the watchtower—study edition | november 2021. .
13. how did prayer help one family who were unjustly treated?.
13 consider the experience of a sister named vero, who lives in the democratic republic of the congo.
I am not in a position to say whether their experiences are made up.. and neither is anyone. But I will say that for every one that gets an escape , a dozen more seem to get the chop.. as seen in Russia.
So what is the criteria for protection? They can never answer that ....
I won’t knock the concept of prayer. If you believe in God it is all part of faith
who has more power in the body of elders in watchtower.
is it the cboe, secretary, service overseer or who?
i am just wondering since in my congo there seems to be cowards among them..
Punk and D of C have nailed it. In my experience the most assertive elder has his opinions listened to. That is human nature, I guess.
When the Presiding Overseer became the Co-ordinater it was meant to show that there was no superiority but in practice little changed . Mostly the COBE is the smartest one and has been appointed by the C.O. , so he takes charge.
In my last appointment, the PO and Service Overseer ruled the roost , a third elder always agreed with what they said, leaving me and another decent elder always out voted.
rutherford said:.
a few words like the above pronounced at the beginning of the study would be far more beneficial than to occupy the same time in singing songs, which often express much that is out of harmony with the truth of and concerning god's kingdom.watchtower/1938/may/1st/pg.139 .
back then, they had what was called: order of study, and this is what every overseer was instructed to say to the audience.. .
Why is it not surprising that JFR wanted to ban singing and music? He wanted to stop birthdays, Mother’s Day and most pleasureable things , except Whisky and nice cars for himself!
The really old , pre Rutherford songs were pretty gutsy , passionate, and often cribbed from hymn tunes. Once on the website they did a “look back “ video and it was someone singing Watchtower words but to the unmistakable tune of John Brown’s Body.
In my distant youth , the old green songbook had some favourites. They were tougher, anti Satan, anti the Church and tunes that stuck in your mind. We used to raise the Kingdom Hall roof , with dear old Sister Nellie pounding away at the piano......
Todays offerings are bland , pathetic nonentities.
i can remember when i was in that there were numerous articles and assembly talks about not using the congregation as a means of making money from a captive audience of brothers and sisters.. i was looking at the etsy website and stumbled upon a jw themed product.. i wondered if there were any more and discovered that there were lots.
mind you maybe it's people who have left who see an opportunity for making money from gullible jws.. https://www.etsy.com/uk/search?q=jehovah%27s%20witness%20letter%20writing&ref=auto-1.
Firms like Bennet Cards and Ministry Ideas ( spellings?) claim to be run by active Witnesses. They seem to be accepted as legit and are well used by the dubs I know.
i was on a jw page recently and some dubs were openly predicting the end of the world in a year.
mike flynn (trump advisor) mentioned having one religion in america and the dubs went crazy.
someone even mentioned 1975 on the thread.. it seems to have since been deleted; but there were about 50 comments before i couldn't find it again.
It is a well known fact that if you are expecting something, every possible sound or sighting makes you think “ That’s It ! “..If you are looking out for someone you think you see their face in every crowd.
It’s the same with dubs and the News . When George Bush No.1 used the phrase “New World Order”, we all jumped to conclusions..
Some years back an Awake cover highlighted a U N Resolution that some critics thought could potentially be used to curb religion. Of course nothing ever came of it .
If you want to see something..... you probably will think you do see it.
the major topic of conversation was that almost all do not want to go back to the meetings and field service!
and we are talking very zealous and active witnesses!
.
Some of the fringe drifters will have disappeared during Covid, but you know what?
The sheeplike obedient will have a private grumble about going back but they will fall in line and do it. Once into routine it will seem normal. They have too much to lose by not going.
"the campaign will feature the distribution of a special edition of the watchtower magazine containing the cover series “a better world is near.”".
"more than 36 million printed copies of the magazine will be distributed in some 230 languages to communities in 240 lands around the globe.
in addition, the digital publication is available on various platforms in nearly 400 languages.".
From the Midweek Meeting Workbook September...
“During November, we will make a special effort to share the good news that a better world is near. (Ps 37:10, 11; Re 21:3-5) Adjust your schedule to share fully in this campaign. If you sign up to serve as an auxiliary pioneer for the month, you may choose a 30- or 50-hour requirement.”
The Watchtower was No2 , 2021
Beats me how they do this with no public ministry? That is an awful lot of letters !
david splane says at 28:00 'our god loves us and he will never allow his people come to harm'.. .
https://youtu.be/il6re_v3twm?t=1680.
yet, in a confidential letter addressed to all special full-time servants at bethel and in the field, dated august 6, 2021, they stated that nearly 20,000 jehovah's witnesses have died.. .
Watched the full thing on the JW site.....
Now , I am a fully vaccinated, mask wearing , social distancing person and an advocate of these things BUT for him to say (in flowery terms) that to follow taking such measures is following the direction of God and Scripture is a missaplying of those Scriptures.
He says to listen to him and his seven companions is to listen to God.... disobey and be disobedient to God.!
I call that blasphemy.
david splane says at 28:00 'our god loves us and he will never allow his people come to harm'.. .
https://youtu.be/il6re_v3twm?t=1680.
yet, in a confidential letter addressed to all special full-time servants at bethel and in the field, dated august 6, 2021, they stated that nearly 20,000 jehovah's witnesses have died.. .
" God loves us and will never allow his people to come to harm"
That is a rallying slogan .... like a general firing up his troops by saying " For King and Country we stand and will always be victorious!"
Nobody takes that really literally. Everyone knows that casualties occur and the outcome is uncertain.
Its just words, padding and filling .
NB.. if you believe Splane, with his record of spewing bullshit , - you'ld believe anything.
every day someone somewhere is being disfellowshipped.
after the trauma of being cast out and shunned by relatives and friends, many exjw's start an investigation of the watchtower society.. they begin to collect every scrap of evidence they can get their hands on to prove they were lied to.. some of these archives may come in handy.
if you need something and it is not in an archive somewhere, send me a pm and i'll see if we can get it for you.
Well done Atlantis.... Your ☕️ Is well deserved.
