The outline probably meant 20 times more devastating earthquakes in terms of human life lost, not seismic activity. They should have made that plain though, perhaps saying "although in terms of seismic activity there is no firm evidence that earthquakes have increased since 1914, the effect of major earthquakes since 1914 has increased dramatically in terms of human life lost." The fact they didn't phrase it more accurately betrays a deliberate disingenuity on their part.
yaddayadda
JoinedPosts by yaddayadda
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Report on Todays special talk
by stillajwexelder inok - so special talk today - you can feel safe in a troubled world.
15 minutes devoted to to how bad things are.
iraq and usa were headlined and 1914 was mentioned > 20 times.
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yaddayadda
ROTFLMAO!! Cracked me up!
More, more!! -
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Question about 144,000-- heaven at death?
by whyizit inas many of you know, i am not a jw, nor have i ever been.
but i do have lots of questions.
perhaps there is an active jw out there that might be interested in answering this question for me.
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yaddayadda
Heathen said: "I've heard their dogma on that and they believe that they will again grow old and die"
That is incorrect. JW's don't teach that in the 'new system' anyone flagrantly wicked will grow old again. They basically just say that they will somehow be killed by God but that the bible doesn't give us any details on how that happens. -
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The Faithful and Discreet Slave is an IDOL
by cultswatter inwhen i was a dub i remember including the fds in my prayers because i did what all the other dubs were doing.
little did i know that i was worshipping and idol.
the fact is the fds does not exist other than in the mind of the brainwashed victim.
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yaddayadda
You have made a very good point. Idolatry is defined as worship of an image, idea or object, as opposed to the worship of the supreme being. The worship need not be explicit or overt; it can be implicit and unwitting. It's nature is insidious. But it's not so much the 'faithful and discreet slave' that is idolised as the Watchtower Society. The FDS is a nebulous entity, comprising 8,500 or so scattered individuals identified solely through their partaking of the memorial emblems. For all other intents and purposes they are completely indistinguishable from the 'great crowd'. The FDS have absolutely no input into what 'food' is dispensed by the Watchtower Society; they simply consume whatever the Watchtower dishes up, no questions asked, just like the 'other sheep' do.
It's more correct to say that JW's are idolising the GB and the organisation itself.
Not to be pedantic, but prayers offered on behalf of a group of fellow believers or to express thanks for what they do (such as the GB) is not idolatry or worship of that group. Instead, idolatry of the Watchtower Society is evident by JW's having given their minds and consciences completely over to the Watchtower idol. They unquestioning accept and submit to the Watchtower's every interpretation, creed and policy. The Watchtower Society flagrantly encourages the idolatry, constantly lauding itself for providing so much spiritual food. The view is that Jesus has abrogated all spiritual authority to the GB. In this the Watchtower Society are acting very much like Moses when he personally claimed to have provided the Israelites with the water from the rock, something Jehovah was very displeased with and punished Moses for. -
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1945
by glenster in1968 "during world war i, god's people expected it to lead directly into ar-.
mageddon, but jehovah prevented such a climax at that time.
we didn't succumb.
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yaddayadda
"By the time the Aug. 15, 1945, issue of the Watchtower was published, Witnesses were told that they could not all currently be regarded as children of God. On page 253 of that issue, it was written: "he is not yet giving the `other sheep' the standing of sons of his, sons of `The everlasting Father' (Isaiah 9:6). But these faithful ones will become such during his thousand-year reign after Armageddon; and now, by virtue of the prospect of eventually becoming Jehovah's perfect sons, they address him prospectively as `Our Father.'"
Wow, I knew that the 'other sheep' weren't considered to be God's son's until they were perfected at the end of the millennial reign, but I didn't know they only address Jehovah as father 'PROSPECTIVELY'! That is a new twist to me.
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The WTS: Masters of the GRANFALLOON (propaganda technique)
by M.J. inin honor of the late kurt vonnegut, i would like to introduce / promote a term to watchtower watcher land: granfalloon.
this was a term vonnegut invented in the novel cat's cradle, meaning (in his words) "a proud and meaningless association of human beings".. but the point goes beyond disparaging the "meaning" of certain human "associations".. it turns out that vonnegut touched on a basic human tendency, that an individual's self-concept is largely derived from the social groups he/she perceives his/her self to be a part of.
in other words, our own definition of who we are to a large extent is wrapped up the various social categories we put ourselves into.
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yaddayadda
Very interesting. Yep, Rutherford was clearly a master Grandfalloner. He was the grand Poohbah as well.
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Shunning Policy
by sweet pea ina little bird told me that some members of the governing body are unhappy with the shunning policy and want it changed (presumably due to the bad press from sites like these).
apparently they were overruled.
is this yet another policy that will start to be diluted and eventually dropped altogether or what and can anyone back up the rumour?
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yaddayadda
Sweetpea - this is a very interesting rumour. Can you shed more light on this 'little bird'? Was it someone at Watchtower headquarters?
If your source is correct then this would be significant news, particularly as it shows there seems to be some polarisation/camps forming on the GB on this issue (and perhaps others).
It's a shame that the rank and file do not learn about these kinds of decisions made by the GB. Even learning that some GB members would like a change to this awful policy would be a comfort to some. If this rumour is true it would give hope to many thousands of ex-JW's and their families who have endured intolerable emotional suffering through the Society's nefarious shunning policy.
Tis a pity it got voted down, no doubt by hardline traditionalists like Jaracz, Barr, etc. The sooner those dinosaurs are off the scene the better! Wouldn't it be great if the newer GB members staged a coup to dump the deadweight that is obviously holding the organisation back. Fat change though.
Highlander, sorry to hear that your family has begun to shun you. It really makes me sick to my heart that JW's shun family members just because they respectfully dissent from some teachings of the WTS. -
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Question about 144,000-- heaven at death?
by whyizit inas many of you know, i am not a jw, nor have i ever been.
but i do have lots of questions.
perhaps there is an active jw out there that might be interested in answering this question for me.
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yaddayadda
The anointed are resurrected. The Christian hope is resurrection, not inherent soul transportion. Resurrection is a deliberate act by God/Christ, not an automatic happening. The bible is quite clear that the 'soul' does not survive death. The dubs have that much right.
However, they are pretty screwed up on the timing of the resurrection to heaven. They believe it started around 1919 or so, shortly after Jesus' parousia supposedly began in 1914. It is obvious, however, that the scriptures teach that no one is resurrected to heaven until Jesus returns in the future, during the last trumpet. -
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Chance that WT drops blood issue?
by Gayle indo you think wt will drop blood tranfusion issue altogether?
will it, say within ten years?
any predictions?
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yaddayadda
Not quite. They will tweak it. They will change it to say that the prohibition now only applies to ADULT, BAPTIZED witnesses, no longer to babies, children, or anyone who is not baptized.
They will say that God's law on blood only pertains to those who have come to an accurate knowledge of truth and have dedicated their life to Jehovah through baptism, with full understanding of what that entails. That obviously does not apply to babies, young children, and young teens. This will be seen as a reasonable, scriptural compromise.
The Society is not worried about lawsuits because rights for adults and 'mature minors' to refuse this medical treatment are well established in the Supreme Court. Their only concern is the increasing public and media exposes against abuse of children in the name of religion. The Society's spiritual blackmailing of parents into allowing their babies and children to die because of want of a blood transfusion is utterly unchristian and morally wrong. The media are on to these religious abuses and the courts are under increasing pressure to tighten up on it. -
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Will JWs leave the org because of accelerated doctrine change?
by cultswatter inlooks like the wts is morphing into a totally diferent religion.
they are trying to get new converts any way they can at the same time they are trying to patch previous doctrine in an attempt to give the illusion of true prophecy.. hey wts, no matter what you do it won't work.
the 1914 date is pure fiction, so is 1918/19.
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yaddayadda
Contrary to what some listees imagine, doctrinally the organisaton today still bears a remarkable resemblance to the one that Russell started. It still holds to all of Russell's core doctrines that depart noticeably from broader Christendom.
The only changes to doctrine that would cause JW's to leave in mass numbers would be a change to any of the following. A change to any of these would signal to many JW's that the Watchtower Society has become 'apostate':
1 God is not a trinity
2 The soul is not immortal (the dead are not presently alive somewhere else)
3 There are two hopes for saved mankind - a heavenly hope and an earthly hope.
The Watchtower Society could change pretty much any other doctrine besides these 3 and only a small minority would leave.
This is the real concept that keeps JW's enslaved to the Watchtower Society: the enigma of how the organisation teaches these three core doctrines that are scripturally correct and yet are not found in broader Christendom, yet these scriptural truths are surrounded by a whole steaming pile of organisational crap, dubious creeds and harmful policies. In other words, the baby is beautiful but she sits in filthy bathwater.