You might want to add another criterion for what you consider to be a valid prophecy. This one seems obvious, but it disqualifies a huge number of bible prophecies:
The prophecy must be verifiably recorded prior to the event that it predicts.
OneEyedJoe
JoinedPosts by OneEyedJoe
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250
Biblical Prohecies That Came True?
by Viviane inrecently there have been several claims made regarding prophecies that came true.
i've not personally seen a prophecy that i would consider as having come true.
i would consider the following as the requirements to say something is a prophecy and evaluate whether or not it came true:.
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Need help talking with my JW mom who's now willing to "listen" to what we have to say...
by 2pink inmy husband and i (both born in jws--entire extended families all still in excpet for my sister) left the church 5 years ago.
i literally woke up one day and realized it wasn't the "truth".
i did not fade, i just left and told my family i didn't believe it anymore.
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OneEyedJoe
I think their favorite out-of-context scripture has to be Proverbs 4:18 (the light gets brighter). If you look at the context, it's contrasting the "path of the wicked one" with the "path of the righteous one." It's not talking about progressive revelation at all.
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I am curious from a comment made, were there any protests and any conventions this year?
by nonjwspouse ini don't recall reaading on here about any.. i just wondered if any actually happened?.
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oops i misspelled "at" in the title.
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OneEyedJoe
There where some protesters at my convention this year. I'm fairly certain they weren't XJW, though. Saw them on saturday as the wife and I were leaving. On sunday I ended up walking to the car alone, and looked for them, but the either weren't there or had moved to another exit to try and maximize exposure. I really wish my wife hadn't been with me when I saw them, I would've given them a little schooling in how to be more effective in their protest.
Basically, their operation was 3 people, one holding a sign (I forget what it said, but it wasn't very impactful) another passing out leaflets, and a third reading from something that looked like a heavily annotated bible and making comentary. She read some scripture, and said that it was only by accepting christ that we could obtain salvation. Obviously, there's not a single JW that'd be swayed by any of this since they're making statements that either agree with JW doctrine or JWs think agree with their doctrine (ask a JW if jesus is their moderator, for example).
I really would've liked to tell them to just be silent and respectful, while holding signs with jwfacts.com on them and maybe a comment like "We love you" or something. I feel certain that'd work so much better since JWs are conditioned to not take flyers from appostates, but those with doubts might go to a web page once they're alone.
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Lying about Shunning! jw.org conceals the "truth"
by Skinnedsheep inhttp://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/shunning/ .
"those who were baptized as jehovahs witnesses but no longer preach to others, perhaps even drifting away from association with fellow believers, are not shunned.
in fact, we reach out to them and try to rekindle their spiritual interest.".
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OneEyedJoe
They're being very decietful in the first paragraph, but the second paragraph does contain outright lies:
We do not automatically disfellowship someone who commits a serious sin. If, however, a baptized Witness makes a practice of breaking the Bible’s moral code and does not repent, he or she will be shunned or disfellowshipped. The Bible clearly states: “ Remove the wicked man from among yourselves. ”
Where in the "Bible's moral code" does it say that one must believe that the GB of Jehovah's Witnesses is the modern day FDS? Nowhere. But if you say that openly, you'll be DF'd. Smoking? DF'd.
The funny part is, that the sentence actually contains two lies. The most obvious being that you can get DF'd without breaking the bible's moral code, but the less obvious lie is in the way that it states, in no uncertain terms, that unrepentant sinners "will be shunned." While I feel pretty certain that child molestation is against the bible's moral code (certainly more so than smoking) there've been countless cases in which the perpetrator wasn't shunned/DF'd. What's more is that in some cases, the victim is shunned. This lie is possibly more insidious than the first, because it creates a false sense of security within the organization.
There's also more deciet in there, in that they strongly imply that you will not be DF'd if you're repentant. I know of a few cases personally, and read of a number on this forum that demonstrate that this, too, is not the case at all.
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Are study WTs unavailable in your KH?
by compound complex ini was lent a wt yesterday and asked where i could get my own copy.
i learned that you print your own or get a tablet.. i couldn't determine if the congregation actually receives hardcopies anymore.. what's a poor brother to do?
ink's expensive and tablets .
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OneEyedJoe
I think about half of our hall uses the hard copies still. There's usually a couple spares on the literature counter on sundays as well.
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When someone hands you a flyer it is like saying ...
by jwfacts ini saw this on pinterest, and it made me think about the great global preaching campaign of august 2014. this is what i think whenever i absentmindedly take a flyer from someone.. .
when someone hands you a flyer it's like they're saying "here you throw this away.
" mitch hedberg.
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OneEyedJoe
Ahh, Mitch. I loved his standup. RIP.
I take quite a bit of comfort in knowing that 99% of the leaflets/tracts/magazines/whatever that I handed out over the years ended up uncerimoniously thrown away.
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Well, IT HAS BEGUN. See the future of the WTBTS in print.
by DATA-DOG ini hate to read the wt, but i skimmed the july 15 study edition.
i found many examples of propaganda, of course, but a couple things really stood out.
1) the future of the preaching work.
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OneEyedJoe
MASH - lol
God- "dammit, do I really have to send holy spirit just to debug this guys crappy SQL? Jesus Christ, are you sure about this appointment you made in 1919? These guys can't even get a basic join right."
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My Husband Confesses His Sole Regret for My Exit....
by humbled in( important note: my husband hated that i became a jw.
hated everything about it.).
he is the one who every morning makes our coffee in his beat-up metal perculator.
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OneEyedJoe
Several years ago our CO was talking about how important it is to really talk to people on your magazine route. He told a story about a sister who'd been leaving magazines with a man for years and one day she asked him what he thought of the magazines and he says, "they're great! They fit the bottom of my bird cage perfectly!"
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Are Jehovah's Witnesses THAT Bad?
by minimus ini'm not fond of any religious fanatic.
islamic fundies can be downright crazy.
mormonism seems silly to me.
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OneEyedJoe
Is the WTS really all that bad? Ask these kids:
Oh, wait, you cant.
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Were we drug addicts?
by new hope and happiness ini imagine drug addicts have a similar adiction.
you can not imagine life without a fix.
or was it we had addictive personalities?
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OneEyedJoe
I don't think you were necessarily being overly dramatic. I'm certain that the experience is very much like a drug to many people, but as a born-in that had reservations about the cult since my early teens it was never like that for me. I will admin when I was 11 or 12, it was GREAT "knowing" that I at that age knew more about the bible than any worldly person. I can see how someone might get addicted to that feeling, especially if they're unsuccessful or powerless in other areas of their life (not saying this applies to you, but it definitely applies to most of the super-zealous dubs that I know). I suspect that if I hadn't had such success in school, and found a career that I'm good at and enjoy, I might never have had the stability elsewhere in my life to let go of the false superiority that the cult can give people.
My theory has always been that most people are just striving for some sort of significance in the world. Some find that through direct violence, others through being charitable, some through hard work in a carreer to make something. For someone who doesn't have the confidence that they can be significant elsewhere in life, a cult that tells you that you're one of 0.1% of the world that's found the right religion can be that significance. Of course, it helps that the cult systematically tries to remove any self confidence from you and forces you to believe that the only way you can be significant is through the cult. So for someone trapped in and fully indoctrinated, I have no doubt that the experience can be very much like that of a drug.
I think I was just "lucky" that I'm completely socially inept, and can only rarely pick up on normal social cues. I think that's what kept me from becoming fully indoctrinated so I never really invested in the "everything you achieve is really because of Jehovah's blessing" mantra. I knew I'd achieved everything with no supernatural assistance, and I deserved success. After I realized that, every push to conform just pushed me a little further away. I found significance outside the cult, so I never needed it...I was just trapped.
So to sum up a much longer post than I expected (sorry) I think your observation is absolutely valid, I was just describing my experience which was quite different.
