Athanasius

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Posts by Athanasius

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  24

  Requalifying as an Elder

  by alfredjones100 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'd like to throw something out to the exelders.. over the years since i stepped down as an elder, my dislike for the society and its ways has clearly grown.. but my love for the bible and my family and friends in the congregation has not got less.. i feel sorry that they are not mature enough to grasp the concept that you dont need the society to make god happy.. so i have been thinking ( and its just a crazy thought at the moment ) to requalify as an elder and to begin to really teach the truth.. to really challenge their thinking and take my talks to the limit without getting busted as a heretic.. whats youre thought?.

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  Athanasius

  I learned TTAT while still serving as an elder, and served an additional year after that before resigning. During that time I served on several JCs. Here's where I did some damage according to the Watchtower. I got the accused off with reduced sentences (mild private reproof) instead of Puplic Reproof or DF. On another JC where the person was accused of apostasy, I grilled the accusers until they admitted that they might have misunderstood what the person said. The case was dropped and the person got off for the time being.

  Teaching TTAT from the platform is very difficult. Here the best I was able to do was point out in a sly way, the flaws of the NWT in comparison to modern English translations like the TEV and the NAB.

  As far as my JC work, the persons who got off with mild private reproof, are probably still in. Regarding the person accused of apostasy, a year after I left the BOE formed another JC and DFd her.

  In my experience it is impossible to reform the JW organization from within. It's more likely that reform will come from without, due to law suits and government actions that threaten the Watchtower's financial assets.
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  8

  Question: What would happen if...

  by OneDayillBeFree in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  ...all of the governing body members suddenly died?!.

  i had been feeling a little sick so i took some nyquil which gave me the craziest dream last night where i saw a jdub plan out and kill each one of the gb!

  each made to look like an accident or like an illness.

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  Athanasius

  Like the U.S. Presidency, the GB must have some order for succession. Possibly BOs, DOs, and even COs might be on the list of emergency GB replacements.
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  34

  Are the Adventists looking to attract downtrodden JW's?

  by donny in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  sorry if anyone has already posted on this but i did not see anything related in the few pages of active topics i checked.. last saturday i went to an oil change facilty and one of their perks is they give you a copy of the current usa today while you wait in your car.

  on page 8a is a full page ad titled "liberty of conscience threatened.... a national sunday law will be established as the mark of the beast.".

  the article then goes on a typical adventist rant about how saturday, not sunday, is the real sabbath established by god.

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  Athanasius

  Another poster stated: "Interestingly, William Miller was friends with Charles Taze Russell – the founder of the Bible Students, from which the Jehovah's Witnesses branched off."

  It would be helpful to learn the source of this statement as William Miller died in December 1849 and Charles Taze Russell wasn't born until February 1852. So if Miller and Russell were friends, Russell would have needed to enlist the aid of spiritists to contact the dead Miller. If someone has proof of this it would further damage the credibility of the Watchtower's founder.
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  21

  What did you do with all your old publications?

  by Dark Fader in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so we had spent years building our "theocratic library" of bound volumes, books and other materials.

  personally, i boxed everything, taped the boxes closed and threw them in a dumpster at a construction site.. i did actually feel bad though.

  that was a lot of paper which could have been recycled!.

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  Athanasius

  I sold all my bound volumes to a Ministerial Servant for $100. Some of the other publications I gave to my JW ex-wife. I also sold some of the Studies In The Scriptures to a second hand book store.

  I can't see throwing something away if I can sell it and recoup some of the money I wasted on the Watchtower.
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  64

  I Do Not Think Everyone That is a JW Wastes Their Life

  by Magwitch in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  my 97 year old grandmother died last week.

  she was actually born and raised a jw.

  her mother (my great grandmother) was a russelite.

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  Athanasius

  I agree with the sentiments of the above posters. Some JWs have been in the Watchtower so long that finding TTATT would be devastating. We must remember that the Watchtower and JW religion is an institution, more like a spiritual and mental prison. Individuals who've spent a life time in a secular prison become institutionalized and often find it difficult, if not impossible to adjust to a life outside the walls. They are like the character, played by James Whitmore, in the film Shawshank Redemption. So it is with the JWs.

  Sometimes it's best to leave well enough alone.
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  44

  Who was the Gilead Student that jumped overboard?

  by VM44 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  a gilead student from thailand.

  a young thai girl who came to new york to attend the gilead school in upstate south lansing, new york, had a mental breakdown.

  staff members pleaded with president knorr to send her home by plane, under supervision.

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  Athanasius

  It's been almost 30 years since I read Barbara Grizzuti Harrison's book, "Visions Of Glory," but I believe she mentioned the incident about Thai student's suicide because of Knorr. Harrison was serving at Bethel at the time and like Bill Centnar would have heard about it from Bethel insiders. If someone has Harrison's book, check and see if she mentions the incident, as I could be wrong.
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  52

  Jehovah's Witnesses: Fastest Growing Christian Group in the US

  by davidl7 in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  the yearbook of american and canadian churches statistics listed the jehovah's witnesses as the fastest growing christian group in the us for 4 years in a row (the 2008-2011 yearbooks).

  the 2011 yearbook reported a 4.37% growth rate (based on 2010 membership figures).

  according to the 2012 yearbook, the growth of the jehovah's witnesses was 1.85%, falling into 4th place.

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  Athanasius

  At first I couldn't figure out why Dave would post information about JW membership statistics on the child abuse issues forum. But maybe it is a Freudian Slip on his part. Since most of the JW membership increase is due to children born in, perhaps Dave wants us to be aware of that we can expect an increase in child abuse within the congregations.
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  131

  Let's Discuss Ray Franz's Books

  by Recovery in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have been repeatedly pleaded with to read the books of ray franz in my short stay on this board.

  apparently these are all the all-powerful, wt crushing arguments, that lead so many to leave jw's and become ruthless opposers of god's people.

  we can discuss any claims/statements/scriptural arguments presented in either of his books, as long as it somehow proves jehovah's witnesses are not god's people.

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  Athanasius

  It doesn't look like Recovery has really recovered from the JW mindset. He didn't become a Watchtower slave overnight. So for him to break free of Watchtower slavery it will take more than a couple of visits to this forum.
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  20

  Jehovah's Christian Witnesses

  by LoisLane looking for Superman in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  how much do you want to bet, that in the next year or two, the governing body will get "new light" and change their name to jehovah's christian witnesses"?.

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  Athanasius

  You are correct, EmptyInside. There is a schismatic sect of Jehovah's Witnesses that goes by the name Jehovah's Christian Witnesses. I think there is a small group of them in the Seattle area. By the way shortly after the Rutherford coup in 1917, a group of Bible Students broke away from the Watchtower. They were called the Stand Fast movement and they were mostly located in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. and British Columbia in Canada. So it's possible that the JWs from that part of the country are more independent in their thinking.

  Maybe there are some ex-JWs from Washington State that have more information on the JCWs.
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  13

  Question: Why would the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society "launder" money?

  by Balaamsass in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i have a question for any legal or tax experts out there.

  i have read a number of experiences about the wtbt$ moving money rapidly from one account to another.

  overnight parking of huge sums, from one enity to another, to local congr, etc.

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  Athanasius

  It would be interesting if one could get hold of the Watchtower's inhouse Financial Statements, as this would indicate whether the Society is involved in money laundering or not. After all, who are their vendors and what are their actual expenses?

  The Watchtower can make large cash deposits without raising suspicion, due to what they claim to take in from their conventions. Moreover, there isn't any law that says the Watchtower can't pay twice or three times the market rate for goods and services. Since the Watchtowers Accounts Payable journal is not open for public audit, there is no way for us to know if it contains suspicious payments to companies linked to organized crime.

  Again, I'm not saying that the Watchtower launders money for outside interests, still the opportunity is there.