blondie

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Posts by blondie

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  30

  If You Could Live In Any Era or Decade What Would It Be?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i kind of like the 50’s and early 60’s because of the innocence and “happy days” outlook by that generation.

  it seems most people were pretty innocent and real.. would you rather be living in a different era or is this century working for you?

  ?.

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  blondie

  I'd pick right now. The pros outweigh the cons so far to me. I appreciate that we are not as on the brink of world war as in the past. I grew up in the Cold War in a military family that knew what lurked behind the official info. Medical discoveries have made some seemingly undefeatable illnesses no longer so. But not being able to afford health insurance in some areas might offset.

  I have lived through the times starting with the Korean conflict until today; it is not a slanted history experience and I have lived many places over the world. It is good to talk to people who have lived in these times, from various walks of life, to get the true overall picture, not just the seemingly good highlights from history books.
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  25

  What to do when you're PIMO and dont want to date a jw?

  by nowawake14 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  what are your thoughts on that?.

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  blondie

  If you are PIMO, why date a jw and give him or her false hopes, possibly have an oops child and face blood transfusion issues (as well as for yourself). If you want to date a non-jw, do it quietly and realize that you could be marked from the platform if found out, but no names should be announced, just a talk on the dangers of dating/marrying a non-jw. It is not a disfellowshipping offense unless you have had sex with each other and the elder body can "prove" it. In time this mark will go away when the elders start treating you as good fellowship (haha). Of course, if you are male and have "privileges" these may be taken away and given back some time in the future.
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  25

  Overlapping Generations

  by Lost in the fog in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  perhaps this explains why the gb have a fixation with time and chronology.

  also why they keep their adherents in a prison away from the real world.

  lol.

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  blondie

  I think the WTS tests the rank and file by putting such ideas out there and see what sticks to the wall.

  I remember when they called meetings for field service rendezvous. That lasted about 3 months in 1970. Some less dim bulb realized that non-jw husbands might wonder about his wife going to a "rendezvous."

  an appointment to meet someone in secret, typically one made by lovers.

  "his assignation with an older woman"

  synonyms:

  rendezvous, date, appointment, meeting, tweetup; literarytryst "he and Jane arranged a secret assignation in town"

  https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/301970002?q=rendezvous&p=sen
  

  In this day of exciting increases, sometimes the most unlikely prospects can prove to be fruitful. A pioneer’s fleshly sister had stated that the religion of Jehovah’s witnesses was never to be mentioned to her. However, when this unbeliever visited the pioneer for a short stay, the pioneer invited her to accompany her to the service rendezvous one morning to hear the discussion of the day’s text. Surprisingly the invitation was accepted. The pioneer sister is still amazed at the result. A double subscription for the magazines was requested. As the “unbelieving” sister left to travel home she accepted a Truth book and some tracts. Reading the Truth book on the journey home, this now-interested person prayed to Jehovah to help her. Within a few weeks she began attending meetings in her own town and began placing Truth books with others. How thankful the pioneer sister is that Jehovah’s spirit moved her to make that unorthodox invitation to attend the service rendezvous!

  https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/201970007?q=rendezvous&p=sen
  

  The Memorial will be held Sunday, March 22, after 6 p.m., local standard time. Each congregation may make its own arrangements for the Watchtower study, possibly on the book study night at the rendezvous or on Saturday at the Kingdom Hall. All day Sunday can be devoted to field service, followed by the Memorial after 6 p.m. The circuit servant may give the Memorial talk if the congregation he will be visiting requests it.
  
  
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  38

  Would You Stop Buying A Product Because of Political Differences?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  would you stop buying nike products because you didn’t like their politics?

  conversely, would you give business to a company because you liked their political stand on a matter?

  would you stop watching an entertainer because you disagree with their political perspectives?

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  blondie

  Not much, otherwise I would probably not have anywhere to shop. I try to buy from US companies when I can. I pay taxes that are used to support government ventures I don't personally support. Instead, I vote for people who support my ideas.
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  19

  Publisher numbers versus baptised witnesses.

  by amandm in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i grew up as a witness, and left about 10 years ago, i'm currently researching witness numbers for a project i'm working on, and i can't seem to get an accurate number of baptised witnesses - hardly a surprise!

  from their website it looks like they list the number of publishers instead of the number of baptised witnesses, so it totally works to obscure how many actual witnesses there are, apart from the fact it's morally dubious to class a publisher as a minister of god as they refer to publishers on their uk section of the site.

  i also am trying to work out how many leave every year, even approximate figures would be great, from their own website it just looks like they try to massage figures to make them look as favourable as possible.

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  blondie

  Also regarding the use of the word publisher: I will add that there are quite a few words used by the WTS that are awkward in today's English and can be traced back to the vocabulary of the first years of Russell/Rutherford and the bibles commonly used then. (The first volume of the NWT was printed and available for use in 1950, additional volumes coming about until 1961 when the whole NWT was available).
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  9

  14 kids from the same old congregation

  by StephaneLaliberte in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  this week, while talking with some old friends, i realized that there were at least 14 kids from a congregation in which i grew up that all left the jws.

  that is, 30 to 35 years ago, there were at least 14 kids going to the hall that were of the same “generation” (5 to 13 years old).

  in the last 30 years, they have all left “the truth”.

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  blondie

  In my 60's, it is amazing how many jws only ten years younger have died. The generation above me is almost all gone. I am part of the 1975 generation and those born in that year are approaching 40. If we assume they had to be 10 to understand any of 1975, they would be approaching 50. Soon few will be alive to remember the old doctrines that have changed and a time when a date was set. The last real date before 1975 was 1925 and I had never heard about it until I started researching and reading old books prior to 1945.

  So many of my generation are living their lives out in a bottle. Many are divorced or would be if it weren't so expensive, disappointing the kids, etc.

  I get a little feedback on some of my closer circle. Divorces, early deaths, children not jws, grandchildren not jws, inactive due to cruelty in the congregation, etc. Whereas, jws I knew that have gotten out, are happier, living their present lives not putting them on hold for a non-existent future.

  I hope some of the others wake up. But I am not responsible for them, just my own decisions.
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  18

  1914 Was Originally Just 40 Years Past the End Date of 1874, That's All it Was!

  by OnTheWayOut in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  you don't need to understand complicated ways to go from 607bce to 1914ce.

  you don't have to go back to the late 1700's to understand the founding of jehovah's witnesses on the back of william miller's teachings.

  you just need to know that watchtower math and past doctrines along with changes in teachings are all based on lies.

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  blondie

  The WT Proclaimers book said the following which brought out new dates I knew nothing about.

  https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/1101993039#h=67:0-67:669
  

  Using Bible chronology that had first been laid out by Christopher Bowen of England, they thought that 6,000 years of human history had ended in 1873, that thereafter they were in the seventh thousand-year period of human history, and that they had surely approached the dawn of the foretold Millennium. The series of books known as Millennial Dawn (and later called Studies in the Scriptures), which were penned by C. T. Russell, drew attention to the implications of this according to what the Bible Students understood from the Scriptures.

  Something else that was seen as a possible time indicator involved the arrangement that God instituted in ancient Israel for a Jubilee, a year of release, every 50th year. This came after a series of seven 7-year periods, each of which ended with a sabbath year. During the Jubilee year, Hebrew slaves were freed and hereditary land possessions that had been sold were restored. (Lev. 25:8-10) Calculations based on this cycle of years led to the conclusion that perhaps a greater Jubilee for all the earth had begun in the autumn of 1874, that evidently the Lord had returned in that year and was invisibly present, and that “the times of restitution of all things” had arrived.—Acts 3:19-21, KJ.

  Based on the premise that events of the first century might find parallels in related events later, they also concluded that if Jesus’ baptism and anointing in the autumn of 29 C.E. paralleled the beginning of an invisible presence in 1874, then his riding into Jerusalem as King in the spring of 33 C.E. would point to the spring of 1878 as the time when he would assume his power as heavenly King.* They also thought they would be given their heavenly reward at that time. When that did not occur, they concluded that since Jesus’ anointed followers were to share with him in the Kingdom, the resurrection to spirit life of those already sleeping in death began then. It was also reasoned that the end of God’s special favor to natural Israel down to 36 C.E. might point to 1881 as the time when the special opportunity to become part of spiritual Israel would close.*
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  19

  Publisher numbers versus baptised witnesses.

  by amandm in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i grew up as a witness, and left about 10 years ago, i'm currently researching witness numbers for a project i'm working on, and i can't seem to get an accurate number of baptised witnesses - hardly a surprise!

  from their website it looks like they list the number of publishers instead of the number of baptised witnesses, so it totally works to obscure how many actual witnesses there are, apart from the fact it's morally dubious to class a publisher as a minister of god as they refer to publishers on their uk section of the site.

  i also am trying to work out how many leave every year, even approximate figures would be great, from their own website it just looks like they try to massage figures to make them look as favourable as possible.

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  blondie

  If you look at the KJV which is probably what Russell used, see how the word "publish" is used, not about publishing something in printed form.

  https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=publish&qs_version=KJV

  for example:

  Mark 5:20 King James Version (KJV)

  20 And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.

  https://av1611.com/kjbp/kjv-dictionary/publish.html

  
  

  PUB'LISH, v.t. L.publico. See Public.

  1. To discover or make known to mankind or to people in general what before was private or unknown; to divulge, as a private transaction; to promulgate or proclaim, as a law or edict. We publish a secret, by telling it to people without reserve. Laws are published by printing or by proclamation. Christ and his apostles published the glad tidings of salvation.

  Th' unwearied sun, from day to day,

  Does his Creator's power display;

  And publishes to every land

  The work of an Almighty hand.
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  69

  Don't count on witnessing Watchtower's demise anytime soon.

  by Roger Kirkpatrick in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the fact that there are pomi ex-jws who have been disfellowshiped or inactive for years who still live in constant fear of armageddon indicates that watchtower will manage to exist in one way or another for years, if not decades, to come.

  watchtower, like all other religious cults, operate on the premise that "you can fool some of the people all of the time...and that's enough!

  ".

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  blondie

  Of course, now that President Trump seems to think he is the chosen one, he might be stiff competition for the GB.
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  19

  Publisher numbers versus baptised witnesses.

  by amandm in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i grew up as a witness, and left about 10 years ago, i'm currently researching witness numbers for a project i'm working on, and i can't seem to get an accurate number of baptised witnesses - hardly a surprise!

  from their website it looks like they list the number of publishers instead of the number of baptised witnesses, so it totally works to obscure how many actual witnesses there are, apart from the fact it's morally dubious to class a publisher as a minister of god as they refer to publishers on their uk section of the site.

  i also am trying to work out how many leave every year, even approximate figures would be great, from their own website it just looks like they try to massage figures to make them look as favourable as possible.

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  blondie

  @SlappySlap

  I believe a jw is considered inactive after not turning in a time report for 6 consecutive months.