“keith85”: Well put! My sentiments exactly. One idea you might want to try is actually printing out your post word-for-word, laminating it, and posting it somewhere on your front door. Or you could have a custom weatherproof sticker produced professionally, perhaps using screen printing or computer cutout type like they do for office signs. There’s nothing like your own personal touch to get the message across. These JWs need it spelled out for them.
Posts by SAHS
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19
Most aggravating religious group
by keith85 inlook i don't care what you believe, i really don't.
just leave me out of it.
if i were interested in your beliefs i would pursue them, but trying to force your literature and views onto people is just rude.
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6
Birthday celebrations and Jeptha's daughter
by Skinnedsheep indid you realize that jeptha's daughter was actually burnt at an altar as a burnt offering?
check judges 11 in some other translations for the clearer language.
jehovah was cool with that since jeptha was fulfilling his vow.
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SAHS
“Skinnedsheep”: “Did you realize that Jephthah's daughter was actually burnt at an altar as a Burnt Offering? Check Judges 11 . . .”
You are actually incorrect in this statement.
The Scriptural passage at Judges 11:30, 31 (NWT) does state: “Then Jephthah made a vow to Jehovah and said: ‘If you without fail give the sons of Ammon into my hand, it must also occur that the one coming out, who comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the sons of Ammon, must also become Jehovah’s, and I must offer that one up as a burnt offering.’ ” (It seems that all the other translations also use the term “burnt offering.”)
HOWEVER, this must be taken as symbolic, as can obviously be seen by the following marginal Scripture cross-references for the term “burnt offering” from the Watchtower Library:
(Deuteronomy 18:10) There should not be found in you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, anyone who employs divination, a practicer of magic or anyone who looks for omens or a sorcerer,
(1 Samuel 1:24) Accordingly just as soon as she had weaned him, she brought him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull and one e′phah of flour and a large jar of wine, and she proceeded to enter the house of Jehovah in Shi′loh. And the boy was with her.
(1 Samuel 1:28) And I, in my turn, have lent him to Jehovah. All the days that he does happen to be, he is one requested for Jehovah.” And he proceeded to bow down there to Jehovah.
(Psalm 66:13) I shall come into your house with whole burnt offerings; I shall pay to you my vows
(Jeremiah 7:31) And they have built the high places of To′pheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hin′nom, in order to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, a thing that I had not commanded and that had not come up into my heart.’
Also consider this: at Judges 11:37, Jephthah’s daughter herself says to her father, “Let this thing be done to me: Let me alone for two months, and let me go, and I will descend upon the mountains, and let me weep over my virginity, I and my girl companions.” At Judges 11:39, 40, it says, “And it came about at the end of two months that she made her return to her father, after which he carried out his vow that he had made toward her. As for her, she never had relations with a man. And it came to be a regulation in Israel: From year to year the daughters of Israel would go to give commendation to the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite, four days in the year.”
So, the “burnt offering” of this young woman was actually symbolic of her religious service, as she would “become Jehovah’s” (vs. 31), and this would also involve maintaining her virginity – thus she would be denied, or sacrifice, her otherwise normal right to have relations with a man.
So too, if every year the daughters of Israel were going to give commendation to her, then she must not have been dead – she must have been alive in order to receive and appreciate such commendation!
So, therefore, in consideration of the above, I respectfully deduce that you are in error.
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10
WTS putting recommended hotel list on JW.org
by doinmypart ini wanted to make hotel reservations at a place my wife and i like to use, but my wife told me she already made reservations.
she said the wts has the list on jwdotorg.. anyone else know about the recommended lodging list being online?
i couldn't find it.
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SAHS
Sorry, “doinmypart” – when you said you “ wanted to make hotel reservations at a place my wife and I like to use,” I prematurely assumed that both of you are still attending district conventions.
Actually, now that you mention it, I vaguely remember some announcement a while ago that the lodging lists can be accessed on the Watchtower’s Web site with a password, but I am guessing that it is the body of elders that would have that password. I would think that certainly the service overseer and the congregation servant would have the password. I have never heard any such password being announced from the platform for the general audience. (Maybe anyone can get it emailed to them by the elders if their field service hours are high enough.)
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31
Announcement made about me
by KariOtt inhubby informed me that an announcement was made to his congreation not to approach us when we are out together.
this was done at his request.
another way he can control me i guess.
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SAHS
It could be that this “announcement” was really something just inferred and hidden in the form of a “special local needs” talk, which would imply that you – or at least someone hypothetically similar to you being described in a beat-around-the-bush manner – have been placed in the “marked” category.
Or, the only other possibility I can think of is that maybe you missed a few requests for a meeting with the elders and they eventually decided to try and convict you in absentia.
Either way, high-handed and underhanded tactics have to be expected as the order of the day in such an authoritarian and totalitarian organization. You always have to keep one eye behind your back with them.
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10
WTS putting recommended hotel list on JW.org
by doinmypart ini wanted to make hotel reservations at a place my wife and i like to use, but my wife told me she already made reservations.
she said the wts has the list on jwdotorg.. anyone else know about the recommended lodging list being online?
i couldn't find it.
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SAHS
Well, if it’s not on the JW.org Web site but you are still planning to go to a hotel to attend a district convention, then it looks like you’ll just have to wait and go to the Kingdom Hall with a post-it note and pen and write it down from the hardcopy sheet on the old bulletin board. If you’re worried about being conscientious enough to follow the Watchtower organization’s instructions about the personal lodging arrangements, then you strike me as the type who would not dare to question or complain about any of the rest of what is required by the organization and would probably be content no matter what. No offense, but either you go along with it all to the hilt or maybe grow a pair of man fruit and set the course you want, independent of that nosy, controlling “mother” organization. Just a thought. I wish you all the best in what I hope will be your journey of discovery and independent thinking.
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7
The Generation of 2014
by free2beme in"surely i tell you today, the generation at saw the events of 2014 will surely not pass away before the end comes.".
damn it!
someone hit the reset button, i feel we have all been here befor a hundred years ago.
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SAHS
“prologos”: “It is like the generation that is about to go into a black hole, they are
frozen in time, it will never happen.
time= zero in max gravity.
new math, new physics”
I think that perhaps the Governing Body should appoint veteran physicist Stephen Hawking as their new president. If he can make the Watchtower’s whacky apocalyptic eschatology as acceptable as the bizarre world of quantum mechanics (with its string theory, wave/particle duality of light, quantum entanglement, particle superposition, quantum tunneling, warping space-time, Higgs boson, etc.), then maybe that will get them through this new millennium.
(Either that, or maybe meld with the Mormonism and Christian Scientology and morph into something even more idiotic.)
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24
Can i be df'd for this?
by awakening inhi, i really need some advice here.
i was selected to play in a sports team representing the country i live in.
it's no big deal as it wont create any kind of major publicity.
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SAHS
“sir82”: “Any JW can be disfellowshipped for anything that 3 elders agree on.”
Technically, the elders are only allowed to disfellowship somebody if they blatantly and deliberately engage in unscriptural conduct or violate the Watchtower organization’s current policy. However, in practice, if anyone is counselled by the elders about anything and they disregard it, then they can still be disfellowshipped for “brazen conduct” or even just “insubordination.”
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55
Do You Own A Firearm? Would You??
by minimus in2013 was a record breaking year for firearm purchases.
2014 is supposed to be a record breaker for ammunition.. do you own a firearm?
but i support that right for others---if they are qualified..
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SAHS
“Splash”: “Under UK law, an air rifle is considered a firearm.”
Here in Canada, air guns with both a muzzle velocity greater than 500 feet per second and a muzzle energy greater than 4.2 foot-pounds are considered firearms (in the “non-restricted” class) under the Firearms Act and the Criminal Code, and must be obtained with a valid license.
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55
Do You Own A Firearm? Would You??
by minimus in2013 was a record breaking year for firearm purchases.
2014 is supposed to be a record breaker for ammunition.. do you own a firearm?
but i support that right for others---if they are qualified..
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SAHS
I live in Canada, and the federal laws here are ridiculously in favor of the criminal who is breaking into your home and wants to kill you. Here you have to take an official exam just to obtain your firearms license. (It’s called a “PAL,” which means “Purchase and Acquisition License.”) Then you have to store your firearm unloaded and locked/disabled in a securely-locked compartment with the ammunition not within easy access or also stored in a securely-locked compartment. In Canada, firearms can only be used for hunting or target practice, or kept as a collection, but cannot be used for self-defense purposes.
Also, believe it or not, here in Canada any mace products are totally illegal! The only thing you can buy or sell here is a canine repellent spray, which is only about half the strength of mace, or bear spray, which is even stronger than mace but is only for use in bear territory. But any product labeled with the word “mace” is a no-no. And even canine repellent spray cannot be used for self-defense on a person. So if a woman is being threatened and she uses canine spray to defend herself (especially if she is carrying it in an urban setting), she can go to jail! Ridiculous!
I used to own a Browning 12-gauge pump-action shotgun, a S&W .357 magnum revolver with a 2 1/2 inch barrel, a CZ 9 mm semi-auto pistol, a Remington Springfield .30-06 bolt-action rifle, a Marlin .22 long rifle, and an old smoothbore 44-40 rifle a few years ago. At the time my elder father also owned a semi-auto .22 Ruger pistol, an antique .38 revolver, and an over-under 12-gauge shotgun, which he got from his brother-in-law. We only had them for trap shooting (moving clay disks) and target practice. Sort of a little father-son activity.
I currently don’t own any firearms whatsoever. (I sold them to gun stores to slightly improve my financial situation.) However, I am now in the process of obtaining an updated firearms permit because I would like to purchase a good high-powered hunting rifle for target practice at a club. (I’m just waiting for my PAL permit card to arrive.) I really want to be able to show it off to my brother-in-law. He and my sister also are JWs. My brother-in-law has some target and hunting rifles, as well as a 9 mm handgun. They live out in the country, and he does some hunting and target practice. I actually want to get an extremely powerful rifle like a Mark V or Mark XII Weatherby Magnum .460 caliber, or even a .50 BMG just like Jamie and Adam were using in the show “Myth Busters.” I’m one of those fellows who just has to have a “bigger one” than the other guy.
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25
wt exposer strikes in rest.
by JunkYardDog ini in a rest.
eating lunch an older lady comes in with her 2 kids.
the lady is fussy and i give her my table.
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SAHS
It’s good that you took them up on what they were trying to peddle you. It seems like you did it in a fairly reasonable and civilized way. Simply exposing the dogma and policy of an aggressive evangelical organization like the Watchtower is really not the same has harassing or attacking someone. The JWs go around peddling their wares right to people’s doorstep early Saturday and Sunday mornings, so, therefore, I believe that people should have the right to respond by presenting the facts to them which their mother organization might not exactly want them to hear.
I don’t believe that in this day and age religion should be just “buyer beware.” The government requires a standardized listing of ingredients and nutritional information on all packaged food items, so, similarly, I think that potential converts to an organized corporate religion deserve to at least get a basic rundown of what would be involved and what they could expect. It’s really not mean simply to inform people of what they have gotten themselves into, or what they are considering to get themselves into. And if they don’t like the smell of the facts presented to them, then that’s just too bad – at least they know that they are able to use those facts to make an informed decision accordingly, if they so wish.
The JWs are always using the analogy of “waking people up” in the world to realize the danger they are supposedly in by remaining asleep spiritually and following the world to their own destruction during the Watchtower’s Armageddon – they liken that to waking someone up who has started to fall asleep and begin succumbing to carbon monoxide or natural gas poisoning. (I’ve heard that one many times from the platform.) . . . . So, it’s rather ironic that the JWs themselves are the ones who need to take a look at how their own religion has been deceiving and manipulating them and certainly is not what it’s cracked up to be – indeed, they are the ones who need to “wake up and smell the coffee!”