Posts by AnnOMaly

111

CONGREGATION FLEECING RESULTS?

by The Searcher in

how much did your congregation and its bank account get taken for?

share your horror story!.

AnnOMaly

Sir82, I thought the KH property deeds have been in the Society's name for 2 or 3 years now. Was I wrong?

56

Anyone recall asemblies actually being fun?

by tim hooper in

jw
friends

when i was a wee lad, there was a carnival atmosphere at assemblies as this old footage will show:.

.

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/witnesses-baptised/query/jehovahs+witnesses.

They were fun when I was a teen/in my 20s and didn't have to sit listening to all the talks - kept busy volunteering (socializing while we worked). I was in the food service and news service departments. Everyone wanted to stop what they were doing and crush their way back to the aisles to watch the epic costume dramas :-) The 'simplification' ruined all that. Knocked the life out of the conventions and assemblies.

40

Rare recorded MARKING TALK on APOSTASY

by Newly Enlightened in

we have a version with our commentary: http://youtu.be/yn17rj_pyd4.

we also have an un-cut, un-edited version of the audio: http://youtu.be/pihfucr38sw.

asl version: http://youtu.be/dd635pqpdle.

AnnOMaly

Well that puts a whole different light on it! Not even baptized? O_o

U.n.b.e.l.i.e.v.a.b.l.e.

Paranoia much?

6

An asteroid is coming in 2036

by Still Totally ADD in

jw
friends

a friend of mine who is a astronomer told me a asteroid will hit the earth near ca in 2036. it will make a close pass by earth in 2029 and if it goes through a certain point he called a donut hole it will come back and get us in 2036. i asked him if it is big enough to cause problems?

he laugh and said it is extinction asteroid.

he went on to say the russians are already working on a plan to destroy it before in makes it here or try and change the course of it.

AnnOMaly

"With the new data provided by the Magdalena Ridge [New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology] and the Pan-STARRS [Univ. of Hawaii] optical observatories, along with very recent data provided by the Goldstone Solar System Radar, we have effectively ruled out the possibility of an Earth impact by Apophis in 2036," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL. "The impact odds as they stand now are less than one in a million, which makes us comfortable saying we can effectively rule out an Earth impact in 2036. Our interest in asteroid Apophis will essentially be for its scientific interest for the foreseeable future." - http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/asteroids/news/asteroid20130110.html#.U3pOFNJdXYk

40

Rare recorded MARKING TALK on APOSTASY

by Newly Enlightened in

we have a version with our commentary: http://youtu.be/yn17rj_pyd4.

we also have an un-cut, un-edited version of the audio: http://youtu.be/pihfucr38sw.

asl version: http://youtu.be/dd635pqpdle.

AnnOMaly

Thanks for posting it. I'd also like to know how old the talk is.

Some highlights (I didn't see the commentary version so I may be repeating what NE may have said):

6:48

What did he [Satan] get her [Eve] into? Conversation - get into a little debate about it - and that's what apostates like you to do - they like to debate things, go back and forth, "This is what your organization says ... "/"I've heard this ... "/"I think they're lying to you ... ." So you get into a debate, pull you in, again undermined our faith. We don't debate the truth - certainly not with apostates - we really don't debate the truth with anybody, do we? We have the truth. We don't have to debate it with people. We know what the truth is ... and ... when you think about a friend's ... it's a lot different than answering a question from someone who's honest-hearted and is looking for the truth and you're [ ? ] answers. That's different. But we should never engage in conversation with someone with apostate thinking.

'We don't debate the truth with anybody'? Are you kidding? What was the apostle Paul doing, then? Act 17:18f. And the apostle Peter's admonition? 1 Pet. 3:15.

'We have the truth ... We know what the truth is'? With all the numerous changes of mind the organization has had over what counts as 'truth,' I wonder which version of truth he now feels is so self-evident.

8:27

But we do, as we are, as Jehovah's people, are ... we are an informed people. Jehovah informs us, doesn't he, in everything. He informs us - and usually before things happen - and so it's the same thing with us ourselves, same thing with the brothers, in giving us information before [blah, blah].

9:53

[After discussing 2 Thess. 2:1, 2] So you know, friends, until we hear things from the platform ... that's where we get our information from, brothers read letters, whether it's here in the congregation, whether it's at our assemblies or our conventions, whether we read something from The Watchtower, right from the faithful slave's publications ... we got to take it, as the saying goes, with a grain of salt.

The dipstick then relates how, some years ago, it went around that pioneer hours were going to drop to 50, and everyone was buzzing about it, but nothing was written officially yet, but you know who was throwing it around there? - apostates - to get a rise out of Jehovah's people but it had nothing to do with the organization. Way to go. He's just illustrated how what 'apostates' say can be taken as truthful and how 'apostates' inform 'Jehovah's people' before things happen!

And apostasy starts with not really loving God, not studying and missing meetings? Clueless. It works like this:

True believers and conscientious students either get worn down or hit between the eyes with something that doesn't make sense or doesn't fit scripturally or scientifically or historically, which prompts more study and prayer, which in turn shows up more gaping holes, which don't get answered or else get slapped down by those in the congregation, which discourages the person and gets him seeking answers elsewhere, which confirm he's not the one with the problem - they are - so he shares his findings (and gets called a scumbag apostate), stops studying the WT, starts to miss more meetings and FS until he finally says 'I've had it!'

7

GET A CLOSE INSIGHT INTO HOW RUTHERFORD made excuses in Court

by Terry in

we are all familiar with the flip-flop on the generation teaching which, in effect, demonstrates watchtower interpretations do not stand the test of time and must be changed.

the words of god suddenly become the opinions of men, time after time.. the teachings and interpretations of pastor c.t.

russell changed often during his lifetime in regards to dates and pyramid speculations.. next, with judge rutherford, the wildest exaggerations of his imagination were proclaimed to be god's own mind revealed to man in the pages of his many books!.

AnnOMaly

"If you spend 15 minutes reading each of Rutherford's books you would get more pleasure than you would reading the Bible for a whole year" (Vindication, 1932, Vol. 3, p.383).

Wow. The quote is from the back of the book advertizing more of Ratherflawed's booklets and actually goes like this:

"Each treatise can be read in just fifteen minutes, and more genuine satisfaction and profitable pleasure derived therefrom in that length of time than can be gotten from studying the Bible by yourself in a whole year."

"Judge Rutherford couldn't write these things unless he were used of God". (Golden Age, 23 October 1935, p. 50).

This gem is also new to me, LOL! It's part of a badly-drawn cartoon

45

BOE: Re: Midweek meetings during visit of circuit overseer

by pixel in

you read it here first!.

to all congregations.

re: midweek meetings during visit of circuit overseer .

AnnOMaly

Everyone will be cheering - not least the elders, who are customarily run ragged on CO visit week.

57

Had an argument with my wife about tinkerbell :(

by BU2B in

one of my co workers mother made my 4 year old a blanket with the disney character tinkerbell on it.

as soon as i got it i knew trouble lay ahead.

i wanted to reason with her before my daughter saw it so as not to cause a disruption, but it didn't work out that way.

AnnOMaly

BU2B,

Tell your wife that one of the GB members likes Disney and Disneyland and he took his kids there. He said so in a talk.

“There’s nothing wrong with Disney World or Disney Land. We took our sons there a couple of times.”

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/271682/1/Morris-in-Italy#4936422

Here's the recording. The comment is made at about 15:50.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td22FGFywv8&feature=youtu.be

103

Additional BOE Letter: Please Be Advised that Further Direction Will Soon be Sent to the Bodies of Elders...

by TTATTelder in

dear brothers:.

we are writing as a follow-up to the letters dated january 24, 2014, and march 29, 2014,. to all congregations regarding the adjustments now underway to accelerate construction of king-.

dom halls and assembly halls.. .

AnnOMaly

I, too, think there is something in what DwainBowman and jwstudy said.

The WTS ditched the sale of literature and went to the donation arrangement for tax reasons. Although the tax issue was a problem in the U.S., it had global ramifications and over time the same donation arrangement was introduced worldwide.

It wouldn't surprise me if some new rules came in or else some governmental/legal body has found out that the WTS has been acting as a lending institution without being officially recognized and regulated, and they have been told to either desist or apply through the proper channels to be a bona fide lending agent (which may be more trouble than it's worth to the WTS). As this new arrangement is being implemented in other places outside the U.S., and it looks like other countries have similar rules, this may well be the real reason for the WTS overhauling its financial business.

103

Additional BOE Letter: Please Be Advised that Further Direction Will Soon be Sent to the Bodies of Elders...

by TTATTelder in

dear brothers:.

we are writing as a follow-up to the letters dated january 24, 2014, and march 29, 2014,. to all congregations regarding the adjustments now underway to accelerate construction of king-.

dom halls and assembly halls.. .

AnnOMaly

^ Great quote, jwleaks!

I don't think this one's been given yet:

*** w70 2/15 p. 100 Is Your Minister Interested in You or Your Money? ***

How do you feel in church when the collection plate is passed? How do you feel when a minister visits you to persuade you to contribute more? This is one of the things an editor of a South African magazine wanted to find out. He devoted a year to a painstaking inquiry on the subject “The Church, the People and the Gulf Between.” Summing up his findings the editor wrote:

“The Church seems to have developed a compulsive habit of appealing for funds-without-end-amen, whether they be for building churches or halls, for repairs, organs, bells, salaries, pensions, Lent, Easter, Christmas, etc. etc. . . . Now the Church seems to take pledges and appeals for granted, and sometimes as many as three are running at the same time. . . . This preoccupation with money has also made some people take a second look at the Church, and ask themselves whether they really want to participate after all.”—Femina, May 18, 1967, pp. 58, 61.

Is it not understandable why some are taking a second look at the churches? The Bible makes it clear that giving should not be done “under compulsion” but from a ‘readiness of mind according to what one has.’ (2 Cor. 9:7; 8:12) So while it is not wrong for a minister to inform his congregation of reasonable church needs, the methods used ought to be in harmony with Christian principles outlined in the Bible.