careful

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Posts by careful

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  37

  Prepare to get Pelted by Symbolic Hailstones

  by raymond frantz in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  https://youtu.be/idhmflud3p4?si=9xc4svrhxslduwvz.

  so david schafer a member of the teaching commitee and a helper to the governing body has come out yesterday with a new video that goes through the king of the north, the hailstones message and other things in the wake of the possibility of a ww3 and especially now that tensions are escalating with russia so he is making quite a few end time arguments and i will be expanding on those one by one but today let's see what he has about the hailstones message of the end(video) so this is the paragraph in question, paragraph 14 from article 20 of the watchtower 2020 study edition: "sometime after the start of the great tribulation, “the kings of the entire inhabited earth” will form a coalition of nations.

  (rev.

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  careful

  Why is it that this David Schafer chap reminds me soooo much of a United States Marine Corps drill sergeant? Does anyone else see this? He sure isn't growing any facial hair!
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  27

  Memories of Excessive Laughter

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  jw's are not known for laughter.

  there are the rare exceptions.

  they are more known for their fear mongering and doomsday scenarios where "the dead shall come to be as manure on the surface of the ground from one end of the earth clear to the other".

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  careful

  Show me one instance in the bible where Jesus laughed.
  

  Thank you, nicolaou. I remember once meeting a chap, a critically-thinking lawyer, in FS who had never been raised in any "Christian" tradition, so his exposure to so-called Christianity was limited to the mainstream, liberal social gospel version that the media generally reports on as safe/normative. He said he'd recently read through the four gospels and was struck with how grim and judgmental Jesus was, and how dissonant the gospels were from what he had expected they would be. I told him he was far more spot on (or I guess it was "right on" in those days) than most religious folks.

  People love to focus in on passages like Jesus blessing the children or the parable of the shepherd picking up the errant lamb and putting on his shoulders, and they discount (for all practical purposes), eschew, or at least avoid the many times he condemns not just his opposers, but the crowds overall, and even his own disciples. He states how few are on the road to life and how difficult the path to it is. These and his multiple anti-family statements are written off as "the hard sayings of Jesus" and rarely dwelt upon both by church attendees and biblical scholars.

  I remember reading the gospels apart from the Witnesses and thinking how radical, how difficult Jesus' message was, and how I was reacting like the disciples, "Then who can be saved?"

  No, he never laughs, but does cry, twice. I remember how condemned I was in JW-land for bringing up these points, but I suspect I would be even more so by church clergy and parishioners like those in the OP's post (no offense, She Breeze! I often enjoy your posts).
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  11

  Fashion in Heaven

  by peacefulpete in

  1. social
  2. humour

  why is it that fashions are assumed to have stayed the same in heaven for thousands of years?

  you'd think that after wearing the same boring robe for eternity you'd crave something different.

  yet no, angels and god are still wearing the same white onesie they had when they vacationed on earth with abraham.

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  careful

  Drawing Jesus with a machine gun, or angels playing electric guitars invokes a negative reaction.
  

  Well now, I knew this homeless guy who enjoyed both psilocybin and LSD. He once said he saw Jesus and Jimi Hendrix playing together ...

  Now I'm "trying to be humorous" ..., right PP & KOW?
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  9

  EMERGENCY ALERT!! UKRAINE LAUNCHES MORE NATO MISSILES INTO RUSSIA . . . WORLD WAR III IS HERE!!!

  by Littleleslie in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  emergency alert!!

  ukraine launches more nato missiles into russia .

  world war iii is here!!!

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  careful

  Littleleslie,

  Have you considered psychotherapy?
  
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  11

  Parliamentary question on paedophilia among JWs in Italy

  by Achille in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  (google translation).

  question to the chamber by m5s mp stefania ascari to the ministry of the interior on paedophilia among jehovah's witnesses in italy, starting from the recent case in florence, with references to the various cases that have broken out around the world.. i sense a certain creaking at the italian bethel in rome at via della bufalotta 1281, the italian branch of the watch tower bible and tract society of pennsylvania.

  will this have future implications for the italian jehovah's witnesses exponential body, the christian congregation of jehovah's witnesses and for its branch committee, which represents the interests of the governing body in our country?https://aic.camera.it/aic/scheda.html?numero=4/03795&ramo=camera&leg=19.

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  careful

  Thanks, Achille, for the explanations. The insight about the RC Church is appreciated and makes sense. Whether the GB's ploy will work or not in Italy remains to be seen, eh?
  
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  19

  Did Tony Morris Get Sideways with His Bros.?

  by Sea Breeze in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  interesting video connects the dots.

  .

  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3ff1ibybfe4&t=205s&pp=2ahnazacaq%3d%3d.

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  careful

  the line will be held at the local level. You know, when the elders have their "school". They review the elders manual, and all the direction the WT doesn't want to have in writing gets filled into the "side notes" during those meetings.
  

  Spot on, MMM.
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  11

  Parliamentary question on paedophilia among JWs in Italy

  by Achille in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  (google translation).

  question to the chamber by m5s mp stefania ascari to the ministry of the interior on paedophilia among jehovah's witnesses in italy, starting from the recent case in florence, with references to the various cases that have broken out around the world.. i sense a certain creaking at the italian bethel in rome at via della bufalotta 1281, the italian branch of the watch tower bible and tract society of pennsylvania.

  will this have future implications for the italian jehovah's witnesses exponential body, the christian congregation of jehovah's witnesses and for its branch committee, which represents the interests of the governing body in our country?https://aic.camera.it/aic/scheda.html?numero=4/03795&ramo=camera&leg=19.

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  careful

  Thanks for the info, Achille. Has Italy been slow to get on board here? If so, why?
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  42

  Why do most Ex jW W‘s seem to be liberal?

  by JaredScott-1977 in

  1. social
  2. current

  i’m just curious about this dynamic i don’t care personally one way or the other but i do have friends who have chosen to be conservatives and they get totally destroyed on social media pages for their choice.

  it’s almost like a lot of ex jw w become as toxic and his judgmental as jehovah’s witnesses themselves what’s up with that?

  i also know conservative ex jw’s that can do the same so again i’m not leaning one way or the other i’m just noticing factual observations.

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  careful

  Biahi, loved this as a description of those still in: "we weren’t supposed to form opinions." So true.

  For those ignorant (like me!) RINO stands for Republicans In Name Only, evidently upcoming targets for more rancor from MAGAs.
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  18

  Meeting attendance

  by Farmer Jim1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for those still in the organization what is your meeting attendance like these days?.

  when i left in 2017 there were around 80 publishers and the average meeting attendance was 70..

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  careful

  VH7, thanks for the chart. There's nothing like visual aids to make a point. From what data I have seen, it looks like attendance is definitely down with a heavy portion of the remaining attendees being publishers over 50 years old. That's not a healthy sign for any future growth, however one may slice it.

  I'm curious about where you got the 65% stat. I remember 30+ years ago when I was in, the CO told the elders (NOT in a cong meeting, but just with the "appointed men") that 90% of the Witness youth are leaving. I also remember thinking to myself, "That sounds about right." I thought so simply from my own experience in Witnessland.

  So if that percentage is now 65, then that is a significant uptick of retainment among those raised in. Where did you get that 65% number? Some leaked org video? Some published stat?
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  33

  Historian and former JW Jim Penton dies

  by slimboyfat in

  1. social
  2. current

  i don’t know a lot about james penton but i think he deserves a better thread than the one currently on offer.

  james penton, who died recently, grew up in a jw family in canada and served as an elder.

  unusually for a jw, he studied liberal arts at university and became a history professor.

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  careful

  Thx SBF, for the further info. Sounds pretty dry alright.