one thing (among many) that always bothered me about jw teachings is what happens to the soul when we die.
sure god could be capable of creating a body and implanting it with all of our life experiences an memories.
but how would not be a just a clone instead of being actually us?
Good point, the Watchtower soul sleep doctrine is not nearly as satisfying as that of an eternal soul.
But how would not be a just a clone instead of being actually us?
It would be just a clone, which means there is nothing to stop God creating hundreds such clones whilst we are still alive.
i thought i'd share the 2014 yearbook stats.
i converted the file to excel format & sorted the increase in publisher's column from largest to smallest.
as i suspected, the growth is limited to a very few # of "lands.
That is a great table. I hope you don't mind if I take your figures add it to an article I am writing for jwfacts.com. Interesting to see that the relgion is having very little success in the majority of the world.
I think the highest defn you will get from the internet is to download a Watchtower PDF and use Grab to capture it. The 2014 yearbook has a couple of photos of some GB members
*** g71 10/8 pp.
26-27 time of rest and refreshment at hand ***.
the jewish generation that heard that prophecy in the first century saw the fulfillment of jesus prophecy about jerusalem come true less than four decades later, when jerusalem was destroyed in the year 70 c.e.
Great find. They were still using the same type of comments in the 1970's that Russell had been using prior to 1914, and Rutherford prior to 1925.
as a little background, my dad became a jw in 1980 i think, went to bethel, married my mom in 86' went back for another year and then i came along... he worked in the auto repair shop at bethel while he was there, and upon leaving, continued working in this field.
my whole life they have been the type of jw parents that tell you how you will never get to high school, never graduate it, never get married in this system, never have children in this system etc.. i say this to illustrate the end is just around the corner attitude they have always had, probably because they fully bought/buy into the hype at the conventions/wt articles.
my father has no plan in place for retirement, and he is physically slowing down doing such hard laborious work.
2 Cor 12:14 Look! This is the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not become a burden. For I am seeking, not your possessions, + but you; for the children+ are not expected to save up for their parents , but the parents for their children .
It's their Christian obligation to support their children. It's not the children's obligation to support the parents.
Billy, I cannot recall every thinking about that Scripture. BU2B, that really is a great scripture to show if they start trying to guilt trip you into providing for them.
You have no obligation to look after them, and even less since they will be pursuing a lifestyle that you do not support. You wouldn't give them money if you knew they were going to use it gambling, it is the same that they want to use it support of lifestyle of preaching something you do not agree with. Don't feel guilted into providing for them.
This is a good test of your fade. Remember, if you get disfellowshipped they will stop talking to you overnight. They love the religion more than you. Don't give them money to grow that religion.
i am sad to report that while being treated for various ailments in an atlanta hospital for eight days, cynthia franz died of massive heart failure on december 29, 2013. .
cynthia franz comes from a very large, loving, close-knit family.
they have decided to keep cynthia's funeral arrangements private.
Thanks Barbara. Did Cynthia have family that were not JWs that helped out after they left Bethel?
i have recently read for the umpteenth time the 4 gospel accounts.
what caught my attention this time around was how many times jesus makes mention of the endeared expression father (with f in caps) when referring to his god as recorded by matthew, mark, luke and john.. what was also interesting by comparison is how little jesus actually makes reference to his father on a first name basis (jehovah) in these four books.. note my findings with the help of the comprehensive concordance:.
jehovah: matthew 11 times mark 8 times luke 26 times john 4 times (total 49 times).. father: mathew 43 times mark 4 times luke 21 times john 119 times (total 187 times).. .
You make a good point that Jesus' preferred reference to God was by the endearing term Father. As already mentioned above, Jesus never said Jehovah, this word has been added dishonestly by the NWT, whereas all records show the word Lord was used - see http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/jehovah-new-testament.php. You should trying reading the gospels again from other Bible translations, so as the remove some of the Watchtower slant.
i just took the first page of the 2013 report and added two new columns to look at alternative ways of calculating the 'increase'.
first column: 2013 av.
pubs minus 2012 av.
88JM and likeabird - There are very detailed analytics at http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php
I have a spreadsheet that goes back about 100 years, though it gets very patchy prior to the 1940s.
simple.... .
watchtower + meme !.
anything is acceptable, but make your meme your own, hand written scrawls on microsoft paint are just as funny so don't worry about quality.
Awesome, love the lions snare&racket
LostGeneration, that is also great, "one does not just create overlapping generations."
the 2014 yearbook is out, and i have scanned the publisher figures into a more readable format at 2013 service year report.
i have updated some of the graphs at http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php and will do the rest tonight.
there are no real surprises, with very similar results as during the last couple of years.
That is an interesting point that countries with low birth rates are getting almost no growth. I was just looking at http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/258866/1/Protest-at-district-convention-in-Budapest-Hungary about the flash mob in Hungary, where there is negative growth, and it really stood out how old most of the people.
