imagine the best case scenario.
the watchtower society implodes from within even making final printed admissions that it is voluntarily dismantling it's mission and legally dissolving the corporations.
oh happy day!
Many will left with nothing to do. To a lot of them it was the social side, the meetings, assemblies, conventions, field service.
It gave many something to do with their lives, it gave them order.
Then there will be those who will realise that those of us, us appostates, on forums like this were right all along.
That for many would be the hardest thing to bear.
Imagine all those you have shunned for years turn out to be right.
blood transfusions 101 for jw's-.
a blood transfusion will not save the life of a starving man = a blood transfusion is not food = a blood transfusion does not violate the ot law given by god to the jews to, "not eat blood" and that was later reiterated by the jewish christians to the gentile christians = the watchtower no-blood transfusion doctrine is a manmade abomination that kills innocent people = the watchtower society is guilty of promoting manslaughter.. .
I find it odd that JWs will argue about blood on medicals grounds.
That it is dangerous "medically" to have blood.
As stated all medical procedures , even minor ones carry a risk.
To give blood to save a life, is in line with what God expects, "I want mercy not sacrifice."
To die refusing blood or letting someone else die, bcause "your God" says so, is human sacrifice.
It benefits no one, but brings great sorrow.
during the dark days of the second world war , the monsters that ran a concentration camp decided to hang a child.. they hung the poor little chap so that it took half an hour for him to die, all the while making the other inmates look into the face of the child.. where was your god then ?
was he not strong enough to do anything or did he just not care ?.
if the first then he is a very weak god, if the second then,.
God made man in His image
Why didn't they stop it?
i decided you guys would like to see watchtower's claimed statistics for 2009. interestingly their new baptisms are down though they claim enormous growth in the u.s. and around the globe, which most do not believe are valid.
anyway, just click to see; odds are your own nations show up in the list:.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3a%2f%2fchristianwitnesses.com%2fid175.html&h=d6ab1675d89fc85a1798e9f2f9b374c3
Wow an all time peak in the UK over 133,000. That's quite a milestone. It seems they are on the rise again.
Nothing new there they have in the past 10 years or so always hovered around 132,000-134,000 mark.
When I stopped attending meetings 8 years ago it was about 132,500.
the 2009 reort for Britain says average publishers 128,435 with 2,932 baptised.
2008 average publishers was 126,580 so with 2,932 baptised there should be 129,512 for publishers 2009
They seem to be 1,077 short
I wonder how many of the baptised were JW children or family.
Would like to know how many were actually people whose door they had knocked on and had a "study" with JWs.
In my old congregation they have had no one baptised for the last two assemblies.
Came across this comment on another forum from an ex-JW.
I was talking to one of the Local Elders the other day and he was saying that the fall in numbers is quite astonishing. The result around Cardiff is that 7 congregations have been reorganised into 5, and out of 600 publishers just over 4 years ago they now have less than 400. The fact that this person is talking to me again is also quite remarkable as over the years he has been one of the nastiest of the bunch.
i decided you guys would like to see watchtower's claimed statistics for 2009. interestingly their new baptisms are down though they claim enormous growth in the u.s. and around the globe, which most do not believe are valid.
anyway, just click to see; odds are your own nations show up in the list:.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3a%2f%2fchristianwitnesses.com%2fid175.html&h=d6ab1675d89fc85a1798e9f2f9b374c3
I decided you guys would like to see Watchtower's claimed statistics for 2009. Interestingly their new baptisms are down though they claim enormous growth in the U.S. and around the globe, which most do not believe are valid. Anyway, just click to see; odds are your own nations show up in the list:
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fchristianwitnesses.com%2Fid175.html&h=d6ab1675d89fc85a1798e9f2f9b374c3
as some of you already know, i was invited to give a presentation for the minneapolis theosopical society at the unitarian-universalist church a few weeks ago.
the title of my 'talk' was "why does everyone celebrate in december?
" and i discussed the december solstice and holidays celebrated around that time.. of course, i also managed to find a way to talk about jws and their disdain for xmas and all holidays.
The points you brought out about December/Christmas etc, very similar to those brought out by the Pastor at the Pentecostal Church I attend.
I too have found when speaking on similar subjects that people wanted to know more about the JW teachings.
One point, JWs always seems to think that Christians are ignorant about Christmas etc, and being deceived by "the clergy".
When I became a Christian 10 years ago I was surprised that the majority did know about so-called pagan connections of it.
In fact as I said above our Pastor has spoken on such things.
What we celebrate is THE BIRTH of our Saviour, NOT His "birthday" this would be done no matter what month it was.
this week's congregation "bible" study.
the drone running the show asked an auxiliary question (tm):.
"so, what could be some of the consequences if people weren't honest in reporting their field service?".
I forgot to mention that I had often heard the "Service Overseer" when getting reports together at the end of the month say,especially to elderly ones, who may not have been out at all.
"Just but a couple of hours down and a couple of magazines. just to show you're not inactive."
I knew of brothers who did no more than me yet would report up to 20 hours field service.
One brother would claim to place 40 magazines a month.
Then it was discovered all he was doing was just posting them through peoples doors.
Also look at it this way if two JWs out on the doors together, same doors, talk to same people etc.
They do an hour, yet each will report an hour each, making the one hour seem like two hours service.
Its not a true record of how many real hours were done preaching.
this week's congregation "bible" study.
the drone running the show asked an auxiliary question (tm):.
"so, what could be some of the consequences if people weren't honest in reporting their field service?".
In my last 10 years or more I don't think I put an "honest" report in ever.
I always report at least 10+ hours, though I usually only did at 5-8 in a month.
Throw in a some magazine and book placements.
Maybe a "return visit"
the mid-atlantic states were completely white on sunday, december 20, 2009, in the wake of a record-breaking snow storm.
the storm deposited between 12 and 30 inches of snow in virginia, maryland, and washington, d.c. on december 19, according to the national weather service.
for many locations, the snowfall totals broke records for the most snow to fall in a single december day.. the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (modis) on nasas aqua satellite captured this view of the chesapeake bay region as the clouds were clearing on december 20. the snow highlights the courses of the potomac and susquehanna rivers from the appalachian mountains to the chesapeake bay.
Personally this is what I read and hear about climate change.
1) I can watch a program or read about the Earth, geology, formation of valleys etc
Some geologist is going about how 10,000 yrears ago, the glaciers of the last ice age carved these valleys etc.
Then they slip in "We are now only just coming to the end of that Ice Age."
So are they saying the ice caps melting is just the end of an Ice Age?
2) I watch a program like "Life" or "Blue Planet" by David Attenborough.
He goes on about this animal, fish, plant has evolved.
Then he will say something along the lines of "tens of thousands of years ago the Earth was one vast greenhouse."
Does that mean that with £global warming" just going back to our original world?
3) Again I read that 3% of CO2 per year is by mankinds industries and fuel consumption.
Yet one volcano giving just a minor eruption puts tens times that much out.
Are we going to plug the volcanoes?
4) Again I read that 3% CO2 per year is by mankinds industries and fuel consumption.
But 16% is caused by deforestation, turning peatland and wetlands, over to agriculture or for building on.
So lets cut down on food production and homes to save 16%.
5) As stated above 90% of greenhouse gas is WATER VAPOUR. So stop boling water, lets all switch to cold drinks.
Stop the sun evaporating the oceans and rivers.
You know what that last one reminds me of.
When a JW the Watchtower teaches that when Jehovah created the Earth he put a "water canopy" around it.
Which kept Earth at a greenhouse temprature. So the whole Earth was fertile with no deserts etc.
Later on this was one of the sources for the waters of Noahs Flood.
Maybe God is just replacing the canopy?
So I get scientists telling me we are causing "global warming",
just like in the 1970's we were told by "scientists" that by now we were heading for an Ice Age.
Then what I get is that in off hand comments by other scientists,
in which I get told in a sort of roundabout way that "global warming" is a "natural event".
From what I hear from people I meet and know.
They are becoming very cynical about the whole thing.
They see politics is using it for their own ends.
They are beginning to see "global warming" being used to increase or introduce more forms of taxation.
I'm just waiting for it to be announced that its all a conspiracy by the "New World Order" ; "Freemasons"; Illuminati"; "Jews" etc etc.
Of have they all ready?
my mother doesn't even try and broach the subject of me becoming a jw anymore because she knows i wont speak to her for months if she tries.
what she does do is get the elders to call me.. an elder just called me as i was downloading some evidence of evolution and happened to mention this to him and he said and i quote.
"oh you dont need to research crap like that i already did and the whole theory is crap" thats it no evidence to back up the statement he just made he just expected me to agree.
I recall my sons biology teacher saying
"I have taught biology for 30 years and never have taught evolution as a fact.
It is a Theory and always will be. Until they come up with clear undisputed evidence it will always be a theory.
Anyone who says otherwise is fooling themselves."
And this guy was not religious or anything, he had no time for that either.
