the iconic steam engine the flying scotsman has been restored and is back on tour along the east coast main line between london and edinburgh.
this evening it crossed the royal border bridge in berwick-on-tweed for the first time since it was put out of service in january 1963.. here are few shots.. .
Thanks a lot for mentioning that.
Now I felt compelled to look up what "blinkers" are on steam engine, and what the difference is between German style and others, and invenstigated the biography of Richard Paul Wagner who designed the blinkers you like.
so now i go into "rivet counter" mode.
those smoke deflectors are actually " Witte" type--whereas "Wagner" type are somewhat larger.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_deflectors
sorry--i'll shut up and go home now.
the iconic steam engine the flying scotsman has been restored and is back on tour along the east coast main line between london and edinburgh.
this evening it crossed the royal border bridge in berwick-on-tweed for the first time since it was put out of service in january 1963.. here are few shots.. .
the international bible students association of charles taze russell and his associates were influenced by other cults of his time most of which believed they were living in the last days , the end times of bible prophecy .. some of which were , the many adventists sects , the christadelphians , mormons ,and the adventists playing a huge influence on russells writings,.
was charles taze russell chosen by jehovah to lead a revival of the true religion on earth ?
over a hundred years ago ?.
does anyone else recall the big chart that hung at the front of every kingdom hall?.
it would be about 5 feet x 4 feet.
on the side of the chart, vertically listed, were the months of the year.
i'm very sad to say i remember those charts all too well.
i wish i hadnt read this thread now lol.
it's easy to think of exjws as being a single amorphous group but the more i think about it, the more i believe that there are two distinct sub-groups and wonder if you agree.. there are those who believe and those who don't.
i know that seems obvious but let's break it down a bit more.
there are those who don't and never believed and some who are looking for a religion to match their beliefs.. i used to think this split would be between born-ins and converts but of course it's possible for born-ins to be believers although i suspect that many, like with other faiths, do so simply because they have never experienced anything else or made a conscious choice.
i wasnt born in. my mother got religion when i was about 9 years old--and can remember going to meetings from about 11.
dad followed mom into it--and he got baptised in 1962. so did i--to please mum as several other kids in the congregation were getting dipped too--and i guess it was peer pressure. i hadnt a tits clue what i was getting into--i was 14.
i left school at 16--and within 6 months was pioneering--again--peer pressure. Ron Drage had been giving it large at the assemblies about teenagers becoming pioneers.
i never really thought much about the religion in those days--it was simply what we were. i started courting at 17--married at 20---and then came to think long and hard about religion over the next 3 years.
i just knew i couldnt care less about god--the bible--and any religion. i quit the jw's when i was 23--and have had no interest in any religion ever since.
i'm hearing rumours of huge changes within the berkshire circuit here in the uk .
congregations being dispanded and kingdom halls closing down and being sold off.... official announcements within the next month apparently .
does anyone else have anymore info?.
i know i've started similar topics before but this time i'm serious.
my parents have been constantly pressuring me and after yesterday's watchtower study they asked me if i was going to be baptized this summer... and i said yes.
i probably should have thought about it more before making a final decision, but they're pretty much forcing me to do it anyway.
for the many years i was mentally " in " the congregation, i equated the organisation as interchangeable with the persona of jehovah, in effect whatever the organisation said or thought, that was what jehovah thought and that was what jehovah said.... it was that simple.
so when i found out the ttatt and the cynical moves of the organisation over the years,including 1975 , the donation arrangements, the united nations, etc i was devastated and thought " where's jehovah in all of this?".
the god who i'd poured my heart out to on many occasions and who i thought was silently listening and hearing my pleas ..... was not there , .
if ever you need to resort to praying to god--just get yourself a nice plank of wood and draw an angry miserable face on it. then pray away to your hearts content.
you wont get any answers--or miracles.
so--your plank will respond exactly as jehovah does.
now that the soc has accepted the use of technology.
what is next?
could it be the disfellowshipping?
I think the next doctrinal change may be regarding the 144,000. Something complex enough to make the average JW not really get it or really be relieved its easier to "understand"
the 144,000 is literal--whereas the symbolic 12,000 from each of the 12 symbolic tribes of symbolic Israel is symbolic. or should that be--bollics ?
here is my first letter i posted to the governing body.
i also hope that brothers on the writing committee who may be lurking on this site (and have some clout) read my letter and bring in change to this very flawed policy around confession of sins.. enjoy.
the governing body of jehovah’s witnesses.
