Posts by Terry

66

THE LINGERING SHADOW OF '75

by Terry in

none of you are old enough to have been there, i suspect.

i had been in prison two years as a jw conscientious objector when the exciting news about 1975 spread like wildfire.i was paroled from prison in 1969 and immediately began pioneering.

the pressures began mounting throughout the organization.

Naoscillator17 minutes ago

Terry, I know somebody who knew Lonnie Payne

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I bet I know that somebody as well!

21

THE SHADOW OF 75 still hangs over us all . . .

by Terry in

few of your are old enough to have been there, i suspect.

i had been in prison two years as a jw conscientious objector when the exciting news about 1975 spread like wildfire.. .

i was paroled from prison in 1969 and immediately began pioneering.

I often wondered about those who were imprisoned as a conscientious objector .Did you have family who were J.W.`s and supported you ? Or were your family not J.W.`s and wondered about your decision .?

How did you cope with your imprisonment for 2 years ? Obviously you were still a firm believer , after coming out you went and pioneered .

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None of my family were JW's, nor were they churchgoers. They thought I was insane. They were right :)

My Mom and Stepdad drove once a week from Ft.Worth to Seagoville to the Federal Facility for visits. Of course, I spent that time witnessing to both of them!

At one point in prison, there were about 40 of us (J-Dubs) in for the same thing. We had formed 2 congregations and had 5 meetings a week.
I began studying with a small group in a private study with a brilliant Brother named Tollie Padget. We went through all the old publications in depth and began learning the "deeper things."

I would sneak into the Catholic rectory when the rest went to eat at the Mess Hall. Why? There was a grand piano in there. I had always wanted to learn how to play. So, instead of eating, I taught myself piano.
Every inmate is assigned a work detail for the purpose of keeping the Federal facility as self-sustaining as possible. I was assigned to the Construction crew which was not aptly named. We broke down old walls and smashed the bricks into tiny bits, we excavated roads, flipped hundreds of bags of cement; grunt work is what it was.

(Note: That isn't my face on the cover. That was the first drawing I ever did when I was High School.
I chose that drawing because my ability as an artist is what really led me to break away and seek a career in California instead my janitor job in Fort Worth earning minimum wage.)

It took me a helluva long time, but I finally wrote the whole story in my book. You can find it on Amazon.

"I WEPT BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON (A Prisoner of Conscience in a Time of War)

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http://www.amazon.com/Wept-Rivers-Babylon-Prisoner-Conscience/dp/1492902063/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1457199368&sr=8-1&keywords=I+wept+by+the+rivers+of+babylon

98

OKAY, GAME OVER! The number one reason the New Testament amounts to bunk

by Terry in

for me, the dead giveaway is this.

jesus wrote nothing.. stop and think about that.. if jesus were the authentic messiah, his ministry would not simply be local.. his instructions, his mission, the details of his teachings would be too precious to risk leaving it in the hands of "men unlettered (illiterate) and ordinary (blue-collar yokels).".

jesus, were he the one and only hope of mankind, would be absolutely certain to write down with great simplicity and specificity the exact owner's manual necessary to rescue mankind.. never happened!.

Terry

The Book of Revelation was made scripture three centuries after the death of Christ.
"Traditionally attributed to St. John, most Biblical scholars now recognize its literary style and its theology has little in common with John's gospel or his epistles and was likely written after his death. Martin Luther found the vindictive God of Revelations incompatible with the gospels and relegated it to the appendix of his German translation of the New Testament instead of the body of scripture. All the Protestant reformers except Calvin regarded apocalyptic millennialism to be heresy."

The above is merely a sticky note to remind you how truly Ad Hoc our beloved New Testament really is. Consequently, pouring your entire life and every waking thought into an unexamined belief in your own particular interpretation of the Bible is practically suicidal. At the very least, it is a wasting of your time. Time= Life.

11

Richard Carrier - End of the World Failed Christian Prophecies

by Finkelstein in

an interesting talk on the inherent history of jewish and christian beliefs.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_pb8pkews8.

Terry

It is a tribute to Ego how Christians are the center of their own Universe.

The entire history of everything puts "today's" Christian at the climax.

"Today" is, of course, every day since day 1.

98

OKAY, GAME OVER! The number one reason the New Testament amounts to bunk

by Terry in

for me, the dead giveaway is this.

jesus wrote nothing.. stop and think about that.. if jesus were the authentic messiah, his ministry would not simply be local.. his instructions, his mission, the details of his teachings would be too precious to risk leaving it in the hands of "men unlettered (illiterate) and ordinary (blue-collar yokels).".

jesus, were he the one and only hope of mankind, would be absolutely certain to write down with great simplicity and specificity the exact owner's manual necessary to rescue mankind.. never happened!.

Terry

Check out the discussions, debates, and arguments offered by Dr. Richard Carrier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUYRoYl7i6U

98

OKAY, GAME OVER! The number one reason the New Testament amounts to bunk

by Terry in

for me, the dead giveaway is this.

jesus wrote nothing.. stop and think about that.. if jesus were the authentic messiah, his ministry would not simply be local.. his instructions, his mission, the details of his teachings would be too precious to risk leaving it in the hands of "men unlettered (illiterate) and ordinary (blue-collar yokels).".

jesus, were he the one and only hope of mankind, would be absolutely certain to write down with great simplicity and specificity the exact owner's manual necessary to rescue mankind.. never happened!.

Terry

You know the NT writers' words (so that you get a sense of the complete person and mission) about Jesus varies little.

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So YOU say.

.You know what "Fan Fiction" is?

The Middle East swarmed with such stories for many centuries as we find collated into the New Testament. Why are we simply going to assume the carefully selected NT are authentic descriptions of reality?

Do you know--that is, are you AWARE of the controversies over proper selection among the thousands of Messiah texts? Who did the selecting? Do you know? Why do you trust those particular selections other than the fact it is ALL you know of?

KJV Bibles have 39 books in the Old Testament, all originally written in Hebrew. However, the Old Testament of the NAB contains 46 books, including an additional seven (Tobit, Judith, 1 & 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and Baruch) which were part of an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. These seven books are variously referred to as the “apocryphal” or “deuterocanonical” books and are usually placed between the Old and New Testaments. In this sense, it can be said that Catholic Bibles have more books in them than Protestant Bibles (here represented by the KJV).

Should I assume your Bible, the one you use, contains ALL the proper books? If not--WHY NOT?

Did you know Martin Luther at the start of the Protestant Reformation wanted to EXCLUDE the following books from the authentic canon?

1. Luther did not include the deuterocanonical books in his Old Testament, terming them "books which are not considered equal to the Holy Scriptures, but are useful and good to read"

2. Luther made an attempt to remove the books of Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation from the canon

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Why do you suppose there were (still are) controversies?

In other words, HOW CAN YOU SO CASUALLY RECOMMEND other people simply accept the accuracy of the stories and descriptions and teachings from such ancient writings with such complacency?

2

WHILE I WAS PRAYING . . .

by Terry in

one night a long long time ago .

.. i distinctly remember lying in my bed staring at the shadows on the ceiling and saying my prayers to jehovah while becoming annoyed with myself at how rote and over familiar my thoughts had become.. it just didn't feel authentic.

i steeled myself to the task and began again, apologizing for the insincerity!.

Terry

NVR2L8, thank you. I think it is called an "epiphany".

"an enlightening realization allows a problem or situation to be understood from a new and deeper perspective."

32

JW Child Abuse Documentary

by cappytan in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulswb2avxvc.

let's set aside our differences for the moment and appreciate this excellent documentary cedars put together that should prove to be an invaluable tool in helping to expose the child abuse issues in the organization.. i was humbled to be able to help with this project on such an important subject, though my part in it was insignificant..

Terry

problemaddict 212 hours ago

I kind of wish Cedars would have cleaned up abit from the nice homeless Croatian thing he has going on......but then again.......I'm sitting here on my butt.

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Getting a still in JW to watch an Apostate with a beard, tousled hair, a T-shirt and a casual manner is practically an impossibility, certainly.

The question is: Would a still in JW watch an Apostate with a fresh haircut, clean shave, and a suit and tie?

I attended a Witness funeral for somebody I dearly loved and all my old Bros and Sis's eyeballed me pretty cynically. I was wearing a suit, my hair was neatly combed and I was calm and respectful. The chatter about me centered on one thing and one thing only. Guess what it was? I had a beard at the time.
Should I have shaved before attending the funeral just so those idiots would have to find some other nonsense to natter about?

This Video will be seen by people who are desperate enough and curious enough to seek it out and study it for facts and content. Anybody who dismisses it because Cedar's scraggly visage is offensive wouldn't really pay any attention anyway, IMHO.

98

OKAY, GAME OVER! The number one reason the New Testament amounts to bunk

by Terry in

for me, the dead giveaway is this.

jesus wrote nothing.. stop and think about that.. if jesus were the authentic messiah, his ministry would not simply be local.. his instructions, his mission, the details of his teachings would be too precious to risk leaving it in the hands of "men unlettered (illiterate) and ordinary (blue-collar yokels).".

jesus, were he the one and only hope of mankind, would be absolutely certain to write down with great simplicity and specificity the exact owner's manual necessary to rescue mankind.. never happened!.

Terry

The point of this Discussion is so simple.

JESUS is the whole of Christianity and yet we must depend on other people's words about every single detail. Christians see treasure in the Bible and yet each has a separate and distinct opinion about what it says and means.

It is because JESUS is a cipher in history.

Nothing substantial has been yielded by archeology, paleontology or Roman archives.

The Bible has been pulled rotting out of old jars and pieced together like pulling bits of an old baloney sandwich from the city dump and serving it up as lunch for your children.

If that seems great to you--be my guest. Just don't expect me to chow down or compliment the Chef.

21

THE SHADOW OF 75 still hangs over us all . . .

by Terry in

few of your are old enough to have been there, i suspect.

i had been in prison two years as a jw conscientious objector when the exciting news about 1975 spread like wildfire.. .

i was paroled from prison in 1969 and immediately began pioneering.

Terry

There have been "secret" policies ever since Rutherford and his Board of Directors (all but one) were imprisoned for misprision of a felony advising young serving men in the Army to not follow orders EVEN IF IT MEANT BEING SHOT as a traitor.

The stealth modes set in at that juncture and paranoia dovetailed into a C.Y.A. premise for all controversial policies.