the wapo has a front page expose on the mormon church avoiding taxes on billions of dollars under the cloak of religion.
link here: (need to disable popups).
washington post online.
I'd bet a plate of doughnuts that the WTS has a similar scandal just waiting in the wings to be exposed....
True they don't collect for "charity", and their members are, as a rule, far less wealthy than the typical Mormon....but there are still 9 or 10-digit sums of money earmarked for "Worldwide Work" that are probably , well, let's just say not going to support Sam & Suzy Missionary in Mudhutville, Angola.
according today's watchtower, all the remaining ones of the anointed ones will be in heaven when the great tribulation breaks to join jesus in the battle against evil.
the watchtower was making the point that at that time god's organization will be ran by members of the 'other sheep'.
it didn't say how these remaining ones find themselves in heaven, but presumably they will be taken, i.e.
Jehovah`s Witnesses / GB ,just do not want to use the same wording where they can avoid it as Christendom does, they have to be different.
Yup.
My personal pet peeve - they for some reason can't bring themselves to use the simple, eloquent, profound word "grace" - why? Because "Christendom" uses it.
Instead they use the awful, clunky, awkward, depressing "undeserved kindness".
according today's watchtower, all the remaining ones of the anointed ones will be in heaven when the great tribulation breaks to join jesus in the battle against evil.
the watchtower was making the point that at that time god's organization will be ran by members of the 'other sheep'.
it didn't say how these remaining ones find themselves in heaven, but presumably they will be taken, i.e.
Therefore, while we do not use the term “rapture” here because of its wrong connotation, the remaining faithful
anointed will be gathered together in an instant of time.
Gotta love the mealy-mouthed weasel-worded walkback on this.
"Yeah, sure, it looks like a rapture, and sounds like a rapture, and smells like a rapture...but we don't use the word 'rapture' ".
.
Quiet, you!
How dare you point out the fallacies & absurdities of JW doctrine.
What are you, an apostate?
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.
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.
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 .
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.
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.
"I'm certain Ronald Reagan is the president that will usher in Armageddon".
Spoken to me nearly 40 years ago.
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).
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.
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”?
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!"
i am wondering how many of the older publications they include these days?.
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.
