donny

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Posts by donny

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  9

  Getting to heaven on the wings of Lunestra

  by donny in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  finally i was having an anointed moment.

  i looked up and saw jesus on his throne saying "my dear ray, i am coming soon.

  yes soon i am coming and i will be coming quickly so be prepared.".

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  donny

  Very true my friend!
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  9

  Getting to heaven on the wings of Lunestra

  by donny in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  finally i was having an anointed moment.

  i looked up and saw jesus on his throne saying "my dear ray, i am coming soon.

  yes soon i am coming and i will be coming quickly so be prepared.".

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  donny

  Finally I was having an anointed moment. I looked up and saw Jesus on his throne saying "My dear Ray, I am coming soon. Yes soon I am coming and I will be coming quickly so be prepared."

  It was so vivid and real. Then I felt the room shaking as if in response to what our dear Lord had just declared to me. The shaking got more and more intense until I heard another voice that was quiet at first but slowly getting louder.

  I can hear my name but not much else. At least not yet. There it is again and it's becoming more audible! Wait! I can hear it now. This is so exciting!

  Then the shaking becomes more intense and now I can clearly hear the proclaiming voice now. It's a female voice and she's says "Ray, Ray, wake up!! You are having an allergic reaction to the Lunestra! And why did you respond to me with 'Yes Lord?'"

  After all this time thinking I was heaven bound and now I discovered I just have the earthly hope now.

  Donny Ray
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  11

  The decline and fall of the Watchtower empire..........

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  charisma can work wonders.. it can be both entertaining or maddening to large crowds of eager listeners.. whole populations can be swayed by a silver tongue or mad ranting poison-sac attached to a man leading a movement.. .

  the history of the watchtower society proves this.. leadership is tricky and movements are volatile.

  those who made you can undo you too.. .

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  donny

  I could not have said it better. Great observations Terry.
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  153

  The antidote to the myth that JWs are declining

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  one of the most persistent myths on this website is that jws are already in decline, the rot has set in, and the descent of the watchtower is inevitable from here on in.

  unfortunately the facts do not bear this out.

  jws are still increasing even in most developing countries, and they are still growing worldwide at a faster rate than the general population.

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  donny

  Great post Terry as usual. Your line "As Franz grew more senile and began having conversations with his own shoes" really gave me a good laugh for the day.

  I agree with your accessment. While the JW's may still be increasing in numbers, the ones today do not have the zeal and confidence they had 20 years ago. They just go through the motions and hope that at least something the F&DS says actually comes to pass.
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  14

  Funny experiences while a JW

  by donny in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  do any of you have any funny experiences while you were part of the jw machine?

  back around 1986 i was the ministerial servant in charge of running the sound board in the kingdom hall for our congregation.

  we were the last ones to meet in the hall on weekdays (friday) and the first ones to meet on sunday.

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  donny

  Another funny incident in my congregation occured when two sisters were demonstrating how to overcome objections at the door. The younger of the two walked in from the left side of the stage while carrying a microphone when the cord got caught in a chair and it jerked her arm back. She blurted out "Well Hell!" which was followed by a brief pause and then quickly added "is the common grave of all mankind."

  This was followed by laughter as well as several people clapping for the quick recovery.
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  23

  At what point in the story did WT get it wrong, went off at a tangent?

  by prologos in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  looking at the bible narrative now, with open mind, the talking snake and all, it is a poorly contrived story.

  all these clever people picking up and adding to the thread, the fabric its intriguing, certainly a valued literary work.

  fiction.. using this story wt has woven another, parallel account that you would expect to harmonize with it, and hopefully attempt to connect with reality.. in your thinking, where did wt become unhinged, drifted off into total detachment?.

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  donny

  As some have alreadys stated, it was wrong from the get-go. When you start with a bad foundation, you will end up with a house that may look good on the exterior, but it is always on the verge of collapse. The Society, like many before and after it, tries to pass off a book of stories about the life and times of nomads from the Middle East into the complete history of the beginning of man.

  Then the Society claims to be the only one out of 35,000+ sects that can interpret this history book with accuracy. That in of itself guarantees failure which is precisely what we have seen.
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  34

  Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Curse of Music.

  by donny in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jehovahs witnesses and the curse of music.. .

  i was inspired to write this after listening to a recent podcast of the thinking atheist by seth andrews.

  as many of you know, seth was a devout christian who not only loved contemporary christian music but was one of the hosts of a popular morning show on kxoj in tulsa, oklahoma in the 1990s.

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  donny

  It is funny how so many religious leaders got on the backwards masking issue and made such a big deal about it. Then when some musicians began playing these preachers sermons in reverse and found similar salutations to satan in them, the matter quitely went away.
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  77

  I have said it before

  by mouthy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this time i mean it.. thanks for all the ones that love me .

  i am getting off the site after all these years.. anghard & simon .

  but of late.

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  donny

  Glad to see you back Mouthy!!! You are an instituton here.
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  57

  What rumors have you heard about yourself since leaving?

  by donny in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  good morning all,.

  i have had the opportunity over the last couple of years to speak with a couple of jw's who had either attended the same congregation i did or were married to someone who to the same one.

  for the record, i disassociated myself in 1992 due to being followed around by an elder or two who had heard that i had ray franz's "crisis of conscience" in my possession.

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  donny

  I also heard that I became a producer and director of porn films. Sadly, I never had that opportunity.
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  34

  Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Curse of Music.

  by donny in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jehovahs witnesses and the curse of music.. .

  i was inspired to write this after listening to a recent podcast of the thinking atheist by seth andrews.

  as many of you know, seth was a devout christian who not only loved contemporary christian music but was one of the hosts of a popular morning show on kxoj in tulsa, oklahoma in the 1990s.

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  donny

  Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Curse of Music.
  
  I was inspired to write this after listening to a recent podcast of “The Thinking Atheist” by Seth Andrews. As many of you know, Seth was a devout Christian who not only loved contemporary Chris tian music but was one of the hosts of a popular morning show on KXOJ in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the 1990’s. On this podcast he shared some of the snippets of his shows back in the day showing how he was so into this fast growing music genre, which reminded me of an issue I had back in my days as a Jehovah’s Witness.
  
  For those of you who are Jehovah’s Witnesses or who had previously been such will identify with this particular situation. Long before I joined Jehovah’s Witnesses I was a big fan of music of all types. Neighbors who could hear my music playing could hear a Johnny Cash song followed by a Roger/Zap song and that may be followed by a Black Sabbath or Queen tune.
  
  I spent most of the 1980s as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and a small portion of the 1990s. During this time contemporary Christian music was exploding on religious radio stations and even crossing over to the secular ones. One of the first ones to do this on a big scale was Amy Grant. In 1984 she released the album “Straight Ahead” and this was the first Christian album chart on the Billboard pop album chart.
  
  It was this album that made me become aware of a strange dilemma that faced Jehovah’s Witnesses who really enjoyed listening to music. A young sister in our congregation had a cousin, who was not one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who gave her a cassette that was a copy of an album that she owned and that album was Amy Grant’s “Straight Ahead.” The reason the sister wanted to share it with us is that because the second song on side one is a tune titled “Jehovah.”
  
  She played the tune for me and my then wife and we found it very interesting. Here was somebody from Christendom singing a song utilizing the word Jehovah. The chorus of the song is as follows.
  
  And Jehovah I love You so
  And Jesus I want You to know
  All You've done for me to set me free
  I'll never let You go
  
  It was a cute little song. She made us a copy of the cassette and we played it every now and then as we found it more enjoyable than the songs crafted by the society such as “We are Jehovah’s Witnesses, We speak out in fearlessness” or “From house to house and door to door.” It pains me just repeating these lyrics many years later.
  
  Not long after she had shared Amy Grant song with us, we were on our way to the Kingdom Hall and I thought I was tuning in to a local top 40 radio station when I accidentally tuned into a Christian radio station. Just as I turned the volume up I heard the following lyrics being sung through the speakers;
  
  He's your provider, Jehovah Jireh
  God of salvation, God of Messiah
  The Son He sent to you, He testified of Him
  He is Jehovah, the God that healeth thee
  
  As soon as the song finished the announcer stated that that was the “great Kenneth Copeland.” I picked up a pen that was sitting in the cup holder and I wrote that name on a little pad I kept in there for field service notes.
  
  A couple of weeks went by and I dropped by the record store that I had frequented many times over the years called “The Happening Sound Shop.” I went inside spoke to ol’ Bill. He had opened the record store around 1973 and was still doing pretty good business.
  
  Although he was not distributor of Christian music for the most part he did take the name and looked into a large index of albums that he could order and quickly located it. He told me the name of the album is “He is Jehovah” and wanted to know if I wanted to order it.
  
  I answered in the affirmative so he ordered for me and it came in about a week. When I went to pick it up I did experience a funny feeling knowing that I was buying music put out by a minister of Christendom, but the song did not have anything “wrong” with it. I took it back to the house and played it for my then wife and she liked it as well.
  
  A few days later one of the local elders came by to see if I would be available for a quick-build Kingdom Hall project that would be coming up in the few weeks. While he was there I shared with him this song off of Kenneth Copeland’s album and watched his face go from a smile to one of concern. I was surprised when he told me that, while the song itself was quite biblical, that I should not be listening to this kind of music because it contained too many traps.
  
  He then went on to explain these “traps” and it was both understandable to some degree but also quite confusing. He stated that Jehovah’s Witnesses for the most part choose to select music that comes from secular sources. While this can be a task in filtering out songs that have immoral or vulgar messages, most secular songs are not religious in nature and therefore is not as dangerous as music produced by “Christendom.”
  
  He took the album and looked at the song titles. The last song on side 2 was entitled “Our God reigns.” He asked me to play it and at first there was nothing that seemed “wrong” with the song. In fact the background vocals are saying Jehovah reigns while the lead vocal stated ”Our God reigns.” Then toward the end of the song while these repeating the phrase “Our God Reigns” he suddenly shouts out “Almighty God Jesus of Nazareth and he reigns!”
  
  He looked at me and he said “Do you see what I mean? Most of that song is right on the line until toward the end when he began his Trinitarian tripe. And that is why Jehovah’s Witnesses choose not to get involved with so-called Christian music. The Society suggests that you find enjoyment with the Kingdom Melodies and clean songs from the secular world.”
  
  I found this quite the conundrum. If you enjoy music then you basically just had two sources. If you want biblically based music (so-called) then you have to suffer with the extremely bland tunes written and produced by the Society known as “Kingdom Melodies,” otherwise you have to jump into the realm of secular music which has its own inherent dangers, at least from a Jehovah’s Witness point of view.
  
  Often found it very strange that Christendom could put out such really good music that they found biblically based, but the best that the Society could come up with was the dreadful sounds that seems better suited to playing at places like maximum security prisons and torture camps. Even my non-Jehovah’s Witness mom, who came by for a visit one day while I was playing the Kingdom Melodies stated “What are you listening to it sounds so depressing!“
  
  So did any of you former Jehovah’s Witnesses also find this very confusing and unsettling? Did you have any problems finding good music to listen to? Or did your conscience constantly poke at you as you enjoyed tunes you know you shouldn’t be allowing into your auditory canals?
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3KS8kkC1U8