Athanasius

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Posts by Athanasius

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  35

  Anticipating future changes in the organisation - crystal ball gazing

  by yadda yadda 2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i posted the comment below on another thread on elders stepping down.

  although i left the jw's years ago, i still hold a fascination for the evolution of the religion and am curious on what future trends and developments may occur.

  so i thought i would start a thread on what future changes you think will occur in the organisation as the years go by, either doctrinally or organisationally:.

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  Athanasius

  The JW organization is probably losing more of their members than they care to admit. This will eventually force the GB to make more “adjustments” to stop the exodus and stabilize the membership.

  Therefore, it's possible that after 2014 the Watchtower may gradually become more main stream. While I don't see them accepting the Trinity or Hellfire, they may open Heaven to all JWs, though confine them to a lower level in the Heavenly realm, while the GB rules as "kings and priests." Birthday parties may be permitted and blood transfusions will become a conscience matter. Tobacco use will become a lesser sin, meaning one could be removed as an elder or MS, with privileges restricted, but not DFd. The GB may even stay out of JW bedrooms and allow most sexual sins to be handled by one elder; much like Catholics confessing to their priests. But the Watchtower leadership will still take a hard-line toward what they perceive to be "apostasy.”

  The GB may also take a few more pages from the Mormons. Perhaps requiring all young JWs, once they reach the age of 18, to spend two years in missionary work, either locally or in a foreign country. After the JW finishes his or her missionary requirement, door to door work will become voluntary for the former missionary. Most D-D preaching will be replaced by using TV, Radio, and the Internet to get their message out and to solicit donations. Like the LDS, the Watchtower will require tithing, 10% of each JW's gross income. The GB will be enlarged to 12 members. The Watchtower may even open a JW college. JWU will have many of the business, engineering, and legal classes that you would find at a secular college. But one course that will not be offered at JWU is critical thinking.
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  11

  RNWT Bible only in English

  by Gorbatchov in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so, the english speaking jw world has got the rnwt bible.. so, 60 percent of the non-english jw world still has to to use / read their old nwt bible.. and reads in watchtowers from 2014 on bible text translated from the english rnwt to their language, and mention the changes with their own bible.. this is a very strange situation!.

  so, like g. jackson would say, the non-english jw world has to wait for some not so warm summers to keep up with the new rnwt bible.. gorby.

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  Athanasius

  Right on Terry. The Watchtower can afford the best. Problem is the Watchtower leaders are so cheap that the Revised NWT is probably another in house version like the old NWT.
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  3

  jesus (apparently) in Old NWT rode into Jerusalem on an anal sphincter

  by hamsterbait in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the (american) witless justified replacing the correct translation of ass with donkey, claiming we would never describe a happy brother as "gay".

  an ass is a different animal from a donkey, making the nwt an inaccurate translation here.. are jdubs sooo filthy minded they think below the waist even in the context of christ riding into jerusalem?.

  how do they translate numbers 31: 34: " 61 thousand asses" remember it is not 61 000 anuses.. .

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  Athanasius

  Ass is the correct term for the animal commonly known as the donkey or burro. The Latin term for the animal is Asinus and the scientific term for these animals is Equus asinus. The term Ass fell into disrepute through confusion with the indelicate term “Arse” meaning the human backside.
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  3

  Money making business

  by Skinnedsheep in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  guesses.

  est.

  number of bibles printed 2,000,000. suggested donation for each- $50-60.

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  Athanasius

  While it's true that leather bound Bibles have a retail cost of $50-$75, the manufacturing costs are a lot less. I used to work for a retail bookstore chain and the discount for Bibles was around 50%. This means that the retailer paid the distributor $25 for a Bible that would be sold for $50 retail. The distributor received a similar discount from the publisher, and the publisher got a discount from the printer.

  Keep in mind that the Watchtower employs slave labor, whereas a for profit printer employs union labor. Since the Watchtower doesn't provide retirement or medical benefits for their workers, the Watchtower has minimal labor expense. The cost of materials would be their biggest expense in producing a Bible. Plus the Watchtower doesn’t have to pay out royalty fees, as the NWT is their own invention.

  So my guess is that the new deluxe NWT costs the Watchtower only $2 or $3 to print.
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  13

  Fun dinner tonight with ex-JWs

  by Hortensia in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i got to meet some real live jwn posters tonight, they stopped here and we met for dinner.

  i was nervous about it, but they are a lovely couple, very intelligent and fun.

  i am sure i talked too much, it was all so interesting -- swapping stories about our jw histories and how we got out and what we're all doing now.

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  Athanasius

  Hi Hortensia. My wife and I had breakfast at the Black Bear dinner just two weeks ago. We were on Holiday and we stayed at the Mount Shasta Resort. My wife liked Shasta so much we plan to come back next year. Didn't know any ex-JWs lived in Shasta. Maybe next time we can get together.
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  35

  who has actually read the entire Bible?

  by losingit in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  no matter how many times i've tried, i just couldn't get through the whole thing.

  you know, there were always those reminders to read the bible, have a personal study, go out in service, and.... the other two of the five things we were supposed to do i already forgot.

  so, i constantly felt guilty that i just had no interest.

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  Athanasius

  Though I was raised in the JW religion and had the complete NWT in one volume since 1961, I didn't read the Bible from cover to cover until 1970 when I purchased a copy of the recently published New English Bible. The NWT was such a poor translation that I found it painful to read. But the NEB was easy to read and it took me less than a year to read from Genesis to Revelation. The NEB also included the Deuterocanonical Books, so I read these too.

  Others in our congregation also found the NEB a joy to read. One brother liked the NEB so much that when he had the Bible reading in the TMS, he used it in place of the NWT. That didn't go over well with the hardline elders, but since I was the TMS overseer at the time, I let him get away with it. Later there was a Watchtower article that warned against using Bible versions other than the NWT. But I ignored the Watchtower and continued to use other Bible versions for my personal study. But this was a wake up call as I couldn't see why we were required to use an inferior Bible version when there were so many superior Bible Translations available.
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  6

  Total Donations

  by turtleturtle in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  was just calculating how much $ i had given to the local cong & wt over the period of about 10 years.

  28,000 us baby!

  ouchie!

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  Athanasius

  I was raised in the JW religion, but from age 18 to 38 I probably dropped less than $200 in the contribution box. I figured that the money I spent on gas for FS, hotels for conventions, and 12 years of voluteer work as an elder was enough.
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  64

  What was YOUR wake-up call before you left the JW´s organization?

  by Mr Fool in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what was your wake-up call(s) before you left the jw s organization?

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  Athanasius

  It was a number of things that caused me to wake up. I served as an elder from 1972-1984. During that time we saw the liberal reforms of Watchtower Vatican II replaced with the repression of the 1980s and Witch Hunts for “apostates.” Of course being an elder you have a front seat to observe all the politics that goes on in the congregation, and it was obvious that the Holy Spirit had nothing to do with the appointment of elders or MSs.

  Then in 1982 while preparing a Public Talk on the Trinity the outline referred to a Watchtower, which I consulted to get a better grasp of the subject. This Watchtower quoted from J.N.D. Kelly’s Early Christian Doctrines, and I happened to have a copy in my library. But I found that the Watchtower quoted Kelly out of context. Be suspicious whenever the Watchtower uses the ellipsis in quoting a non-JW source. In fact I found more quotations taken out of context to support the Watchtower’s anti-Trinitarian doctrine. It was this discovery of the Watchtower’s scholastic dishonesty that set off more alarm bells. By 1983 I had serious doubts about the JW religion.

  But in the spring of 1984 I read COC, and this confirmed that the Watchtower was not God’s organization and my resignation as an elder and my exit from the Watchtower cult soon followed.
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  10

  I'm not sure why... (Comparing presidents of the US to Watchtower presidents)

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  but lyndon johnson often reminds me of rutherford.

  is there anything to that comparison?

  i gather that johnson had a very fiery temper and was disliked by many around him; drinked heavily too, was a womaniser, no stranger to dirty tricks, and was fond of power more than idealistism.

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  Athanasius

  The Watchtower presidents seemed to be more like the dictators of the former USSR. Russell was the Lenin of the Watchtower movement. Rutherford was the JW Stalin, who purged the party of the Old Bolsheviks Russellites and created a more militant movement. Knorr was the Borg's Khrushchev, who modified the extremism of the Rutherford era and modernized the movement. Freddy was the Watchtower Brezhnev, whose regime repealed the reforms of the 1970s and ushered in the new repression. Maybe there will be a Watchtower Gorbachev who will preside over the Watchtower's collapse.
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  6

  So 144,000 will go to Heaven? Is this to be taken literally even though......

  by I_love_Jeff in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  we have something within their own literature stating otherwise?.

  "apocalypse, or revelation, is the name of the last book in the bible, written toward the end of the first century c.e.

  in view of the prophetic nature and highly symbolic language of this book, the adjective apocalyptic came to be applied to a form of literature that began long before the bible book of revelation was written.

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  Athanasius

  If you weren't able to find an amendment to the 1999 Watchtower teaching, Jeff, that means that it hasn't been repealed and is still current "truth."