it would be nice if this little nougat of information could be more widely known - especially by journalists.. the quoted figures for scientology are taken from tony ortega's 2011 article in the village voice, which quotes former scientology pr executive jeff hawkins as saying.... "i know that event attendance internationally was somewhere in the region of 25,000 to 35,000. the international 'bodies in the shop' (people actually in the orgs that week for service) was 16,000 to 18,000. ias was struggling to get 40,000 members.
based on this and a lot of other information i was privy to, i estimate the actual number of scientologists at a maximum of 40,000. that's on the high side.".
portugal is one of 33 countries with more than 40,000 active jehovah's witnesses - demonstrating the gulf in size between the two faiths.. the following list shows all countries with more than 40,000 jws according to their reported peak publishers for 2013.. .
EdenOne:
Why don't we ever get the clearly stated number of how many BAPTIZED and ACTIVE withesses thare are? The number of publishers is interesting,
Because it would make the number who stop reporting more obvious.
but it only obscures matters.
And there's your answer.
it would be nice if this little nougat of information could be more widely known - especially by journalists.. the quoted figures for scientology are taken from tony ortega's 2011 article in the village voice, which quotes former scientology pr executive jeff hawkins as saying.... "i know that event attendance internationally was somewhere in the region of 25,000 to 35,000. the international 'bodies in the shop' (people actually in the orgs that week for service) was 16,000 to 18,000. ias was struggling to get 40,000 members.
based on this and a lot of other information i was privy to, i estimate the actual number of scientologists at a maximum of 40,000. that's on the high side.".
portugal is one of 33 countries with more than 40,000 active jehovah's witnesses - demonstrating the gulf in size between the two faiths.. the following list shows all countries with more than 40,000 jws according to their reported peak publishers for 2013.. .
EdenOne:
Then there is a distinction between what is a "publisher" and what is an "ordained minister", that is, a baptized, active Jehovah's Witness. Why do we never get that figure? I always wondered.
It's a bit tricky for JWs to provide a number of "ordained ministers", because their definition changes depending on the context.
When they want to boast about having no clergy class or that they have high numbers, then every baptized JW is an ordained minister.
When they say JW elders can claim clergy-penitent privilege, then only elders are ministers (and they breach clergy-penitent privilege anyway).
it would be nice if this little nougat of information could be more widely known - especially by journalists.. the quoted figures for scientology are taken from tony ortega's 2011 article in the village voice, which quotes former scientology pr executive jeff hawkins as saying.... "i know that event attendance internationally was somewhere in the region of 25,000 to 35,000. the international 'bodies in the shop' (people actually in the orgs that week for service) was 16,000 to 18,000. ias was struggling to get 40,000 members.
based on this and a lot of other information i was privy to, i estimate the actual number of scientologists at a maximum of 40,000. that's on the high side.".
portugal is one of 33 countries with more than 40,000 active jehovah's witnesses - demonstrating the gulf in size between the two faiths.. the following list shows all countries with more than 40,000 jws according to their reported peak publishers for 2013.. .
cedars:
It would be nice if this little nougat of information could be more widely known
Mmmm... nougat. Probably not what you mean though.
one of the pharoahs that is mentioned in the bible is hophra (aka apries, aka ha'a'ibra wahibra).. jeremiah 44:30 says: "this is what jehovah has said: here i am giving phar aoh hoph ra, the king of egypt, into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those seeking for his soul, just as i have given zedeki ah the king of judah into the hand of nebuchadrez zar the king of babylon, his enemy and the one seeking for his soul.").
the closest the watchtower society gets to attempting to assign any years to hophra is in a questions from readers article in the 1 october 1970, watchtower (incidentally on page 607 of the bound volume).
it states: "egypt made one last attempt to remain a power in asia.
Band on the Run:
What do Egyptian historians relate concerning the time span.
Unsurprisingly, Egyptian records support the accepted Neo-Babylonian chronology.
There is no evidence that Egypt was ever completely depopulated. However, if viewed from the perspective of Hophra, with whom Zedekiah was allied, then Egypt's 'desolation' could be seen as starting from Hophra's defeat. After Hophra was defeated, the reign of Amasis II continued for... forty years.
a recent thread about this week's study of the watch tower society's god's word for us through jeremiah led me to decide to review how much of the bible book of jeremiah is actually considered in that publication.. unlike other watch tower society verse-by-verse considerations of some bible books, their jeremiah book instead purports to impart lessons 'for us'.
key scriptures in jeremiah contradict jw doctrine, so a verse-by-verse approach was out of the question, probably having learned from their daniel and isaiah efforts that expose problems with jw interpretations.. one good feature of the watchtower library on cd-rom is you can search for a scripture, then find all the search occurences for where that scripture has been cited in jw publications, which made the process much easier.. in god's word for us through jeremiah, much of the bible book of jeremiah is ignored altogether.
in fact, less than half of the bible book is mentioned at all, and only 16% of jeremiah is actually quoted (including portions with the instruction to "read" the cited verses.
i was talking with a jw i've known a long time and the topic of da new order came up.
she mentioned how nice it will be when all animals are at peace.
i asked why they had camouflage and defensive and offensive weapons if they were to always get along?
Thomas was repeating what was already jewish tradition. You can follow the scroiptures from the seraphim article and you will notice there are flying snakes throughtout the bible.
Theres a thought from Maimonedes the most famous jewish intellect on their culture and he confirms this tradition.
This conclusion is based on conflating the meanings of saraph (burning) and nachash (snake), on the basis that some snakes are described as 'saraph (burning) nachash (snake)'. saraph is used of 'snakes' that cause 'burning' (i.e. painful venomous bites), and seraphim is used of 'angels' that are 'as if on fire'. However, this is not a valid basis for concluding that nachash and seraphim are synonymous. The thing that 'saraph nachash' and 'seraphim' have in common is the 'burning' part, not the 'snake' part.
If I say the blue car, and elsewhere I talk about the blue ones, it doesn't mean that I'm still talking about cars just because something else is blue.
i was talking with a jw i've known a long time and the topic of da new order came up.
she mentioned how nice it will be when all animals are at peace.
i asked why they had camouflage and defensive and offensive weapons if they were to always get along?
adamah:
Both the WTBTS ... have produced artwork that shows a legged serpent
The Watchtower, 15 June 2007, page 31:
Questions From Readers - Did the serpent that spoke to Eve have legs?
The Bible does not specifically state that the animal used in tempting Eve had previously had legs but lost them. While the wording of Genesis 3:14 might lead some to think so, we need not necessarily conclude that prior to this curse, serpents had legs.
Gee, I wonder why "some" might have been 'led to think so'...
The Watchtower, 1 June 1964, page 352:
Questions From Readers - Did the serpent lose legs or feet as means of movement as a result of the divine curse recorded at Genesis 3:14?
It, therefore, is reasonable to conclude that before God cursed it the serpent possessed legs that elevated it above the ground. As he had the power to create the serpent in the first place, God had the power to transform its body so that it ceased to have legs and was able to move about on its belly.
their email address is: xxxxx.
and their message is:.
you probably would say, 'i didn't abandon him, i can still serve him on my own.
Because in reality you were just one of these strong women who didn't know how to stay in your place and faithfully serve Jehovah.
What were you thinking, woman?! Go and make me a sandwich.
i was talking with a jw i've known a long time and the topic of da new order came up.
she mentioned how nice it will be when all animals are at peace.
i asked why they had camouflage and defensive and offensive weapons if they were to always get along?
mP:
This either means it had legs or it flew. Given the other scriptures talking about flying snakes or serpahim its obvious what it did "before" it went on its belly.
look up the articles on seraphim and follow the various links
You're taking something much later from Thomas Aquinas (and other Christian writers) and retconning the story about the snake in Genesis.
It is possible that the locomotion of the snake in the story in Genesis was influenced by earlier myths about winged snakes, but it's not obvious.
i was talking with a jw i've known a long time and the topic of da new order came up.
she mentioned how nice it will be when all animals are at peace.
i asked why they had camouflage and defensive and offensive weapons if they were to always get along?
mP:
Apparently snakes flew before they got punished
Winged snakes is indeed a theme in various ancient mythologies. But Genesis doesn't seem to say anything about snakes flying. Can you explain? Which verses? Or which Hebrew words? Strongs numbers?
