sorry if this is old news but just heard that there will only be about 75 people left at sydney bethel after layoffs.
eyeuse2badub Aus bethel is in the middle of nowhere. I doubt any hotel would want it. Maybe dorms for a university. The land is in an area that there are some nice houses, so they may subdivide and sell most of it off.
I always thought Bethel was an inefficient waste. Who needs 400 staff to run a couple of printing presses and a service desk. 75 is what it always should have been.
i was invited to a small get-together by a long time friend.
we both served as elders for years.
he is in his late 70s.
And they are not Apostates.
There are something new.
Actually, they are apostates, they just don't like that label. An apostate is someone that turns away from watchtower teachings, which is what they have done, and in a fairly significant way. Like all of us, we realise that the way the Watchtower describes apostates is not a fair representation.
It is great to hear that these people are getting together. The big fear of leaving the religion, particularly in older age, is having no social circle and this sounds like it fills the gap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_h68ktwpim&feature=youtu.be.
there doing this right under my nose but i just found out.
not sure what to do but would like your help on getting me wt information on my headship role and how they shouldn't be doing this with out my permission.
also would like some help on showing my son the ramifications on what happens to someone when they get baptized and how they'll expect him to treat me.
It would be good to help him understand that there is no rush. Jesus was 30 when he was baptised. If he says that this is different because we are so close to the end, that opens up a great opportunity to discuss the history of the religion's failed end time doctrine. Bring up 1914, 1925, the 1941 release of the book Children, and how the religion has always used fear that the end is near to rush children into baptism.
As his loving father and spiritual head (not by JW standards but by your spiritual standards) tell him that you are directing him for his own benefit to wait until he is an adult. Anyway, baptism is just the outward display. It is the dedication that really counts, so if he raises the fear that he will lose his live at Armageddon for not being baptised, remind him that Jehovah would know if he has really dedicated himself, and you can take the blame for preventing the baptism.
This could all lead to some really good conversations and help you understand what your son is really thinking.
the 2015 annual meeting, specifically, part 1, right about minute 27, has anthony morris emphasizing that "you're better off reading one chapter (of the bible) and really absorbing it" than just reading the whole thing "as a challenge".
while i agree with the the whole idea of meditating on anything you read, it was doing this very thing that brought up so many unanswered questions.
i also came to the constant realization that the jws did not have a clue about what the bible really said.
first off, i certainly agree the jw's are a cult.
but i'm sensitive to black-and-white thinking now.. so, where do they rank on the scale?
think of a cultish religion scale from 0-10.. consider the likes of unitarian universalism vs baptist vs amish vs charles manson.. where do you think jw's fall on the scale?.
I'd give 8 as an average. But it varies by individual and country. Some people skirt the edges. Some Hispanic countries are more friendly and less strict on shunning.
Being it Bethel pushes it to a 9. Living in Warwick will be even worse than Brooklyn, where the members get little exposure to real people.
today during the public talk the speaker said that satan was behind the new modern phones, which are like mini computers, so that the world would have easy access to pornography..
If Satan has developed technology to corrupt humans, why didn't he do it 6000 years ago?
He at least should have released the iPhone back in Job's day, as if he won the bet and turned everyone away from God back then he could have avoided being thrown out from heaven. He has left his run a bit late.
Edit to clarify Job, not Steve Jobs
yes, last week the number of bethel layoffs was confirmed from 90 to 125. .
and those going in thinking they may be there for some time have been told.
that they may be there for two months rather than 3 years depending on .
With the Sydney real estate market being what it is, they could make some serious money selling the Australia branch and surrounding land off to a developer or an investor.
Although the surrounding suburbs are low class, Bethel is in Denham Court, which is one of the most affluent suburbs in the area. 500sqm blocks of land sell for $500,000. They could subdivide and sell off all the land which surrounds Bethel and make tens of millions.
I've never known a JW to talk to Jesus. They are so devoted to Jehovah that it is to him alone they would ever talk or pray. Not that they would not be allowed to talk to Jesus, they just don't.
Prayer is generally considered an request of a deity with the concept of worship, so Jehovah's witnesses refer to speaking and not praying the Jesus. Even when Stephen prayed to Jesus is Acts 7:59, the NWT changes the word from "prayed" to "appealed." See http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/worship-jesus.php.
jehovah`s witnesses place great emphasis on the importance of god`s name as jehovah .so much so that they are often accused by christendom`s religions as substituting jehovah for christ.. the old testament ( hebrew scriptures identify god as the tetragrammaton four hebrew consanants yhwh and not jhvh.
as mistakenly believed by a 13th century spanish monk .. modern scholars including the j.w.`s agree that the more accurate pronunciation of gods name would be more nearer to yahweh than the name jehovah .. so why do j.w.`s insist on the name ?
jehovah ?
If they wanted to follow the Christian example, they would be called Jesus' Witnesses.
Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the holy spirit comes upon you, and you will be witnesses of me in Jerusalem, in all Ju·de′a and Sa·mar′i·a, and to the most distant part of the earth.”
It was quite a backflip when they took the name, since Russell said no name but Jesus' should be used .
All true teachers are not only sent by Christ but receive their instructions from him; and any man who attempts to put his own or any other name upon all or any portion of the church is an opponent, an adversary to the true and only Lord and Head of the church." Zion's Watch Tower Oct 1888 p.3
Russell expressed that salvation is through Jesus, which is the core message of the New Testament. It certainly was not Jehovah, which is not a name that appears in the New Testament.
"The correct Scriptural conviction that the only name by which any can be saved is the name of Jesus: - faith in his sacrifice, and obedience and devotion to him."Zion's Watchtower 1901 Aug 15 p.264
