Jehovah's Witnesses weren't JEHOVAH's WITNESSES until 1931.
Until that year the people who had been hard-headed followers of End Times false prophecies by William Miller and Seventh Day Adventists, more or less settled into following charisma-ballyhoo preaching by folks like "Pastor" C.T. Russell.
What was it that attracts these people?
It is a thin veneer of pious Bible interpretation as a means of prepping for the END of the WORLD.
Yep. Early versions of doomsday prep.
If it sounded complicated, clever, and (above all) imminent - preppers were stuck like glue.
It is addictive for some folks. Let's face it.
BESIDES - it has elements of love of God and worship and Jesus and Bible and - and ...
GAMBLING!
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But it isn't an intellectual sport supported by Science. (Being a JW)
Nope - it is fed by bullshit.
Bullshit that sounds smart is addictive.
(If you don't believe it - think about Politics today.)
Unsophisticated / under-educated people want to feel smart; feel superior. Knowing God's Plan is a trump card in that desire.
The people who stick with Watchtower's constantly changing doctrine are not THINKING PEOPLE.
They are GAMBLERS.
They think they are thinkers. The think they are the wisest.
But?
They are team members in a kind of pyramid scheme.
(Literally, in the case of Russell).
How so?New recruits go out and sell others on joining the club of Doomsday watchers hunkering down for Armageddon.
Those newly acquired newbies, in turn, go out and do the same.THAT IS ALL THERE EVER WAS to being a Jehovah's Witness.
Moreover - that's all there ever will be to this religion.
What keeps this bullshit interesting?
Counter-intuitively it is the CHANGES to the doctrine!
It is edge of your seat drama!
Anything can happen at any moment!
"Here is the LATEST update on TRUTH about Armageddon!"
(Previous reports (Old Light) were incomplete from the field).
News bulletins and New Light are the same thing emotionally...
Excitement, Drama, uncertainty ...survival!
So, actually "thinking" about what they are believing just gets a JW nowhere but in trouble with the Organization.
Doing exactly as you are told is what keeps your motor running.
Like Las Vegas, if you aren't a gambler - you've got no business hanging around the casino.
Isn't that what a Kingdom Hall really is - a casino?
You gamble everything you have in order to Win.
The excitement of maybe losing everything for the chance to Win is oh so addictive and exciting and ----empty.
When I think of my life and how I risked it going to prison - I see a young man who was a real gambler. A LOSER.
The only way not to lose? DON'T PLAY their game. Don't gamble your life away.
Because - That's all there was to being a Jehovah's Witness.
All those ARMAGEDDON dates were BETS on Jehovah's Roulette Wheel.
Just numbers. Bad bets.
Posts by Terry
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11
That's all there ever was to being a Jehovah's Witness
by Terry injehovah's witnesses weren't jehovah's witnesses until 1931.until that year the people who had been hard-headed followers of end times false prophecies by william miller and seventh day adventists, more or less settled into following charisma-ballyhoo preaching by folks like "pastor" c.t.
russell.what was it that attracts these people?
it is a thin veneer of pious bible interpretation as a means of prepping for the end of the world.yep.
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Terry
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Ask current Jehovah's Witnesses if they KNOW what happened in 1954 (SHOCKING)
by Terry in(referred to below: watchtower bible and tract society presidents: russell, rutherford, knorr, franz )did you know that from 1879 until 1954 ... ... the writings of c.t.russell, j.f.rutherford, nathan knorr, and the watchtower's own charter... ... agreed ... that jesus christ was to be worshiped?this fact has been cleverly and dramatically hidden by manipulation of older quotations.
______________________________________________________________________pastor charles taze russell answers the question for us.
see below zion’s watch tower 1898 jul 15 p.216“question: the fact that our lord received worship is claimed by some to be an evidence that while on earth he was god the father disguised in a body of flesh and not really a man.
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Terry
Jehovah's Witnesses weren't JEHOVAH's WITNESSES until 1931.
Until that year the people who had been hard-headed followers of End Times false prophecies by William Miller and Seventh Day Adventists, more or less settled into following charisma-ballyhoo preaching by folks like "Pastor" C.T. Russell.
What was it that attracts these people? A thin veneer of pious Bible interpretation as a means of prepping for the END of the WORLD.
Yep. Early versions of doomsday prep.
If it sounded complicated, clever, and (above all) imminent - preppers were stuck like glue.
It is addictive for some folks. Let's face it.
But it isn't an intellectual sport supported by Science. Nope - it is fed by bullshit.
Bullshit that sounds smart is addictive.
(If you don't believe it - think about Politics today.)
The people who stick with Watchtower changes are not THINKING PEOPLE.
They are team members in a kind of pyramid scheme. (Literally, in the case of Russell).
How so?New recruits go out and sell others on joining the club of Doomsday watchers hunkering down for Armageddon.
Those newly acquired newbies, in turn, go out and do the same.THAT IS ALL THERE EVER WAS to being a Jehovah's Witness.
What keeps this bullshit interesting? Counter-intuitively it is the CHANGES to the doctrine!
It is edge of your seat drama!
"Here is the LATEST update on TRUTH about Armageddon!"
(Previous reports (Old Light) were incomplete from the field).
News bulletins and New Light are the same thing emotionally.
So, actually "thinking" about what they are believing just gets a JW nowhere but in trouble with the Organization.
Doing exactly as you are told is what keeps your motor running.
Like Las Vegas, if you aren't a gambler - you've got no business hanging around the casino.
Isn't that what a Kingdom Hall really is - a casino? You gamble everything you have in order to Win. The excitement of maybe losing everything for the chance to Win is oh so addictive and exciting and ----empty. -
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JW's had a reason for wanting to be banned in Russia?
by Terry ininteresting video.
i'd like everybody's thoughts on this.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrlfvxinte8&fbclid=iwar2omsj1dkm7rzxcyjblkd9aqnnp5xmijrxoc-rfaoh7ucfgvwlpkiynofs.
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Terry
Interesting video. I'd like everybody's thoughts on this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrlFVXIntE8&fbclid=IwAR2OMsj1DKm7rZxcYjBlkD9aQnNp5XmIjrxoC-RFaOH7uCFGvwlPkiynOFs -
24
Ask current Jehovah's Witnesses if they KNOW what happened in 1954 (SHOCKING)
by Terry in(referred to below: watchtower bible and tract society presidents: russell, rutherford, knorr, franz )did you know that from 1879 until 1954 ... ... the writings of c.t.russell, j.f.rutherford, nathan knorr, and the watchtower's own charter... ... agreed ... that jesus christ was to be worshiped?this fact has been cleverly and dramatically hidden by manipulation of older quotations.
______________________________________________________________________pastor charles taze russell answers the question for us.
see below zion’s watch tower 1898 jul 15 p.216“question: the fact that our lord received worship is claimed by some to be an evidence that while on earth he was god the father disguised in a body of flesh and not really a man.
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Terry
THIS IS THE BOOK I FIRST STUDIED IN when my best friend, Johnny Santa Cruz
indoctrinated me in Grade 6 of Elementary school. -
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I met an Exorcist
by Terry ini like to ride my bicycle to starbucks.
when weather permits i sit on the patio and write in the sunshine.a pesky crow i call edgar usually arrives to beg (or steal).that's all you need to know before we begin._____________________.
location exterior : the patio of starbuckstime: 11 amcast:lou : media / news analyst, religious fundamentalistterry: crow magnet and know-it-alledgar: spawn of satan________________.
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Terry
When I first started going to a Kingdom Hall it was probably 1959 and the
Jehovah's Witnesses brotherhood of "Friends" back then (under Nathan Homer Knorr) was a different breed of cat than it is today.
We had picnics and parties and (although it was frowned upon) people smoked
and worked for employers connected to the military. You could say and do things
more freely.
There were no Elders.
That very idea of Elders hearkened back to an old-fashioned Adventist sensibility.
No, what we had were an Overseer and assistant and various Servants.
It was a friendly shepherding spirit.
Then, slowly, things got weird and weirder.
It was the Freddy Franz hiccups of senility that did it.
The Babylon the Great has Fallen book and the chart of significant Dates came out and I memorized all those dates. It appeared to be a work of enormous intellect and scholarship - until - years later - I started reading the works of Martin Luther and discovered it had been plagiarized and corkscrewed by Franz.
Jesus didn't have a beard back then. Nope. He was clean shaven.
Those were almost (I said almost) fun times.
Just well-intentioned good old boys with wives under submission lookin' out fer you. -
4
TRUE Fortune Cookie story
by Terry intrue fortune cookie story____it was a new chinese buffet restaurant and it didn't last very long.the proprietors were young, hip, and way too modern.
*for one thing, they got their fortune cookies from a different source than all other restaurants --the fun kind of fortune cookie which is specific and definite.my fortune, for example:"a tall, hot blonde will enter your life today.
"zowie!that put a bit of pep in my step!
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Terry
I miss those eclairs.
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TRUE Fortune Cookie story
by Terry intrue fortune cookie story____it was a new chinese buffet restaurant and it didn't last very long.the proprietors were young, hip, and way too modern.
*for one thing, they got their fortune cookies from a different source than all other restaurants --the fun kind of fortune cookie which is specific and definite.my fortune, for example:"a tall, hot blonde will enter your life today.
"zowie!that put a bit of pep in my step!
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Terry
True Fortune Cookie story
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It was a new Chinese buffet restaurant and it didn't last very long.
The proprietors were young, hip, and way too modern.
*
For one thing, they got their fortune cookies from a different source than all other restaurants --the fun kind of fortune cookie which is specific and definite.
My fortune, for example:
"A tall, hot blonde will enter your life today."
Zowie!
That put a bit of pep in my step!
*
It was a torrid Texas summer and my bike ride included a rather daunting hill to be crested in 100+ heat.
I could barely see at the top, the Starbucks looked like a trip to Pluto by slow rocket ship.
Grunt, peddle, grunt ...
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I forced myself to stop off at the drive-in Quik-Trip for air-conditioning and--naughty boy that I am--a chocolate eclair!
Strictly for energy purposes, mind you...
*
There is a new cashier standing at the register. She is obviously a tall blonde!
Something stirs in the back of my mind.
*
When I placed my eclair on the counter, I said to her:
"Yes, yes--I know what you're thinking to yourself, 'Here's a man who lives with danger.' You have no idea how right you are."
*
She couldn't have been older than 29.
She beamed a smile as bright as those spot lights used at Hollywood premieres.
Her face was glamorous, with large blue eyes, arched eyebrows and pouty lips gleaming with Technicolor lipstick.
*
Her voice was as honey on the vine:
"Where are you from?"
*
Ever the Nerd, I couldn't help myself:
"Depends on what you mean by 'from'--I was born in Detroit, I grew up in Texas, but lived in Redondo Beach ten years in California."
*
Now, whatever I had expected she might say, none of it was what she actually said:
"I can hear all those places in your weird accent."
??? That stumbled my self image.
*
I paid the sixty cents and declined my receipt with the words:
"No thanks, I have no desire to be reminded of this crime against health I've perpetrated here."
*
She gave me the kind of peculiar look women always give me when I turn out to be
who I am rather than
who theythought I was going to be.
*
Disappointed in the damn fortune cookie and it's nasty sense of irony, I chugged up the hill to Starbucks.
*
My T-shirt is soggy with sweat now as I enter and approach the barista at the counter.
*
"Coffee of the Day." I blurted groggy from heat.
*
"Which blend and what size?" He asked.
*
"You know what? Surprise me! I'm living dangerously today." I croaked wearily.
*
The barista is an extremely extroverted young man who fancies himself a comedian.
We all know the type.
He dispenses the coffee (and wit) and hands me the cup saying:
*
" Just what you've always wanted, a hot, tall blonde ...roast. "
____Ya know--I'm glad that Chinese restaurant went belly up!
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1
Locate Your Brain Parasite (before you go Cuckoo)
by Terry incan you locate your brain parasite?_____________________________________is something troubling you?does your life often seem to make no sense at all?is your logic ...well...illogical?you just might have a brain parasite.scary, huh?but this planet is filled with opportunist species using you, exploiting you to aid its own purposes.sure, sure - we all know about one-cell organisms, worms, bloodsucking insects - but do you realize there are other kinds of parasites to worry about?meet the cuckoo!would this bird fit inside your clock?
?no, you silly!terry is about to use the cuckoo bird as an analogy of a brain parasite.stay tuned and follow along ...the cuckoo doesn't build a nest.
it lays its eggs in another bird's nest.
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Terry
An artist friend of mine sent me an article written by an evangelical and I read it
only because this friend wanted to discuss the topic.
As I read along I became agitated. That OLD FEELING of being lectured by a
religious know-it-all came back.
It was as strong as Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome!
I immediately sat down and wrote out one of my long boring screeds - a critique -
and emailed my friend back with it.
It took him 24 hrs. Quietly he simply thanked me for the quick response.
AND NOT ANOTHER WORD.
What happened to me?
I am so aware of the dangers of hidden influence in religious language - and so
twigged and familiar to the persuasions inside (viral infections) - I simply jerked.
Wow, I thought - even after all these many years away from mainstream religious dialogue - I'm like a rape victim.
Sad. -
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1973: MYSTERIOUS LADY (in the back bungalow)
by Terry in1973mysterious lady (in the back bungalow).
me: driving a squad car for a private security service.
me: "warren's night off.
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Terry
eyeuse2badub : How do you think that night would have turned out if only you'd know ttatt?
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You have no idea how shy a person I was until after I moved from Texas to California and had real friends who weren't JW's.
I loosened up and gradually became a flesh and blood human being.
Before that, I was a replicant - and artificial human.
A "certain" kind of person is comfortable in a religious cult. It is a an incubator
for neurotics. A Petri dish.
I think things would have turned out the same no matter what.
I prefer sex to be my idea. Randy and aggressive women give me the impression
that it doesn't matter to them who or what I am - and that takes the shine off the apple for me.
That's how folks get urinary tract infections :) -
24
Ask current Jehovah's Witnesses if they KNOW what happened in 1954 (SHOCKING)
by Terry in(referred to below: watchtower bible and tract society presidents: russell, rutherford, knorr, franz )did you know that from 1879 until 1954 ... ... the writings of c.t.russell, j.f.rutherford, nathan knorr, and the watchtower's own charter... ... agreed ... that jesus christ was to be worshiped?this fact has been cleverly and dramatically hidden by manipulation of older quotations.
______________________________________________________________________pastor charles taze russell answers the question for us.
see below zion’s watch tower 1898 jul 15 p.216“question: the fact that our lord received worship is claimed by some to be an evidence that while on earth he was god the father disguised in a body of flesh and not really a man.
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Terry
Odd thing about "Jehovah God".
Weird and alien phrase.
But after a few sips and you find the bottle empty - easy peasy.
Jesus just floats away.
"In the name of your son, Jesus" is about as close as JW's get at the end of
those stiff prayers.
Christians one and all, they say. My grandmother called them, "Jehovahs."
I think she had it right.
