slimboyfat

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Posts by slimboyfat

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  24

  The Incredible Shrinking Watchtower -- What's Up?

  by Room 215 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  what's up with this?

  it seems that with the january study magazine it's been trimmed by by four pages.

  have any of you commented on this?.

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  slimboyfat

  Just when you think cutbacks have reached their limit, they keep cutting back.

  Hang on, it seems they’ve moved the contents page to the back of the magazine, that’s all. Still 32 pages. Or what do you mean?
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  27

  WATCHTOWER has posted a $40,000,000 bond !

  by ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  watctower has posted a $40,000,000 bond following montana's upholding of the nunez v watchtower verdict of 2018. punitive damages have been upheld, and wt has purchased the bond from travelers insurance (35m+ interest)-montana sc will rule later this year on the appeal.. .

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  slimboyfat

  Say what? It doesn’t necessarily spell imminent Watchtower demise after all? Bummer! Morph, stand down from red allert.

  But the days are coming...
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  107

  The Mueller Report....will it affect Trump negatively?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  they say it will be out any day soon.

  do you think the report will do major damage to trump?.

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  slimboyfat

  Tump didn’t collude with the Russians?

  Pah! Fake news!
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  27

  WATCHTOWER has posted a $40,000,000 bond !

  by ZindagiNaMilegiDobaara in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  watctower has posted a $40,000,000 bond following montana's upholding of the nunez v watchtower verdict of 2018. punitive damages have been upheld, and wt has purchased the bond from travelers insurance (35m+ interest)-montana sc will rule later this year on the appeal.. .

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  slimboyfat

  Watchtower doesn’t have $40 million cash? Oh dear. Can you spell Watchtower collapse, Morph? Wherever you are...
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  37

  My mom

  by vienne in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i'm annie, rachael's daughter.

  mom died yesterday.

  i can't find a way to delete her account here.

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  slimboyfat

  I am so sorry Annie you have lost your mum at such a young age. That was younger even than I imagined. I don’t know if Watchtower history interests you at all. But even if it doesn’t it’s good to know your mum’s work is appreciated and made an impact. In particular a recent book by historian Zoe Knox acknowledged the contribution to the subject. I know many who will be hopeful about the next volume being published.
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  37

  My mom

  by vienne in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i'm annie, rachael's daughter.

  mom died yesterday.

  i can't find a way to delete her account here.

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  slimboyfat

  This is awful news. I knew your mum was unwell, but not very old. This is a complete shock. I am so sorry for your loss Annie.
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  22

  The ineffectiveness of the Watchtower Society preaching work

  by RULES & REGULATIONS in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  how can the watchtower society claim effectiveness in their 140 years of preaching the ''good news''..... spending billions of hours in ''field service'', having the ''faithful and discreet slave'' lead the preaching work, passing out billions of watchtower literature since the 1870's, while the pentecostals have been more effective using other evangelical methods?

  congregations.

  119,954. members.

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  slimboyfat

  I think there are a few things to bear in mind with this comparison.

  How many actually congregations do Pentecostals have? I doubt there are as many times the number of congregations of Pentecostals as there are adherents when comparing them with JWs.

  The number of JW congregations worldwide is actually pretty impressive. Only the Catholic Church and a couple of other church organisations have more congregations worldwide than JWs.

  And you are treating all Pentecostals as one group. Pentecostals consist of a huge number of different organisations with variations in belief and practice.

  Plus Pentecostals are considered by most to be a denomination of Christianity, with mostly orthodox beliefs, so conversion to Pentecostalism is not as great a leap as it is for those leaving Christian groups to join JWs.

  A huge part of Pentecostal growth has been in Latin America where millions of Catholics moved over as part of a wider political and social phenomenon that involved breaking up traditional power structures including the Catholic Church. There has been a trend for some who joined the Pentecostal movement to go back to the Catholic Church as the church attempted to address the concerns of many who had left.

  My own observation of Pentecostal churches in the UK is that the long-standing groups such as Assemblies of God and Elim Pentecostal are subject to decline as all mainline churches. The only Pentecostal churches continuing to enjoy any growth are the ones supported by immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean. In my town the Assemblies of God Church closed a few years ago and the Elim church has declined significantly. There is a local variant of Pentecostalism which is peculiar to the area, and resulted from 1950s and 1990s (Toronto blessing) revivals. But this small group has declined over the last 20 years from around ten churches locally, to three small churches.

  Pentecostal churches generally are characteristed by temporary bursts of activity and expansion, followed by decline and closure.
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  18

  I thought this comment was interesting from the LDS

  by joe134cd in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  here is a you tube video made by a ex-lds member.. the comment made at the 5:48 min mark i found very interesting.. https://youtu.be/hjw4nazuzzy.

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  slimboyfat

  It’s interesting she says the Mormon church is worth around $40 billion and they collect around $8 billion from the membership each year. That sounds possible to me, and if it is remotely true, it puts firmly into perspective the windfall of around $1 to $2 billion Watchtower received from the sale of Brooklyn properties.

  Presumably a lot of Mormon income comes from investment of various kinds. In the UK a lot of churches derive substantial income from letting out property they own. I don’t think Watchtower does any of that, which puts Watchtower at a distinct disadvantage. On top of discouraging education and historically denouncing churches that collect tithes or collections during services, it’s no wonder that Watchtower is in financial trouble. Add in the fact that literature production is now a net drain on resources and increasing legal fees and payouts, Watchtower faces serious financial challenges to say the least.
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  25

  A Question for Born-ins Who Had a Parent Leave the Cult Before They Did

  by jp1692 in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  question: have any of you that are now exjws had a parent leave the religion before you, and you shunned them because of that?

  if so—and while you were still in the cult—what, if anything, could your parent have done to reach your heart and begin a reconciliation?

  it’s been almost ten years since i left the religion and my two sons continue to shun me and rebuff all efforts i make to reconcile.

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  slimboyfat

  I’m sorry for your predicament jp1692. The only thing I can think might work at this point is to stop trying. If you are periodically contacting them, then each time you try to contact them they are confirming in their own mind their decision to shun you, and it gets lodged deeper and deeper. There is a sunk cost fallacy too, where each instance of shunning becomes more costly to overturn because of all the previous investment in shunning. So perhaps it would be good to remove the opportunities for them to actively shun you by stopping contact. It may just give them enough space to wonder, reconsider, and react differently sometime years down the line. (In order to make them wonder it would be important not to announce it either, saying “this is the last time I’m going to contact you, and I hope you stop and think about it”, but instead abruptly halt attempts to contact)

  I’m sorry there are no good solutions in this situation.
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  35

  Do You Think The Bible Teaches A Trinity As Religions Teach?

  by minimus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i’m not asking whether you believe in the bible.

  i just want your opinion as to whether you think the bible teaches it.

  i don’t, for what it’s worth..

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  slimboyfat

  John 1 doesn’t teach that Jesus is the creator on any reasonable reading.

  1. It says the Word was “with” God.

  2. Verse 3 says God created “through” the Word.

  3. The Word is described as “god” without the article not “God” with the article.

  4. Verse 18 says that the Word is an “only begotten god”, not almighty God.

  5. The rest of the gospel teaches that Jesus owes his life and is obedient to God, such as John 6:57.

  6. Early interpreters such as Origen said that John 1 presents Jesus as a “second God”.

  7. In John 8:58 Jesus was claiming to be older than Abraham and identifying himself as the messiah. He is not claiming to be eternal. In fact he elsewhere stated that he is not eternal. (John 6:57 and elsewhere)

  8. I admit that John 20:28 is a problem and I don’t know what the answer is. But given everything else the book says about Jesus I just don’t think it makes sense to conclude that the author believes Jesus is almighty God.