Goldminer

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Topics Started by Goldminer

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  6

  Does the WTS inflate year-end statistics?

  by Goldminer in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a few weeks ago i was looking through some of my wife's kingdom ministries and i noticed a very interesting stat.it appears that every year here in canada the number of active jw's takes a noticeable jump upwards in the month of august (the end of the service year) and then re-settles to a more regular number again in september.. after noticing this i went and looked in the older km's and checked a few more years with the same results.i don't know if this happens in every country but it seems to be happening here in canada.i found this strange since i remember august as being the month everybody slacked off because they "had their hours".also i know some students pioneer in the summer but they still would have been publishers before august.. here are the canadian stats for the years i found:.

  july august september.

  can anyone explain this logically or is this another one of their smoke and mirrors tricks?

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  22

  2 elders came for a visit

  by Goldminer in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  at first i wasn't going to post this but i noticed a lot of people here have been getting visits from elders lately,all with pretty much the same results.. three months ago,my wife asked an elder if he could answer some of my questions.he offered to come over,which he did,to waste my time talking in circles to basic questions he couldn't answer from the bible.(i.e.

  where does the bible say god has an organization and uses a governing body to direct it?

  ) anyways,after 3 hours of proving his allegiance tot the wts and showing me his level of denial he said he would do more research on my questions and get back to me.one main question that night had been 607 bce.. last week he made arrangements with my wife to return with another elder.that day i decided,based on advice i got here,that i would not use any research notes,only the bible as final authority(unless we got into 607 since you need secular history to support dates).the discussion started on god's organization,and being that i'm not very good at these type of debates,it basically went in circles with one elder getting upset that i didn't believe that god has a visible organization.he kept asking me well,which religion has the truth then?

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  28

  Elders coming over next week to discuss my questions

  by Goldminer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  three months ago an elder came to our house to try to answer some of my questions.none were answered to my satisfaction and it was obvious some seemed difficult to him so he said he would do some more research and get back to me.well,last night at the meeting he told my wife that he and another elder would like to come over next week to continue our original conversation.. my wife told them that i didn't really want to be a jw anymore and they said they weren't giving up on me just yet.they also said they like me as a person and i really don't think they want to df me anytime soon as this would be too traumatic to my wife and might push her out of the religion for good.. my plan is to start with the first question and stick to it until it is answered to my satisfaction which i doubt it can be.it is the following:.

  where does the bible say that god has an "organization" on earth and uses a governing body to direct it?.

  i have some research ready to use but i'd like to ask you if you have any comments or information you'd like to share that i can use in some way.i appreciate all your help on this one and i'll keep you posted on how it goes next week.thank you very much.. goldminer

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  20

  Nothing in Reasoning book about Disfellowshipping

  by Goldminer in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i had a talk with my father last night about the practice of disfellowshipping.my father is an active jw with privileges in the local hall.he doesn't seem in total agreement with the shunning practice of the wts,and he brought out the example of the prodigal son.we had a good discussion and i'm going to research it some more through the chapter on the misuse of disfellowshipping in the book in search of christian freedom.. anyways,i thought i'd look it up in the reasoning book to see what the wts reasoning on disfellowshipping was.it turns out it's not in the table of contents or in the index.i thought this odd;how would one reason on this with a householder who asks about it?

  why is there nothing in the reasoning book on a subject every jw says is scriptural?.

  goldminer

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  8

  My list of 32 questions-Part B

  by Goldminer in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  1.do we approach god through christ(jn 14:6)or through his organization?

  2.if the "faithful and discreet slave" was put in place in 33 c.e.

  to disperse the "proper food at the proper time" ,thrn who,or where was the "faithful and discreet slave" from 100 c.e.

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  9

  My list of 32 questions-Part A

  by Goldminer in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the following is the first 15 questions that i handed over to the elder that was over at my house on the 24th of august.i will post part b as soon as i can.feel free to comment on any question.. where does the bible make such statements:.

  1.that god has an "organization" on earth and uses a governing body to direct it?.

  2.that the "faithful and discreet slave"is a "class" composed of only certain christians and that it operates through a governing body?.

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  30

  Update to my meeting with an elder

  by Goldminer in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  .

  first of all,sorry for being so late with my update.my wife got up at 8 am this morning so i didn't have the opportunity to be alone for a while.. as for the meeting last night,the elder was very civil,actually commended me for writing my questions down.he never made threaths,asked me if i read apostate material or if i still considered myself a jw.. we started with the 607 question.he will not believe any research beyond the wt's but said he'd do more research on it(all wt) so i guess that will go no where.he believes that ctr got it right by using the bible so i told him if it was figured out 130 years ago,it should be very simple to explain today.the only time he looked stunned was when i showed him from the wt that they once believed that jesus' presence began in 1874.he said he had never read that and tried to walk around it even when i asked him if jehovah wanted his people to believe something that wasn't true.. we beat around a few other questions with nothing concrete coming out of it.he did take my list home with him and said he'd look at them more carefully to get some scriptural answers.i also got the feeling that my wife got a spiritual boost from his visit which was very disheartening to me.anyways,i'm going to work on this 607 thing and see how things go.my wife asked me if i felt like we got somewhere and i said no.beibg told that something is the truth just because the wt says so just doesn't convince me anymore.. i'm attaching my questions,hopefully they show up here.thanks everybody,i feel really down,like i'm wasting my time.i've been wanting to run from this religion for years and here i am still fighting to prove my points.. goldminer.

  p.s.-question files won't load-sorry.

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  28

  My wife is thinking of quitting the "truth"!

  by Goldminer in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

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  last night my wife said she was thinking about quitting the truth.she says she finds it too hard with me having doubts and not wanting to be a jw anymore.she has also been burned by her few jw friends,and the rest are either disfellowshipped or getting divorced.it's really hard to build lasting relationships with such people in the religion.. another positive factor is that she has made 2 good "worldly" friends over the past year.i think she's starting to see that people on the outside can be nice,have morals and accept others as they are.. i hope in time she starts feeling good about this decision and that i can slowly show her the many errors of the wts.so far she agrees with many of the things i've told her but still believes it's the truth.it's a hard battle but i never tought i'd hear her say those words.. btw,she finally called a local elder to see if he can help me with my many questions.he's coming over tonight so it should be quite interesting.i think he'll be a little surprised at some of the direct questions i have;i'm also hoping that after a while he decides there's not much hope for me and just labels me an apostate and starts talking about df'ing me.that would show my wife their attitude towards answering questions that have no scriptural answers.. anyways,i'll do my best to keep you all up-dated.it can be hard to post as my wife diesn't know i come here on a regular basis.. goldminer

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  12

  Need help finding specific WT articles

  by Goldminer in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

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  i'm looking for that article about the guy who went to a door with a beard and the lady was really put off by it and turned down the literature because of it.i believe it's in the '73 or '74 wt but i can't find it now.. also,not too long ago i read a wt article from the early 60's that specifically mentioned 10 hours of service.i believe blondie had put it in one of her posts.. if anyone can help me with these it would be greatly appreciated,i'm having discussions with my wife and her father about some wts rules that seem more like commandments of men that lack scriptural backing.mt 15:8-9. thank you.

  goldminer

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  7

  Just got my copy of In Search of Christian Freedom

  by Goldminer in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  my book came in last week and i picked it up on thursday.i was nowhere near as nervous as when i purchased crisis of conscience.so far i've read the first 2 chapters and i will definitely learn a lot from this book,it's a real gem of spiritual truths and christian freedom.. while i was in the christian bookstore picking up my book i took the time to order 2 more books.. -the gentile times reconsidered.

  -combatting cult mind control.

  i'm looking forward to reading those also.hopefully i can subtely share some of this material with my family members who are still deeply brainwashed by the wts.. goldminer

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