Athanasius

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Posts by Athanasius

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  13

  I think any religion can change some one's life to a positive way.

  by free2beme in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i remember as a witness, how we always were told account of people getting their life changed in a wonderful way, when they became witnesses.

  we always thought, "that is what happens when jehovah comes into your life.

  " yet if you think about it, every religion i have ever encountered, has similar account of lives being changed by religion.

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  Athanasius

  You shouldn't limit your application to only religion, poppers. It can apply to any movement whether it be religious, political, educational, etc. I know some devout Marxists who would be in total agreement if you just change the wording to this:

  1. The Party gives the people a sense of purpose. "Workers of the World Unite, all you have to lose are your chains."

  2. The Party gives the people as sense of hope. "Arise ye victims of privation, arise all ye who are forelorn, for there's a new age beginning, there's a new world being born." The Internationale.

  3. The Party gives the people organization and guidelines. "Every citizen will make his particular contribution to the activities of the community according to his capacity, his talent and his age; it is on this basis that his duties will be determined, in conformity with the distributive laws." K. Marx.

  Sometimes I think politics is religion in a secular disguise.
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  36

  X - JW or Apostate?

  by In Between in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i thought this might be interesting.

  if it's been talked about before, i apologize in advance.

  what differences do you think exist between the two?

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  Athanasius

  I don't consider myself to be an X-JW or and Apostate. Just a person who spent some time in a totalitarian religious community before leaving to continue his spiritual journey.
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  17

  "What congregation do you attend?"

  by Odrade in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  heehee, forgot my post.

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  Athanasius

  Ten years ago while shopping I met a JW who I hadn't seen in years. We had attended the same KH back in the 1970s and he and his family were in the CBS that I conducted. Of course the first thing he asked was which congregation was I attending? When I told him that I was attending services at St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, he acted like he had swallowed his tongue. In fact it sounded like he was choking on something. Since he seemed to be unable to speak at the moment, I mentioned that though my new church family didn't have all the answers, I found more help and comfort in this Christian community than I ever felt at the KH. The JW still had trouble speaking, but said: "guess you gotta do what you gotta do" as he quickly walked away.
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  26

  Did you make life altering decisions because of 1975?

  by restrangled in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i had extended family members, both with families of 7, abandon good jobs and homes in the suburbs of chicago.

  they moved to the wild outskirts of 2 separate states to protect their families from armageddon.

  they both waited for 20 years, wound up financially destitute and finally had to move and depend on other family members to recover.. it would be interesting to read the stories from those of you who went through this time period as a jw.. r.

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  Athanasius

  Despite all the Watchtower rhetoric, 1975 didn't cause me to make any life altering decisions in that decade. At the time I had a good paying job, was happily married, and served as an elder in the congregation. In fact what concerned me most was the effect it would have on the JWs if 1975 passed and nothing happened.

  Nevertheless, it was the Watchtower leadership's reaction to the failure of their 1975 prophecy and the blaming of the rank and file for the disappointment that led to my exit in 1984. So I guess you could say 1975 indirectly led to a life altering decision.
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  10

  It's 10:30am on a convention morning...

  by undercover in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ...do you know where your faders are, watchtower society?.

  i just glanced at my watch and realized that if i was still active, i'd be sitting in a coliseum fighting falling asleep listening to some elder drone on and on, but here i am posting on an "apostate" message board.

  how cool is that?

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  Athanasius

  You bring back some exhausting memories, Mulan.

  I too remember being a kid and having to sit through those 8 day marathons. They would start on Sunday morning and end Sunday evening the following week. Fortunately the last DC I attended as a JW was in 1984 and it was only 4 days. However, in 1989 I attended the DC as a non-JW. My girlfriend, who was Jewish, wanted to see what a JW convention was like. So we went to the Saturday morning session. It started around 9 AM. The attendants seated us just before the program began. After the opening song and prayer the speakers began their usual boring lectures. I don't recall what they said as I slept through most of the morning session. When they dismissed us for lunch I asked my girlfriend if she had had enough and she agreed it was time to leave.

  She did have an interesting sense of humor while at the convention. Every time she visited the restroom she would leave in the stalls several of Randy Watter's tracts exposing the Watchtower. And I couldn't resist placing a couple of phoney Russell $3 bills in the contribution box as my donation to the "Watchtower's World Wide Witnessing Work." Though it was just the two of us, knowing the paranoia of the JWs, they probably thought an army of apostates had invaded.
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  32

  Geography quiz--can you guess where this picture was taken?

  by cabasilas in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  .

  for all you geography nerds out there...can you guess where this picture was taken?

  i'll give another clue later.

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  Athanasius

  Could it be Nelson, BC?
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  11

  I want a Bible

  by PrimateDave in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i want a bible that hasn't been written by or for 'apologists'.

  i want a bible written in english that correctly translates 'yhwh' as 'yahve' or 'yahweh' and 'elohim' as 'gods' instead of 'god'.

  a recent bit of study has shown that many modern english bibles commit pious fraud by translating words like 'asherah'(idol used in sex worship by the patriarchs) as 'grove' or 'tree' in order to cover up the true roots of ancient 'hebrew' worship.

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  Athanasius

  Another Bible version that uses Yahweh for the Divine Name and Elohim and Adonai for God and Lord is the Holy Name Bible published by the Scripture Research Association. The copy that I have was published in 1980 so I don't know if it is still in print.

  A more recent translation, the Complete Jewish Bible which is in print maintains Elohim and Adonai for God and Lord but substitutes ADONAI for Yahweh.

  I hope that this helps you in your research.
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  15

  Why didn't Hitler jail other pacifist religions?

  by jwfacts in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the watchtower still proudly highlights that they were the only religion sent to concentration camps, due to their neutral war stance.

  however there are many other religions that are neutral or pacificts and so must have disobeyed hitlers request for them to join his ss.

  so what is the real reason jws were put into concentration camps?

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  Athanasius

  William Schnell makes this interesting observation in his book THIRTY YEARS A WATCH TOWER SLAVE, page 71:

  "In the Germany of the Weimar Republic everything was going from bad to worse. Democratic processes brought into being by the terms of the Versailles treaty were repugnant to the Germans, because they considered the democratic process and the Weimar Republic as a symbol of their defeat. Unemployment was rampant and hope for better times was fading everywhere. The masses were driven about like lost sheep. Communism on the left claimed millions, the Nazis on the right were growing fast, while the moderate Centrum was shrinking. In the middle, however, were millions who wanted a spiritual and peaceful way of life, and these were the people we were after. We were fishing in the troubled waters of the German population.

  "Appearing to them as God's Organization, powerful, unafraid of opposition, we easily became their champions.

  "If events had not transpired to put the Hitler movement into control, Germany might have become the first Jehovah's Witness state of God's Organization. The Nazis and the Communists realized this and began really to oppose us as the third force."

  If Schnell is correct, then Hitler jailed the JWs because he viewed them as a political threat, not because he didn't like their religious beliefs.
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  21

  I don't get it...a jw & ebay thing

  by Why Georgia in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  let me just start by saying...i sell on ebay.. when people are buying things from me, i sometimes click on their feedback to see what they have bought in the past because i am bored and obviously don't have enough to do with the 2 kids, house, 3 dogs, and 4 cats...lol!.

  this one guy who is bidding on one of my auctions has purchased at least 10 of the old purple jw kingdom interlinears.. are they really that interesting?

  is he one us us spreading the real truth or is he a jw buying back old light?.

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  Athanasius

  The Watchtower's purple KIT (1969) page 1158, misquotes Dana and Mantey's A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament in an attempt to support their "a god" translation of John 1:1. However, Dr. Mantey protested the Watchtower's dishonest use of his work and threatened a lawsuit. That may have been a reason for the blue revised KIT in 1985 in which quotations from Dana and Mantey are absent.

  By the way my company's second hand bookstore has a copy of the purple (1969) KIT for sale at $25.00. This was a surprise for me because in the past our bookbuyers never purchased Watchtower books. However, I purchased my copy at a Convention in 1969 for $2.00. Glad I still have it. Maybe it will be worth $50.00 in a few years.
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  17

  What "Awoke" you from the Watchtower's grip?

  by JH in

  1. jw
  2. friends

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  in my case, i was very generous with those in need in the congregation, because i had a good job, but when i lost that good job, no one gave me a helping hand.

  they just didn't care about my financial well being.. also the years went by and it was as if we were getting further and further away from what they previously prophetized.

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  Athanasius

  Reading Crisis of Conscience. I don't believe a JW can read this book and still believe that the Watchtower is God's channel.