Posts by cabasilas

And yet, worshippers of Jesus have always used as a base argument that JW's are wrong because JW's don't worship Jesus. That is a theological argument.

Christians, of course, do criticize the religious beliefs yet most Christians I know criticize much more than that. Many Christians I've met will often concentrate on an authority issue ("Is the Governing Body really the Faithful and Discreet Slave's representatives or not?") approach first. Thus, the attacks on the WT Society regarding false prophecy, or how the "Faithful and Wise Servant" was understood historically (up until 1927 the FDS was Russell himself), or the crazy shenanigans during Rutherford's era (Beth Sarim, no marriage for the "Jonadabs"), etc. Some Christians who work with JWs will avoid almost all religious discussions until the authority issue is dealt with first.

And yet, Christians continue to come in and insinuate all sorts of inaccurate ideas concerning my feelings toward religion, Christ, et al.

That is sad to see. Yet, I think there are many Christians who understand that people make their own choices honestly. One of the things I like about this board is that often the different factions here can find ways to work together to help JWs and ex-JWs.

8

Do Christians Still Own The J.W Periphery?

by AllTimeJeff in

the essay below was written by mick on ronnie's board.

it has been up for a couple of months, but it is so good, i obtained his permission to paste it here.

it is among my favorite top 2 or 3 essay's i have ever seen on in the ex jw cyber world.... i hope you enjoy it.... atjeff.

cabasilas

The Christians soon realised that there were some ex-Jehovah's Witnesses who seemed to be slipping through their nets, and very much arriving at their own conclusions as to what was wrong with...not just the J.W faith, but with religion in general…and of course, even the Bible itself began to receive severely critical reviews by many.

An interesting commentary. I was there in the early 80s in those pre-Internet days. In those days the two main camps were Evangelical Christians and Ex-Witnesses who still held on to many of the JW distinctives, such as the denial of the Trinity teaching. But, there were others who were prominent. The big books were not published by either of these camps. In 1978, Simon and Shuster published Visions of Glory by Barbara Grizzuti Harrison. (She eventually became a Catholic.) Ten years earlier, an American publishing house published The Inside Story of Jehovah's Witnesses by a former Circuit Overseer named W.C. Stevenson. Stevenson appeared respectful of Christianity, but did not endorse Christian faith in his book. These were the books that made it into libraries and into mainstream bookstores.

Most people who left the JWs in that era did not take up any faith. For the most part, they weren't agnostic or atheist...they were just burned out on religion. Some of the most active in the protests against JWs at conventions in that era were actually the non-Trinitarian ex-JWs and there was a good contingent of non-religious folk involved too. I remember when there was a big protest at WT headquarters in 1984, the groups involved had to find a common ground because of the divergent views.

So, while there's some truth to this "periphery" in the past, I would say it's a bit overstated. There's always been a mix of people who leave the JWs and who find themselves trying to enlighten JWs and others about them.

8

Scan of 2005 Watchtower Discouraging Higher Education

by cabasilas in

someone sent me the scans of the october 1, 2005 watchtower article which discourages higher education for jws.

this was the wt that began the current anti-education stance by the wt society reversing the more lenient policy from the 90s.

for those interested, a pdf of this article can be downloaded from this filesharing site:.

cabasilas

Most of the anti-higher education counsel to JW youth is done in various lectures at circuit and district assemblies. Here's a collection of audio against higher education from JW assemblies since that 2005 Watchtower was published:

http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Anti-education%22

8

Scan of 2005 Watchtower Discouraging Higher Education

by cabasilas in

someone sent me the scans of the october 1, 2005 watchtower article which discourages higher education for jws.

this was the wt that began the current anti-education stance by the wt society reversing the more lenient policy from the 90s.

for those interested, a pdf of this article can be downloaded from this filesharing site:.

cabasilas

JWs could do like many other religions and have some sort of campus ministry to their youth that are in college and university. It would require them to be a bit more intellectual in their faith, but in the long run would be more effective in holding onto their youth. It would probably mean that eventually the JWs would become more mainstream. However, considering the current direction taken by the Governing Body, I doubt there's a chance the JWs will liberalize anytime soon.

In the meantime, JW youth suffer.

8

Scan of 2005 Watchtower Discouraging Higher Education

by cabasilas in

someone sent me the scans of the october 1, 2005 watchtower article which discourages higher education for jws.

this was the wt that began the current anti-education stance by the wt society reversing the more lenient policy from the 90s.

for those interested, a pdf of this article can be downloaded from this filesharing site:.

cabasilas

LeavingWT & Atlantis, you're welcome.

This is a subject that I'm particularly sensitive about. Just today I signed up for my Fall classes at the local university after transferring from a community college (and I graduated from high school over 35 years ago!)

7

1981 Revised--The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life--PDF!

by Atlantis in

1981 revised, the truth that leads to eternal life--pdf bookmarked searchable reduced (all credit goes to jimmypage) you may recall jimmy's previous post about this book and the changes in it from the 1968 truth book.

click here: http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/174077/1/1975-coverup-compare-the-68-and-81-truth-book-scans download: click the link at the bottom of the next page.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/jq2c7d many thanks to you jimmy for your kindness!

cabasilas

Boy does this bring back memories!!

Thanks, Atlantis, for this file! Great work!!

3

PDF request October 1, 2005 WT on Higher Education

by cabasilas in

would anyone be able to provide a pdf of the entire wt article from the october 1, 2005 watchtower regarding higher education?

i realize it's on the cd-rom but i'd be interested in a scan of the complete article if someone has that or could make it available?.

.

cabasilas

Someone sent me the scans and directions on how to get a PDF of the article can be found on this thread:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/178467/1/Scan-of-2005-Watchtower-Discouraging-Higher-Education

8

Scan of 2005 Watchtower Discouraging Higher Education

by cabasilas in

someone sent me the scans of the october 1, 2005 watchtower article which discourages higher education for jws.

this was the wt that began the current anti-education stance by the wt society reversing the more lenient policy from the 90s.

for those interested, a pdf of this article can be downloaded from this filesharing site:.

cabasilas

Someone sent me the scans of the October 1, 2005 Watchtower article which discourages higher education for JWs. This was the WT that began the current anti-education stance by the WT Society reversing the more lenient policy from the 90s. For those interested, a PDF of this article can be downloaded from this filesharing site:

http://www.filesend.net/download.php?
f=cb12d69e0a36144475076eaf27111b76

Might be useful in documenting the current anti-education policy.

54

Romans 10:13

by PSacramento in

we all know that the passage from paul's letter to romans, romans 10:13 says:.

"all those who call on the name of the lord will be saved".. now, in the nwt they translate that as jehovah instead of the word "lord", because this is a quote from joel 2:32 and in the ot the tetragrammaton yhwh is used, which the nwt translates as "jehovah" (not only the nwt does that, the asv,yng and dby, do it also in regards to joel).. however, of the 16 translations i have seen, all translate that passage in romans as lords and all the commentaries i have read so far, point to view that paul was applying that passage to jesus, being his name that is salvation.. commentaries by james, fausset and brown, by matthew henry and by barnes, to name only 3.. comments?.

cabasilas

When discussing the identify of Jesus, can I recommend this booklet? It's entitled "Jesus of Nazareth -- Who Is He?" by Arthur Wallis. It was very influential in my life years ago. It can be downloaded from this fileserver:

http://www.filesend.net/download.php?
f=bff840ed6b1c4664c10f153ee8bdfbe0

The appendix in the back lists some of the verses which apply OT passages about Yahweh to Christ.