i just wonder about this topic as it is now 109 years since that date and what was expected to take place has never happened ..
“How can we prove the Messianic kingdom was set up in heaven in 1914?”
They used to use a mathematical formula from 607BCE. You remember, time ,times ,and half a time, and all that.. I have not heard that for years , apart from my diehard old relatives who still remember it. Nowadays they just use observation and some quotes from certain writers. They list World Wars global warming etc as proof that this is the time of the end.
from what i can see no such thing is happening.i became a jw in 1960 and remained for about 30 years and the numbers of active jw`s today in the world are far greater than they were back then.. and here in australia the numbers are much higher than they were back then .. so i don`t see that their in decline or have any worries about losing support .. don`t the numbers speak for themselves ?.
is it just wishful thinking on your part ?.
The numbers reported seem to show they are having slow growth if at all .
What we see with our eyes tells a different story. In my home town today there are less congregations and less Halls than there used to be.
In my youth every congregation had some members who were “coming along “ . Progressive bible studies who were learning the faith and coming in. It was not unusual to have whole families, the father being a smart type who went on to be a servant or elder.
Nowadys I only see kids growing up and taking responsibility and the occasional “study “ who is either an immigrant with poor English or a guy that is “ mentally challenged “ The quality of the converts is not there...
enough rhetoric for now, here is my promised first part to my series.. for the benefit of lurkers, i'm using mainly wt publications as my research to show this information isn't 'apostate'.
part 1: association with russell and the bible students.
i want to ask an honest question.
Without evidence, the words that come to my mind start B / S….
https://avoidjw.org/news/jehovahs-witnesses-mysteriously-deleted-shunning-videos/?fbclid=iwar3jjfsa3zx-4kxrdtjwopmzty-5wxhrxm1-gvjtp9j20ovqfpxh.
Hmmm. You can smell the hand of Legal dept. in a decision to pull these videos. Lately shunning has become a bigger issue than the blood ban .
When I was “in” we accepted the shunning principle but applied it with a dash of common sense. Today they seem to have forgotten the exception for “ necessary family business” . If her mother phoned upset , begged her to answer , how did she know that it was not a bona fide emergency?
We once had a friend, an emotional sister with a d.f daughter. However, the daughter was in an abusive relationship and would call on mother in trouble. Now I knew that their association went beyond that but I did not rat her out to the other elders . I just reminded her of what the rules were and left it to her conscience.
I hate to think how she would get on today.
the above verse is often quoted by jws both in general as a response to the idea of a deathless paradise and/or those promoting vegetarianism or veganism.. a letter in animal frontiers co-signed by nearly a thousand scientists is now warning that meat is crucial for a healthy lifestyle and livestock farming is too important to 'become the victim of zealotry'.. they stated the fact that most humans require the nutrients from eggs, meat and dairy and that plant based alternatives are at least 4x more expensive (which implies much higher energy consumption in the process) and not scalable and outright dangerous to global health to support a large population shift towards them.. they also called out several recent papers for misleading information and even called for the outright retraction of one that said meat substitutions are a viable alternative.. not sure what the modern jw view on this is, i know many people in the borg promoted it back in the day.
just goes to show that science does not support the notion of a global vegan diet..
The question was, What is the JW view on diet? .... the dubs are allowed to eat anything that doesn’t contain blood. As a movement they are not vegetarian. I swear I saw a quick scene in a video depicting New World living where they were enjoying a barbecue.
As to the merits of meat eating or not , you can find an expert to support any view you like. I know that in Asia many people have been vegetarian for millennia and in good health. The majority view of science , as far as I know, is that it takes more of the world’s resources to raise a cow than to grow crops .
The debate will continue......
'the spokesperson also said that church elders are told to report any allegations of child sexual abuse to the authorities immediately, even if there is only one complainant.'.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/rebekah-vardy-sexually-abused-child-jehovahs-witnesses/.
is this true?
So we have to conclude that either
1) There has been a dramatic shift in policy that has not been leaked.
2) The Watchtower speak with a forked tongue saying one thing in public and another to the elders.
3) The news media got it wrong and have reported what they did not say .
I would guess that the latter is most likely…..
we seem to have had an influx of religiots - the people who want to tell us all about how we / the wts / whoever are wrong, wrong, wrong about everything and how right they are.
they obviously have special insight, or voices (probably voices, right?
) telling them the real truth.. as proof, there is inevitably a wall of random scripture references and quotes.. sorry, but we're not here for that.
Simon, I am amazed by this…
“ The site isn't here to host your bible diarrhea, so please don't bother - you're just going to be wasting your time.”
We are here to discuss the Jehovah’s Witnesses and their beliefs. That always means discussions and different opinions and , yes Bible and Scriptural discussion. If not then why are we here ?
If you don’t like us believers talking about it you would be better off starting a forum for atheists and right wing political types.
'the spokesperson also said that church elders are told to report any allegations of child sexual abuse to the authorities immediately, even if there is only one complainant.'.
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/rebekah-vardy-sexually-abused-child-jehovahs-witnesses/.
is this true?
This is printed in the “Independent “ newspaper discussing the Vardy programme. ( as selected by Apple News app)
“ In a statement to the PA news agency, Jehovah’s Witnesses said: “Elders are directed to report an allegation of child sexual abuse to the police ‘even if there is only one complainant and no other corroborating evidence’.”
Well…. That is news to me. I thought here in UK they only did it if they believed a child was in further serious danger and only if directed by the Bethel …..
summary.
the subject of the `wagatha christie" trial investigates the inner workings of the jehovah's witnesses.
having grown up within the faith, she explains how the religion failed to support her through sexual abuse and shunned her as a child.
Stan makes a point,above, that it all adds to the negative publicity on the WTS.
However, I have absolutely zero respect for Rebekah Vardy and her self engineered celebrity status . I would not believe a word she says. My wife purchases a Sunday Mail newspaper ( yes , I know and have told her what a rag that paper is ) In that paper this week was an article by RV about the program which she kept reading out to me …..Frankly, it was a load of old nonsense that any experienced JW would refute. If this stuff is true it seemed more like bad parenting than much real complaint against the Society…
Don’t forget she lost a load of money in that court case ( Jamie must have been mad) She has to get some back somehow……
another topic based on a conversation with a friend living near warwick (i talked to him over the weekend).
he said that cong's in and around bethel, including his, are slowly starting to see an uptick with people attending in person his cong is pretty much 75%+ in person.
however there are many that still use zoom as a fall back.
We always use zoom, no camera, microphone off ...... read the paper, do useful jobs make sarky comments about the meeting
