Posts by slimboyfat

110

References to YHWH in ancient documents

by Doug Mason in

page 15 of awake!

2017 provides an image that shows hebrew writing with the statement: “the personal name of god written in ancient hebrew characters appears abundantly in early manuscripts of the bible”.. alongside that image, the awake!

provides a listing to show “the rendering of ‘god’s name’ in various languages”.. the facts do not support either assertion that the watchtower society makes:.

slimboyfat

Have you read "The Earliest Non-Mystical Jewish Use of Iao", by Frank Shaw?

https://www.amazon.com/Earliest-Non-Mystical-Contributions-Biblical-Exegesis/dp/9042929782

In light of the evidence presented in the book, including the Leviticus fragment, onomastica, Roman and Jewish sources, for the widespread use of Iao, I think this statement is difficult to maintain:

Toward the end of the Hellenistic period and during the Roman period, Jews, especially Jews of the Diaspora but probably also Jews living in Judea, avoided pronouncing the name “YHWH".

16

Consolidation of Bethel Big-Wigs Now?

by The Fall Guy in

a reliable source has informed me that a bethel contact has informed them that paul gillies - a london branch committee heavyweight - is moving to warwick to join the legal department there.

anyone else aware of this?.

during the recent court case in russia, he posed for a photograph with the gb member and the rest of the wt a-team..

slimboyfat

I don't think they have enough money to complete Chelmsford. They'll probably close the Britain branch or replace it with a small office and rapture a select few ancient worthies to upstate New York.

15

Resource For All Congregations in the United Kingdom

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

the complete resource to all congregations in the uk (inc northern ireland) is available.. all information is publicly available and is considered correct as of today.. as with any file this large, there may be mistakes.

if you find any, please let me know.. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rz0dqqh3p6rlkbylpppr6x5nx8lbslao.

slimboyfat

On the JW website Ardrishaig is no longer listed as a congregation.

I'm also pretty sure Inverness had two congregation at one time. But I don't know how long ago it would have closed. A bit vaguer than that I also think Perth had three congregations at one time and Ardrossan and Stevenston had their own congregations (distinct from Kilbirnie). But I have no idea how I would verify any of that.

I have noticed that well over half of the congregations in Scotland collected less money in 2017 than 2016. I considered adding it all up but I don't know I can be bothered.

15

Resource For All Congregations in the United Kingdom

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

the complete resource to all congregations in the uk (inc northern ireland) is available.. all information is publicly available and is considered correct as of today.. as with any file this large, there may be mistakes.

if you find any, please let me know.. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rz0dqqh3p6rlkbylpppr6x5nx8lbslao.

slimboyfat

Thank you.

From this information it seems that Cumbernauld North has closed and combined with Cumbernauld South to from simply "Cumbernauld" congregation?

https://www.oscr.org.uk//charities/search-scottish-charity-register/charity-details?charitynumber=SC018371

https://www.oscr.org.uk//charities/search-scottish-charity-register/charity-details?charitynumber=SC018372

Ardrishaig has also recently downgraded from a congregation to a group.

17

Will The Governing Body Be Resigning From Controlling The Corporation When Things Get Worse And Worse?

by Brokeback Watchtower in

will they be making a lot of their gb helpers full fledge gb?

i think as they continue to loose money and members and contributions dry up, that many might be thinking how to get out of this financial mess with some sort of golden parachute, and hand over the reigns to their helpers.. i'm sure with all this bad that is happening to the corporation they would welcome an early retirement with a nice comfy nest egg away from all this bad publicity away from the public eye.

why do they want to keep fighting a losing battle give over their power for a nice comfy retirement.

slimboyfat

Benedict was the first pope to resign in hundreds of years, so why not? They'd need to make an excuse, but that should be easy. They simply introduce a retirement age of 70 or 75. Herd and Loesch look particularly tired with the whole thing. I think they'd be happy to resign/retire.

17

They have to step down

by Gorbatchov in

jw
friends

with all the leaked information, it has to be a one way direction to the exit for the watchtower leadership and gb.. they can not stay.. it can take time, but this is the only scenario.. g..

slimboyfat

Maybe most of them should step down. Apart from possibly Mark Sanderson. I have hopes for him.

Even the pope stepped down, Do you know how they could do this? They could simply set a retirement age for GB members at 75 or so. How many would that eliminate? Maybe it wouldn't get rid of Tony Morris though, who is the worst.

15

Resource For All Congregations in the United Kingdom

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

the complete resource to all congregations in the uk (inc northern ireland) is available.. all information is publicly available and is considered correct as of today.. as with any file this large, there may be mistakes.

if you find any, please let me know.. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rz0dqqh3p6rlkbylpppr6x5nx8lbslao.

slimboyfat

The registered charities tab doesn't work for me. The information I really wanted is a list of Scottish congregations. I notice you list 107 here instead of the 108 in the initial post.

Plus the initial post also indicated that an implausibly high number of congregations closed in Norther Ireland. They are the kind of numbers I would double check in case there is a mistake somewhere.

21

Joe attends Iglesia Ni Christo church service

by joe134cd in

well i have heard various comments about them on here, so last week i decided to do an internet search on them.

i was quite surprised to find there was an inc in my local area and ironically only meters away from the kh.. it was very interesting to say the least, and in the short time i was there i could quite understand how they get there reputation as a high control religion if not a cult.

in some respects i think they are probably more jw than the jws.. let me explain how my visit went.

slimboyfat

Have you got a link to statistics for the group?

They may have missed the boat in terms expanding into the west. JWs and Mormons had most of their success in pretty short windows of growth during the 1940/50s and 1970s. Most of the JWs I know came in, or their parents or grandparents came in, either soon after the Second World War, or in the lead up to 1975. (There was very little growth in the 1960s for some reason) And most of those who came in did so after moving to a new location and losing touch with family and friends. I don't think religions similar to JWs or Mormons would have the same success now as JWs did in the 1950s or 1970s.

If the INC collect tithes then I can well understand that their organisation has more money than JWs, even if their members are poor. JWs are in the pretty unique situation among religious organisations of having relied so heavily upon a source of income (publishing) that has completely dried up. In fact worse than dried up. Publishing has changed from being a tremendous source of income, to being a huge financial drain. They don't have a tradition of collecting donations and it's proving pretty difficult for them to persuade their members to begin contributing large amounts of money now.

6

A Graphic History of the World in Nineteen Minutes

by fulltimestudent in

jw
friends

a great animation, showing the spread of humans across the globe (something like a troublesome rash spreading over your body).

then, on to the gradual poltiticisation of humanity.

interesting to watch the animated hi-speed spread of the mongol empire, which scared the sh*t out of europe.. the animation doesn't show religious brands (except islam, which was both a religious brand and a political brand).

slimboyfat

I like this. I especially enjoyed the explosion of the Mongol Empire, the early Viking expansion into North America, and early African and pre-Colombian civilisations.

It must have taken an enormous amount of time and effort, and involved countless judgments that could be debated endlessly, no doubt.

25

UK congregations transferred more than £4 million during 2015-17 to Watchtower HQ

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

*** due to formatting issues when posting, i will be posting stats as a separate replies to this thread ***.

stats as of january 13, 2018. .

england and wales: 1,325 congregations.

slimboyfat

Have you got a list of the 108 congregations in Scotland? I would really appreciate this!

By the way there is an Assembly Hall in Scotland in Livingston.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/4762583112351744/scotland-livingston-kingdom-hall

When you consider Chelmsford was estimated to cost well over £100 million, a few million gathered from congregation funds is not a lot.

Selling KHs on the other hand might gather some serious money. If they have around 1000 KHs in the UK, worth on average £200,000 or so (to take into account cheap rural locations as well as London property) that's £200 million. But they can't sell all KHs, or most of them, without actually liquidating the religion. Can they?