtower public edition and the Awake! into one new magazine with a few extra pages, and maybe like the Plain Truth magazine (Worldwide Church of God) a more compact and glossy paper edition will be directed to the public.

  At this point it is all conjecture and rumor - but I expect to see some major changes within the next 36 months reqarding publications, both paper and online.

  JV
• 

  problemaddict

  Here is what is going to happen. watchtower, and awake, will be combined and rebranded as JW.org. End of story, you can write it down.

  It is incredibly smart to do so.
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  FatFreek 2005

  Yesterday morning they worked our neighborhood. I was thrilled as I saw them getting closer for it would be the first time at our new house. I was waiting for a knock or the doorbell. That didn't happen. However I noticed some shapes of movement through our front door's prism and colored glass. I waited, then saw the shapes descend down the steps.

  I hurried to open that front door to see if I could engage them, the two black women in long dresses. One of them quickly ran back up the steps, a bit embarrassed that the pamphlet had fallen out of the door handle. She handed it to me and I warmly introduced myself and they reciprocated. I asked (tho I knew) if they were JWs and the leading lady answered yes. I then launched into my regular entrapment routine, "That's interesting cuz I used to study the Bible with you people many years ago (It was actually 37 years ago when I DA'd. I didn't lie cuz I studied with them in 1955 before my baptism.)

  It is at this juncture that they usually take the bait and ask the question, "Well, why did you stop studying with us?"

  No such luck. The leading lady simply responded, "Well you can ask any question you want now by going to JWussy.org". You'll see reference to that web site on that pamphlet as a reminder. Have a nice day."

  As I shut the door I began to think. Are they dumbing down the work that they used to be so proud of? In my day there used to be sessions on overcoming objections, looking for openings to give a good witness, showing people that we really did know (well, we thought we did) our Bible. One poster on this topic (page one) quoted a February KM that recommended exactly what that leading lady did -- point the householder to their web site.

  While not coming out and explicitly saying it, in my opinion, Watchtower is dumbing down the work in order to get more to participate, to get the new ones to shed their fears of interactions with people by showing how easy it now is -- telephone witnessing, push carts in malls, and now -- the very easy "go to JWussy.ORG" suggestions. Father GB will take care of you just like he is taking care of us.

  Len Miller

  ps: I purposely misspelled their web site based on a suggestion here some time ago. He said that the search engines favor the sites with the most references to them.
• 

  Juan Viejo2

  Len,

  Same thing happened here at my home. It was Saturday morning around 9:30 AM when my little dog started raising hell. I crawled out of bed, grabbed my robe and went to the top of the stairs. Saw nothing at all, but my pup would not quiet down, snorting and rocking back and forth in her version of attack mode. Then I heard a very timid knock on my door. There are vertical windows on each side of the solid front door, but the blinds were closed. Tap, tap, tip, tip...

  As I descended the stairs toward the front door I could sense someone was still on the porch. I got to the door and opened it. A late middle-aged man and a very nicely dressed and made up woman had just started to retreat down my path, but did turn around to come back and chat.

  "Jehovah's Witnesses?"

  "Yes, we are? We just wanted to invite you to a special meeting." The man reached down and dug the invitation out of the flower pot sitting next to the door on the porch and then handed a very small invitation to me. I'm standing there naked as a jaybird with just my light robe wrapped around me.

  "The Memorial?" I asked as I looked at the invitation. "Yeah, I went a couple of years ago. Someday you should come back and we can talk about it. As you can see, I'm not really dressed to invite visitors inside this morning."

  "That would be nice. Yes, we can see that." Moving steadily backward they prepared to make their escape, I could see they were in no mood for conversation either. "We'll come again sometime soon."

  "When you do - if you do - I'm sure we will have a lot to talk about."

  I'm pretty sure they'll never come back - and that's OK. I know that my house is marked as being the "lair of an apostate." The few times they do come by and I happen to see them - they walk by don't come to my door. They won't even stop when I am out front working in the yard.

  Right now I average two visits a year. One before the Memorial (they just leave the invitation) and once before the District Assembly that is held at the Fair Grounds here (we are the state capitol). Again - all they do is drop an invitation on my porch.

  One thing I noticed and am curious about. The time for the Memorial here will be 7:30 PM on the 14th. Sunset doesn't occur until 7:56 PM, but it will still be light until 8:30. Seems like they are pushing it a little, but maybe they won't whip out the Manischewitz and snap bread until after 8:00 just so Jesus doesn't get sad and Jehovah doesn't send a comet to wipe them all out for beating the clock.

  JV
• 

  galaxie

  Is not the Internet a vehicle for the distribution of information?Was it inspired by gods holy spirit? Does its use involve criminal activity; including unlawful selling of narcotics, scams, pornography, promotion of all forms of religious doctrine/information to mention but a few..

  JWs ask yourself this question;.If you knew for certain a vehicle ie motor car or bus was being used for illegal activity(even partly) would you accept a ride/lift on it to get to your field service activity?

  Do you think jehovah would approve?

  Why then would he approve the use of the internet which is jam packed full of information not approved of by scripture.

  By association the WBTS organisation is aligning itself with this medium

  Remember by using the internet there is always the risk of being influenced by material not approved by jehovah especially for those who have an inquisitive mind and perhaps spiritually weak therefore there is a risk of satanic influence to them unless you believe satan does not use the Internet also.

  You would therefore have to be certain that satan has not engineered this to mislead many.

  How sure are you .

  The message has always been; STAY FAR AWAY FROM THE UNCLEAN THING INCLUDING THE U.N.WHO ALSO USE THE INTERNET!!!