Posts by sir82

16

JW views on saving and retirement

by neat blue dog in

probably one of the most common causes of cognitive dissonance many jws face is the choice to plan for retirement.

if you're a good jw, then you should believe that the end will be coming soon, surely before you retire.

that's what i did when i was younger, blowing decades that could've been better spent because i believed the end was coming, so any planning was a waste of time.

sir82

One congregation I attended had more than the usual share of wealthy JWs.

They spouted the party line of "Armageddon soon", but they said it with almost a wink, while building up massive portfolios of investments and engaging in business dealings that secured a comfortable lifestyle in their "golden years".

In that congregation there were also some very (well, relatively) "poor ones". Not much of a middle class in that congregation. Those ones were almost proud of their complete lack of financial planning - "oh, we just rely on Jehovah".

That's been my experience - the handful of wealthy JWs act like anyone else in the "world" and invest prudently for the future, while the majority of the not-wealthy proudly view their lack of finances as a sort of proof of their faith.

15

Yesterday's Watchtower Study (from October issue) "Stay Faithful Through the Gt. Tribulation"

by BluesBrother in

this article has all the trappings of wts apocalyptic theology, doom and destruction for "the world" salvation into paradise for the faithful .a schedule of future events is described thus :.

1) a worldwide proclamation of peace and security.

2) the destruction of "babylon the great"......it confidently names the characters from this visionary biblical reference, without any supporting reasons.. 3)the nations will then , as gog of magog , attack the wts and the members .

sir82

They keep harping on about "the destruction of Babylon the Great, the destruction of false religion".

I've never figured out - how does one "destroy" a religion?

People have believed some really bizarro $#!+ for thousands and thousands of years, often in the face of intense persecution and even martyrdom - most of those, from the JW viewpoint, "false" religions.

How exactly is a "coalition of nations" going to "destroy" all of the world's religions simultaneously?

What, exactly, are these "nations" going to do? In detail? Who precisely will do exactly what to specifically whom?

The longer you think about it (well, any amount of time beyond 10 seconds) the more utterly, preposterously absurd it all becomes.

23

Stupid armageddon false alarms

by purrpurr in

when i was 5/6 i remember being in the car with my jw mom and a jw sister.

they noticed a yellow ish glowing cloud in the sky which really freaked them out and they both declared that it must be a sign that armageddon was here!

they then spent the whole car trip declaring that the police and army were about to come and round up all of us.

sir82

"I'm certain Ronald Reagan is the president that will usher in Armageddon".

Spoken to me nearly 40 years ago.

21

local, strange jw thinking

by lancelink in

i was reading today that the last star wars movie will be playing next week.

doing a little searching, i found that there have been 12 movies in the saga total, ( box office, total (12 films): $9.323 billion.)..

it got me thinking about when the empire strikes back came out, it was the second movie ( 1980).

sir82

Does anyone else have a situation where you realized that your local group of jw's had some unreal thinking ?

How about comments like this:

"How good that [popular actor / musician / celebrity] has died! Now he'll be resurrected and get to enjoy paradise!"

Which of course highlights [logical absurdity number 12,458] of JW doctrine: If JW teachings were true, people would be better off dying now rather than continuing to live and risking eternal destruction at Armageddon because they rejected a mumbled 30 second magazine presentation by a bored teenager. People would be better off, in the long run, if JWs committed mass murder rather than trying to preach.

45

Living in the last of the last days - A new prophecy

by Listener in

although not a new concept by the watchtower, particularly in public talks and at assemblies, they have now put this prophecy in writing.watchtower oct 2019 page 8 -13 study no.40 titled -keep busy during the last of "the last days".

the first paragraph asks '1.

what convinces us that we are living in “the last days”?

sir82

The last of the last days. I wonder if it will catch on

You betcha!

Regional Convention theme 2025: "The Last Hours of the Last Days"

Regional Convention theme 2030: "The Last Minutes of the Last Hours of the Last Days"

Regional Convention theme 2040: "The Last Seconds of the Last Minutes of the Last Hours of the Last Days"

Regional Convention theme 2050: "Wait! Come Back! Any Second Now! We Really Mean It This Time!"

5

Question About JW Library

by millie210 in

i am wondering how many of the older publications they include these days?.

sir82

They recently added a bunch of publications from the 60's,70's, & 80's - Truth book, Live Forever, I think some of those 400 pagers from the early 70's, etc.

I have no idea if they have modified them from their original content. It was bad enough to slog through them the first time, I have no interest in doing it again.

45

Living in the last of the last days - A new prophecy

by Listener in

although not a new concept by the watchtower, particularly in public talks and at assemblies, they have now put this prophecy in writing.watchtower oct 2019 page 8 -13 study no.40 titled -keep busy during the last of "the last days".

the first paragraph asks '1.

what convinces us that we are living in “the last days”?

sir82

They admit that they cannot give a date so instead they have basically sectionalized the last days.

Why not?

You've got overlapping generations, why not overlapping last days?

I'm waiting for the study article that reads "we are now well into the 2nd century of the last days...."

93

Ewart Chitty

by NoAbuse in

jw
friends

ewart chitty was appointed as secretary-treasurer , which position he held until his appointment to the governing body in november 1974.. when in brooklyn, chitty seems to have preferred younger men as roommates.

the actual charge brought to the gb against chitty was made by a former roommate and involved some sort of inappropriate conduct.

the gb concluded that chitty had homosexual tendencies, and asked him to resign.. a rare photo of chitty in happier days.

sir82

A relative of mine got tickets for me. I drove to Pittsburgh for the Centennial meeting

I was there!

We probably bumped shoulders, or passed each other on the way in/out of the loo, or something.

I have almost no recollection of the event though. I seem to recall Fred Franz talking for a long time, though I have no idea what the topic was.

27

Scowled At By A JW

by pale.emperor in

yesterday i got home from work and decided to buy a case of beer because, why not?

it’s monday.

the shop is conveniently round the corner from my place.

sir82

What, you weren't immediately touched by the love & concern she had for a "lost sheep"?

Guess you still don't have the right "heart condition".

18

JW's revelling in their online statistic...

by The Fall Guy in

...that their web site is the most translated in the world.. https://www.tomedes.com/translator-hub/most-translated-website.php.

do jw's genuinely believe that statistics prove divine backing?

you can fool some of the people some of the time...there are lies, damned lies, and statistics!.

sir82

You reach a point of diminishing returns after a few dozen languages, let alone 1000+.

The 100th most common language in the world is spoken by about 7 million people, which is something like 0.1% of the population.

By the time you get down to language number 1000, you are at best in the 100's of thousands of speakers, probably less.

Consider all the millions of dollars sunk into building "Remote Translation Offices" all over the world, translating "literature" into obscure tribal African or Asian languages that maybe, at best, a couple hundred people will ever read.....

Why, you'd almost think that the WTS is more a real estate development corporation rather than a "religion".