Village Idiot

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Posts by Village Idiot

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  20

  Did the society official track each member of the 144,000?

  by Bob Loblaw in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  when i left witness land in the early 90's, i remember hearing that out of 144,000 anointed members that there were only 8 to 9 thousand left and then the end will come.. i'm suddenly curious.

  the jw organization is one that puts emphasis on tracking, i.e., regular meeting attendance, current standing, field service hours, territory tracking, return visits, etc.

  therefore, did the society ever try to track each and every member of the 144,000?

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  Village Idiot

  
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  35

  Where did Jesus get the Idea of an After-life in Heaven?

  by John Aquila in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the ancient jews did not believe in an after-life as far as i can tell, correct me if i'm wrong.

  the watchtower says yes.

  they say all the prophets believed in a paradise earth..

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  Village Idiot

  John Aquila:

  "The Ancient Jews did not believe in an after-life as far as I can tell, correct me if I'm wrong."

  Not quite. Ancient Hebrews believed in a eternal spirit (ruach) that upon death would descend down into Sheol which was considered to be the underworld were the spirits of all persons, good and evil, went. They were to be in a spiritual coma so to speak, sleeping - not conscious but living.

  At some point Judaism (except for Sadducees) borrowed the concept of a resurrection from the Zoroastrians and divided Sheol, known as Hades in the Greek, in which the immortal spirits were to be eventually united with their bodies. Those spirits or souls were later considered to be conscious in anticipation of their resurrection.

  Hades was then divided into two sections, one for the righteous and one for the evil. The area of the underworld that was reserved for the righteous was called "Paradise" and the area for the evil was called Gehenna. Both were to be a small foretaste of the post-resurrection afterlife. Now recall Jesus telling the thief on the cross that he would be with him in "Paradise" on the same day.(The New World Translation fucked that verse up by placing the comma where it doesn't belong in Luke 23:43).

  It was later on that Paradise was transferred to heaven giving us the simplistic concept of the afterlife that most people currently believe in.
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  323

  Question and answers for fisherperson regardingy time at bethel

  by _Morpheus in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so fisherperson sent me a pm asking a bunch of questions re my time at beth hell.

  rather than respond in a pm i will post the q/a here as i have nothing to hide.

  q:what years did you serve in brooklyn bethel?

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  Village Idiot

  "MY post was meant for Morpheus. Why am I beating dead horse, sort of speak. Support your views about my post"

  by _Morpheus 5 days ago 308 Replies latest a minute ago
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  323

  Question and answers for fisherperson regardingy time at bethel

  by _Morpheus in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  so fisherperson sent me a pm asking a bunch of questions re my time at beth hell.

  rather than respond in a pm i will post the q/a here as i have nothing to hide.

  q:what years did you serve in brooklyn bethel?

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  Village Idiot

  
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  35

  Im ready to leave

  by SpunkedTeen in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i just found this website and im so glad because for the first time in a long time i dont feel alone...i am a born in and in the last two years have been struggling because i thought that i was the problem and i was the reason for not feeling any love from and for the other pubs .i want to leave the org but have no idea how to tell my mother(who is a faithful jw).

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  Village Idiot

  Welcome Spunky. Don't open your mouth yet. Just coast along until you can figure out how you're going to do things.

  You mentioned your mother; what about your father?
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  15

  Wonderful video resource which has to be seen in full to be appreciated.

  by TerryWalstrom in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i highly recommend you watch this video.. it is superbly researched.

  you know all the things in this video already--but.

  watching it will create an impression on you which.

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  Village Idiot

  It's a great video but at 1:02 she gives examples of word "conditioning" that any religion, including hers, can engage in. Just substitute the word "Atheist" for "Trinitarian" and see how many pre-conditioned Christians react.
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  25

  Governing Body Obesity

  by Calebs Airplane in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  not sure if this subject has been covered recently but i thought i'd make this observation anyway.... i remember when the word "gluttony" was a frequently mentioned sin in public talks, in the wt publications, in convention talks, etc.. in fact, in the 80's and 90's it wasn't unusual to hear the words "gluttony" and "disfellowship" mentioned in the same sentence.

  i haven't been to a meeting in over 5 years, so i'm not sure if they still harp on the subject of gluttony or other excesses.

  but i can't help but notice how much heavier the gb 2.0 has become compared to previous regimes.

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  Village Idiot

  All seven governing body members rolled into one?

  
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  34

  Babylon the Great and the Anti Christ

  by Perry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  similar views as those presented here are gaining in popularity in christian circles.

  .

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgmrfatdvtm.

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  Village Idiot

  I've gotten to the 1:54 mark and I find nothing but slipshod and disjointed assumptions one after the other. For example what Biblical sources are there for saying that Nimrod's wife was his mother? Hope it's not the Talmud.

  Why Turkey and not Rome as a literal reading of Revelation would indicate? Also, Muslims do not worship the Moon and stars particularly ISIS whose anti-idolatry stand is so severe that they would remove and burn such a flag flying over any Muslim nation.

  PS: Cute reference to Cotards Syndrome.
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  1

  Straw Poll: In 2050 how many Jehovah's Witness publishers will there be on average?

  by Saintbertholdt in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  from the topic i made earlier (see below), it made me wonder about the forum's opinion.. straw poll: in 2050 how many jehovah's witness publishers will there be on average?.

  link: http://strawpoll.de/oirz9kyi hope you will participate.. greetings.

  sb.

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  Village Idiot

  Thirty five years into the future is way too long for a meaningful guess. Even ten years is too much. We don't even know how many people will be on this planet by that year.
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  19

  Will the Watchtower ever turn against K-12 public education?

  by cappytan in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when i was in school, you never heard about critical thinking skills...not till you started taking college level courses.. i work closely with the public education community.

  now, the big rage in public education is instilling critical thinking skills from kindergarten on up.. and i'm in texas!

  imagine what it's like in more liberal areas.. i would not be surprised if the watchtower started denigrating and discouraging public education (k-12).. it would likely start like this: .

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  Village Idiot

  It's funny you should mention critical thinking skills and Texas in the same post. Here's a quote from the Republican Party of Texas in its 2012 platform (PDF: Do a word search under "critical").

  "Knowledge-Based Education – We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority."

  It goes to show that JWs are not the biggest crazies on the block.

  There is also a homeschooling movement that has grown amongst conservatives with fundamentalist religion influenced text books.