Posts by jwfacts

31

"The Waters" of Jehovah are drying up in Australia...65% young ones leave!

by Witness 007 in

at the international convention last week i caught up with my old congregation and asked about the young ones...there were 2 answers.

1. they flat out left got a boyfriend etc.

and 2. havent seen them for awhile meaning they faded or went off the grid so as not to be disfellowshipped.

jwfacts

Even the younger ones who stay in are often just nominal JWs. They have learned to play the JW system. I've a few teenage / early 20 relatives who are baptised but essentially lead lives that aren't much different to their "worldly" peers. It's all about social networking , playing XBOX / PS4 games , hanging out in pubs.

i think that is an important point. For many it is becoming a cultural religion. They believe in God but don't take the GB or 1914 too seriously. But they may as well put in nominal worship with their friends and family.

The big divide between JWs and Christians is the belief in paradise on earth. It is easy to be a nominal Christian and hope you are worthy of heaven at death. But for a JW they need to hope for armageddon so that they don't die, or are at least non existent in the grave for just a short time. The longer time goes on from 1914, the harder a "soul sleep" based religion will find it to retain members.

11

Will They Continue To Take Your Money After Booting You Out?

by steve2 in

automatic bank payments & being disfellowshipped.

as noted on this site, the organization has in place numerous electronic provisions for people to donate money, ranging from one-off payments through to monthly automatic payments from donors' bank accounts into the organization's.. this is all well and good - and consistent with what lots of organizations - religious or otherwise - do.. but, should a donor be disfellowshipped - or disassociated - is the pre-selected donation provision stopped by the organization itself?

do they have any policy at all on it?

jwfacts

Forget donations from ex-JWs. What about known prostitutes and known drug dealers who visit the kingdom hall? Do you think they will be debarred from donating money? No.

There is an elder in Parramatta that is very wealthy through trading in stolen goods prior to baptism. His donations are eagerly accepted and he is considered a pillar of the congregation. It is easy for him to push people into full time service when he is worth a fortune and does not have any financial concerns.

12

17 y.o. Sydney Boy Threatens to fly the black flag over the White House

by fulltimestudent in

i think i'm going to get flamed for this, but it needs to be said.. this kid is full of bravado, and if his head is as stuffed full of muslim ideology, as my head was once stuffed full of christian ideology, he probably believes that allah (the other face of yahweh) wants him to do it, and that if he dies in the effort, he will be rewarded in paradise.. before i post his story, please consider that the ideology of martyrdom, has both a christian face and a muslim face.

ignatius, the second bishop of antioch, wanted to die for jesus, just as the young man in the following story, likely imagines that he is willing to die for allah.. ok, that's out of the way, so here's the story:.

bankstown boy threatens prime minister tony abbott in islamic state recruitment videodate: october 21, 2014 david wroe and natalie o'brien.

jwfacts

consider that the ideology of martyrdom, has both a Christian face and a Muslim face.

There are a lot of Muslims saying they are being misrepresented and Islam is a religion of peace. On the other hand, Christians are claiming Islam is a religion of violence and Christianity is about love and peace. The fact is, if you take their respective holy books at face value, both religions promote bigotry and violence.

Modern Christianity and modern Islam both promote peace, but that is because ignore their own texts in order to bring their religious belief systems up to date with our more enlightened times.

The root of the problem is that faith - belief in the unproven - results in vunerable people being easy to convince that the evils they do are actually holy and a requirement of God.

32

HELP! Elder bombarded me with scripture...& I don't know what to do.

by Smoky in

i have been lurking on this site for many years.

i rarely post anything, because my english isnt the best and not sure if anyone understands.

i just recently had a run in with an elder, have not seen him in a few years.

jwfacts

I don't understand. If you are an atheist, why would you want to refute things he raises from the Bible, which as an atheist carries no authority.

If you want to have a comeback, it is a futile mission, but realise that he has cherrypicked a few scriptures, out of context and misapplied. Here are some articles that show how.

"only those who invoke the name of Jehova will be saved"

Jehovah never appears in the New Testament. He is referring to Romans 10:13, which is a dishonest translation in the NWT. The name referred to is actually Jesus. jwfacts.com/watchtower/jehovah.php

....go preaching.

jwfacts.com/watchtower/preach.php

"even if you progess, keep doing this routine" ....go to meeting.
"encourage each other, and keep hands, you will receive gift for your work" ....paradise for preaching work.
"like the days of noah, people eating drinking, etc. people will not listen to god"....be in the arc of gods organization, or die.
"keep doing work till the End"....cant stop going to meeting and preaching till the end.
"look for god, and he will find you, leave god, and he will leave you forever"....

All of these apply equally to any Christian religion. The Watchtower is a doomsday religion, that has acted as a false prophet for over 100 years pronouncing specific dates for the end that never came true. See Deuteronomy 18:20-22 to find out how God feels about people making false predictions in his name. Therefore the Watchtower is not a religion worth considering as a place to gather for salvation, encouragement etc.

32

Is there ANYTHING Jehovah(TM) doesn't hate??

by punkofnice in

...apart from door knocking, meetings and kingdom melodies?.

.

jwfacts

He doesn't hate the haters.

22

Purging and letting go of the past

by Skinnedsheep in

my wife and i decided that today would be the day that we would let go of the past.

we collected all of our watchtower published books and brochures and threw them out.

it was honestly bitter sweet to toss our old pioneer books, marked up insight books, and notes from 25 years of conventions.

jwfacts

We are now working on boxing up our children's suits and meeting dresses for donation to good will. Lot's of good memories tied to these things but also a constant reminder that we were trapped in a cult for close to 4 decades.

It is bitter sweet, since there are good memories along with the bad. A hard act to balance the two.

127

I'm sitting here listening to a JW try to recruit somebody

by Terry in

jw
friends

i'm at starbucks .

just outside in the courtyard.. i'm trembling.

my hands are shaking.. wow!.

jwfacts

That's great news.

He is bringing up all the standard illogical questions - the size of the org shows it is the truth- and one day will think back in embarrassment wondering how he ever believed such stuff.

I think he should try to get reinstated. Next time lie about masturbation, say how much he has learnt from the experience, and then fade out.

33

bethelite kills self because of guilt 10/31/73

by new boy in

jw
friends

i was working on my car in the factory {bld.

1} on friday oct. 31 1973, when all hell broke loose, the fire alarm in bld.

4 went off at about 9:30. the night watchman could find nothing.

jwfacts

What a tragedy and shame on the parents.

When I left bethel and became inactive my mother sent me a text that she no longer had anything to be proud of me over. Dad was a CO and it was a matter of pride for her to tell the congregations that her son was in bethel. It made me sick and I was glad she could no longer gloat about me in front of others.

71

Heading to Melbourne International Convention right NOW Regular updates live here!

by Witness 007 in

9.10 am on the train heading in..how late am i?

train is full of witnesses and comic book characters...they have a comic convention.

they seem to be having more fun.. .

jwfacts

I like that image of JWs surrounded by cartoon characters. Appropriate. I bet the kids wish they were going to that convention instead.

24

Watchtower circulation jumps up!

by factfinder in

jw
friends

the jan. 1, 2015 w shows an updated printing of 52,946,000 copies each issue in 228 languages.. this is an increase of 7,002,000 copies per issue over last year, this is the biggest increase i have seen in the printing of the w per issue for any one year.

thus, including the study edition over 70 million copies of the w are now being printed each month.. .

i wonder if awake!

jwfacts

With just a monthly public Watchtower and monthly Awake, it now covers a distribution time that two editions of the Watchtower and Awakes used to, so it would make sense that it is far higher than the past. Add to that it is now being left in the streets on trolleys for free pick up. I couldn't find any print numbers on the study edition? That must have dropped off dramatically since it became an internal only magazine, and even more so now JWs are encouraged to download it instead.