Posts by jwfacts

83

Christadelphian

by Billy1000 in

my name is stephen and i am new to the forum.

i am a christadelphian and through my discussions with fellow members of my ecclesia it has inspired me to reach out to other religions to find out exactly what others believe to enhance my own faith and further bring me closer to our heavenly father.

in no way do i mean disrespect if it has been caused.

jwfacts

Yes i would agree with you that many people and many religions believe that unless you are part of their religion you have no hope
However i believe and i know that many others believe now that that is not true
... three things to get eternal life.
..
Repent and be baptised

This is a contradiction, since you believe eternal life is based on being a Christian. Yet half the world know nothing of Christianity and have no opportunity to ever be baptised. Such a belief is an relic from a past time when people had no idea of how large the world was or the varied belief systems of the different continents.

23

Un-****ing-Believable

by OneFingerSalute in

just a few observations from this morning.

.. this morning as i was trying to choke back the bile that kept wanting to come up during the wt study one comment in particular screamed cult.. towards the very end as comments were being made about "counseling" others with "gracious" words one of the uber-dub minstral-serpents made this comment, "we see in the last image that the brother is holding a bible as he counsels the other brother.

we look closely at the picture and we can know exactly what he is counseling the brother about.

jwfacts

1 Corinthians 8: 9 which says, "But keep watching that your right to choose does not somehow become a stumbling block to those who are weak."

I always found this a paradox. It would be impossible to comply to every whim of every weak persons conscience. I would have replied:

"I am stumbled that people are imposing their conscience on me about not having a beard, when it is not spoken against in the Bible, in fact the opposite, beards are very much part of Bible fashion. Please tell these people to stop going beyond the word of God."

83

Christadelphian

by Billy1000 in

my name is stephen and i am new to the forum.

i am a christadelphian and through my discussions with fellow members of my ecclesia it has inspired me to reach out to other religions to find out exactly what others believe to enhance my own faith and further bring me closer to our heavenly father.

in no way do i mean disrespect if it has been caused.

jwfacts

Welcome.

JWs and Christadelphians are very similar. Were you raised a Christadelphian? I was raised a JW, and one thing I could not come to terms with is that through an accident of birth I was to be saved, but everyone else, (including you), were to die at Armageddon.

I now find organised religion to be highly offensive. Most religious groups believe that you need to belong to their sect, or the tenet their sect is part of, in order to be acceptable to God. Yet a person has even less say over what they believe about God than what language they speak, it is predominantly due to where they are born.

Before looking into doctrine, you should research the history of the Bible canon. There is no consensus on which books even belong, since the canon was formed after hundreds of years of disagreement, and varies between Christian groups.

143

Fidel Castro and the WT

by Hecce in

i am going to engage on a trip to the past and share with you some of the matters that marked the beginning of the jws persecution in cuba.

you will be surprised that the pattern that was followed is very similar to what happened in other dictatorial countries.. in the cuban case, i am going to surprise you and tell you that like what happened with hitler; the wt was partially responsible for their clash and confrontation with the cuban government.

during the early 60s the revolution was fighting for survival and they were willing and ready to demolish any perceived enemy to their cause.. a prime example was their war against the catholic church that was the most influential religious entity in the country; it took the supreme leader only a few public discourses to send the vast majority of clergy packing and back to their country, in this case spain.. the jehovah’s witnesses were an insignificant minority but they over estimated their importance and displayed a belligerent attitude, it was known that this was a us based religion and an easy target to connect them with the cia.

jwfacts

Since Castro was so harsh on religion, how did the ratio of JWs become so high?

79

What's a word that describes the way Witnesses behave as a group?

by paul from cleveland in

jw
friends

i can't recall the word that describes a group that keeps to itself like the witnesses do.

i thought it was "insular" but i don't think that's the one i'm looking for after reading the definition.

i remember an elder using the word "clannish" and that has the proper definition but it reminds me of a group of elves.

jwfacts

Instead of the term Watchtower coins of unity, the more appropriate term is conformity.

143

Fidel Castro and the WT

by Hecce in

i am going to engage on a trip to the past and share with you some of the matters that marked the beginning of the jws persecution in cuba.

you will be surprised that the pattern that was followed is very similar to what happened in other dictatorial countries.. in the cuban case, i am going to surprise you and tell you that like what happened with hitler; the wt was partially responsible for their clash and confrontation with the cuban government.

during the early 60s the revolution was fighting for survival and they were willing and ready to demolish any perceived enemy to their cause.. a prime example was their war against the catholic church that was the most influential religious entity in the country; it took the supreme leader only a few public discourses to send the vast majority of clergy packing and back to their country, in this case spain.. the jehovah’s witnesses were an insignificant minority but they over estimated their importance and displayed a belligerent attitude, it was known that this was a us based religion and an easy target to connect them with the cia.

jwfacts

This is very interesting. I visited Cuba last July. How do you have so much insight in the situation?

116

News Flash: New Reveal Article

by Sugar Shane in

less than an hour old:.

https://www.revealnews.org/blog/how-child-sex-abusers-get-reinstated-as-jehovahs-witnesses/.

jwfacts

The church exist under us constitutional provisions. It does not exist to help prosecute crimes or to provide physical protection for children. That is the duty of Caesar.

Exactly, there is no expectation here to prosecute crimes, but there is an ethical responsibility not to withhold information that could help "Caesar' prevent further crimes.

The perpetrator is usually not going to come forward and confess, and a child may be under the emotional control of the abuser to be too scared to talk to the police, often under the threat from the abuser that they will kill the child's family. If the elders come to know of such a crime, they have an ethical (and in many places a legal) responsibility to report it to the police, regardless of the fears and wishes of the family and abuser.

41

Toasting is Pagan - How many contradictions can fit in 2 pages, I found 5?

by jwfacts in

the watchtower 2007 feb 15 pp.30-31 explains why jehovah's witnesses are not to toast.

what is astounding is that for each point they then go on an explain why the point is irrelevant, yet still conclude toasting is wrong.

what did people think when reading this?

jwfacts

Great comments and very varied. It would be good to know if there has been a strategy behind the contradictory stances such as Pinatas.

The 2007 article is so unusually presented, I would love to know the intentions of the person that wrote it. It seems like a writer that is turning apostate wants to get some people thinking, but that is probably unlikely since the article needs to go through an editing and approval process.

116

News Flash: New Reveal Article

by Sugar Shane in

less than an hour old:.

https://www.revealnews.org/blog/how-child-sex-abusers-get-reinstated-as-jehovahs-witnesses/.

jwfacts

Repentance has very little to do with avoiding being DF'd.

Exactly. At my first judicial committee I was not DF because I feigned repentance. That proved to me Holy Spirit was not directing the process.

116

News Flash: New Reveal Article

by Sugar Shane in

less than an hour old:.

https://www.revealnews.org/blog/how-child-sex-abusers-get-reinstated-as-jehovahs-witnesses/.

jwfacts

That is excellent and needs to be shared. It highlights important points I had not fully appreciated regarding how quickly abusers can be reinstated and how not reporting has allowed some abusers to escape criminal punishment due to the statute of limitations.

I know one of the Australian victims. Good to know he is no longer a JW and is now living a normal and happy life.