No offense, but very few people today interested in the WTS would want to spend time on such a detailed study of its earliest history. Are there plans by these folks to move to a more current period, say the Knorr or post-Knorr era onward? That would generate far more interest, for there are people still alive who have lived through those times.
careful
JoinedPosts by careful
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How Watchtower History should be written.
by Old Goat inif you've read my previous posts and comments, you know i'm a fan of schulz and de vienne's history books and their blog:.
http://truthhistory.blogspot.com/.
dr. de vienne posted a rough draft of some of their current research, destined for volume 2 of separate identity.
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Turn out the lights the party is over
by Crazyguy ini think the reason the borg really went on a cost cutting move and is selling off all thier buildings has become obvious.
the cult is telling people that there fast growing but then the numbers seem to indicate about a 1% growth rate.
this would give them roughly 800,000 new baptized ones in ten years give or take do to the small increase per year from previous gains.
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Its now moving into an organization that wants and needs to sustain itself.
Part of that sustenance is to build a taller wall around its adherents and look after the money with careful scrutiny.
Fink, well said!
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"La Ragazza del Mondo" ("Worldly Girl"), new Italian-French film, getting wide distribution, positive reviews.
by Room 215 ina new film, released late 2015, focuses on a young couple, sheddlng light on shunning and jw's intolerant view of the world beyond their borders; it was awarded a place at the prestigious venice biennale 2016 film festival:.
http://www.filmitalia.org/p.aspx?t=film&l=en&did=75885.
commentary and reaction to the film in an article on the excellent anti-jw italian website:.
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careful
The link to the geova website didn't work for me... I just got the main webpage. I couldn't find the post on the movie by using their search either.
The first link was fine but offered little info.
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How many members of Governing Body have college(or higher) degrees?
by intropist ini just wonder what universities they would have gone to?
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if possible, former members and current ones separately.... .
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LUHE has it right for GB 2.0. Yes, for years the rumor persisted that Fred Franz went to Oxford under the Rhodes plan, but someone, perhaps Bill Cetnar (?), called the WTS on the carpet by writing the Rhodes people for verification. They checked their records and found no such thing. Then the investigator began publishing the truth about the matter, so Franz had to "correct" the rumor and say that he was offered the scholarship, but instead he dropped out of college in order to become a colporteur (literally "book salesman" = pioneer in the old days ).
In the previous GB, B. Schroeder and L. Barry had bachelor's degrees.
In one of those autobiographical WT/AW articles on Schroeder, he stated that Rutherford "called him to Bethel" while he was almost finished earning his bachelor's. He delayed coming to Bethel so as to finish his degree. For this he was chewed out by JFR when he finally arrived. Thus the WT anti-education policy goes back a long time. However, it is noteworthy that the org has historically used such intelligent, educated men. Schroeder became an early Gilead instructor and Barry the Branch Servant in Japan, and both wound up on the GB. Of course, all this was under Knorr, not JFR.
Does anyone know in what fields Schroeder and Barry had their degrees?
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European Prospective 2017-2022
by sp74bb inthe new "business plan" for jw.org in europe has already received a name within the org: european prospective 2017-2022.. this plan is already on the table of the big guys in the us.
in the practice it has been already getting the approval of the majority.
so, no surprise at all to vote it.. essential features of the "business plan":- sale of all branches in the eu, except germany and uk (the latter benefits from brexit and certain privileged position)- all printing and digital material prepared and printed from germany- in each country, a local liaison office is left, certainly no more than 3-4 families.- free part-time worker is boosted from home, cheaper and hastle-free !- money to the new entity formed in belgium, as a non-profit organization (ibsa goodbye ...)- the most complicated ... who will care for the data of european jw ... confidential information and color envelopped with sensitive information.... enjoy the new european jw times !.
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careful
Thanks for the share.
Some questions: 1. excuse my ignorance but what is this "new entity formed in Belgium"? 2. In the last few years the GB has been buying up all these little places, often in posh settings, and refurbishing them, for translations centers. They appear to be like mini-bethels. They've been touting them publicly. How does this proposed change with its "translation office will be reduced as much as a full time coordinator" fit into this recent expansion of the translation work? Is this a sudden reversal or am I missing something?
One more question. From where is this policy change coming? Is it from "worldly" consulting firms to whom the GB is paying big bucks, or from some "creative" brother/brothers high up the org, the types who are always vying with one another in trying to get the GB to adopt their ideas?
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What is the real purpose of attending your JC?
by StarTrekAngel ini was compelled to ask this question because i have seen several of the youtube videos on jcs.
on striking similarity among all these videos is that most of the people bringing the arguments to the elders are pretty much atheists or have turned to another religion altogether.. i can easily see that the common concern in most of the people involved, is their ability to keep in touch with family and friends, which by all means would be my concern as well, when and if i ever end up in one.. however, i can't help but to notice something.
it is difficult enough to think of the day that the wt would accept a loose canon in their ranks, let alone someone who openly claims to no longer believe in god.
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Ironically, I have found, elders appear more forgiving of disbelief in God or the Bible than disbelief in the Governing Body. So tell them you find it hard to believe in God, but you are nevertheless convinced that he is using the Governing Body as his faithful slave. Scratch their heads they will, but be appeased they might.
SBF, I have to laugh because this is so true!
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Am i reading this right...? The preaching work is done??
by Nobodyspecial inim sorry if this has been addressed, i have not seen any topics on this yet.. the wt for today seems to state, quiet plainly, that preaching work is done.
para 14,15 the question asks:.
"what proves that jehovahs witnesses have fulfilled jesus' prophecy with regard to the scope of the work?".
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Well they are still sneaking pioneers into places like China and Vietnam under the guise of English teachers, so they must not feel the preaching work is all done!
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Gods' name removed in Silver Sword?
by AmyWatson916 indoes anyone have an explanation about why the silver sword edition of the nwt removed god's name at exodus 34:14?
that verse is now different than the 1984 and 1970 versions of the nwt.
odd for an organization who believes that "god's name is of the utmost importance" as it says on page 195 of the bible teach book..
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Ex. 34:14, old NWT:
"For you must not prostrate yourself to another god, because Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, he is a jealous God."
RNWT:
"You must not bow down to another god, for Jehovah is known for requiring exclusive devotion. Yes, he is a God who requires exclusive devotion."This change is probably an attempt to make the meaning more intelligible, one of the goals of the overall translation. The old translation was typically Freddie Franz eccentric. The verb "is" has two subjects, "Jehovah" and "he." That's strange. But I see no deletion of the divine name here.
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2014 master thesis about JWs LOYALITY
by fastJehu ininteresting (internet) finding ... after all the bunker videos on the 2016 rc.. this master thesis tries to comprehend the concept of loyalty within the jehovah’s witnesses movement.
what does ‘loyalty’ mean to jehovah’s witnesses?
https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/32029/loyal%20to%20jehovah's%20good%20news%20-%20susanne%20kuipers.pdf.
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This should be of interest to slimboyfat. I'll try to find the time to read it too.
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Did others experience this on the ministry or among JWs generally?
by slimboyfat insometimes it's hard to know if our own experience of jws was typical and what features were peculiar to our own area or the individual jws we knew personally.
i was wondering if others experienced this among jws:.
a few times on the ministry, when we were working wealthy areas with large houses, some brothers and sisters would make the comment that they look forward to taking ownership of one of these big houses after armageddon, when the worldly people have vacated them.
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Sometimes the conversations would get specific about who is going to get which big house.
I couldn't help but think of some well known characters in the Bible who did something similar:
"The Zebedee boys came to Jesus and asked for the best spots in the kingdom … when the others heard about this, they got angry" etc. (Mark 10:35-44)
Elsewhere Jesus called such places "abodes" or as the AV/KJV puts it, "mansions," John 14:2.
There Jesus did take them to task for their "crass, selfish and pathetic attitude to have to fellow human beings," even their own brothers.
I guess then we should expect the same thing today, eh?
BTW in looking up these passages, I discovered that the RNWT has adopted the standard translation of many other Bibles at John 14:2, getting rid of the "many abodes" rendering for "many dwelling places." (NAB, NEB, NRSV)