Baptist.
I love life, liberty, and the pursuit of learning.
May each one have the same right. No on should dictate, or by force compel, another's belief.
Cheers
i would like those of you former jws turned christian to post here.
specific denominations can be mentioned.
i'd just like to get an idea of how many of you there are.
Baptist.
I love life, liberty, and the pursuit of learning.
May each one have the same right. No on should dictate, or by force compel, another's belief.
Cheers
have i stayed too long at the fair.
there are many names and faces that i don't see much any more.
my own style of posting has changed due to my limitations.. welcome to the new ones and stop by some of you we are missing if you can.. blondie.
Congraaaatulations Oh great one!!!
All I can say is "Well done thou faithful and discreet slave"
You have been faithful in much, now you may be sure that your privileges are to be increased. The harvest is plenty and the workers, we band of siblings, are few.
However, your fans are many and your prose in great demand.
Sorry, but if that was a request to retire, then request is denied. Rather than curse the darkness, you have lit a fire and the flame is reaching into every known part of this planet. If your arms are tiring from holding that flame aloft, know that we are holding the flame on high with you so that all can see.
Tyranny will never extinguish that torch of freedom, and our right to think as free peoples is, and will always be, enshrined in your words. Your record has already established that.
Now.......
When can we expect the next study analysis?
Cheers
webster wrote the dictionary because of his wife.
every time he opened his mouth, she said, " now what's that supposed to mean?
blueblades.
Garcon:
I'll have a ham and salad thanks.
Oh, and grill him while you're at it.
Cheers
i was reading truthseeker's post's about the summer convention.
s/he kept saying that the convention this year is focused on jesus.. i have been watching and comparing what is being said here and the things presented by the botchtower babble society, both in the local meetings and the assemblies/conventions.
it seems to me, without actually looking up post's, that what is presented to the r&f follows what is challenged here in jwd by a week/month or two.. for a quick example, this particular convention is speaking about jesus.... a lot.
I suppose this proposition may be true, but the extent to which it can be addressed is a subject of tiresome debate. It is true that we can supply plenty of evidence to indicate that the WTS leadership, or at least the writers of their publications, have been forced to react to pressure from the outside, especially from us 'postates.
At least one example can be supplied off my mind, and that concerns the use of Johannes Greber. Evidently a mentor of Freddy Franz when we consider the high esteem Franz accorded Greber, and the various occasions that the Greber NT was quoted with apparent approval in WT publications, this bestowal of "divine" sanction, had to be reversed after increasing pressure from sources outside the Society became apparent. It was only when forums such as this revealed the demonic influence that clearly under-girded the Greber NT, and when this exposure was having a telling effect on the R&F, that the WT leadership backed away from their position. Couching their retrenchment in suitably ambiguous phrases, of course.
And this may extend to various WT articles that are suffering under the glare of circumstances. The regular increase in Memorial partakers over time, has obviously forced those who are the Keepers of the Flame, at WT headquarters, to drop their otherwise absurd 1935 timing on the intake of the "anointed"
Having said that, however, it needs to be taken into consideration that books released at Dist Conventions can take several years to craft. Much of the prose has to possess a certain level of ambiguity which may tax the creativity of any one writer. It takes a skill, honed over many years of duplicity, to articulate WT theology to the condition that makes it conventional. Every editorial equivocation, every enigmatic prevarication, every degree of incertitude has to be utilized so as to make the text say what the leadership wants it to say. Generalization must be clothed in dogmatism, and vagueness given substance.
What can be termed Standard Literary Procedures must be observed. For instance, since 1995, with the dropping of the 1914 generation teaching, the expressions "1914" and "generation" must never be placed in congruency, theological or grammatical. Despite the fact that every English dictionary of the last few years will give "Heaven" as the first meaning for "paradise" [See Websters, for Americans, Collins for British English] it is Standard Literary Procedure in all WT publications to always modify the word "paradise" with the additional noun "earth" lest the R&F get heavenly pretensions.
Then there are the legal parameters. The men with the slide rules and the legal imperatives have virtually hijacked the WT ability to express itself. The polite fiction that the increasingly decrepit "anointed" are crafting WT material is maintained only in the dark recesses of what passes for humour in WT circles.
All this means that the pre publication stage of a Dist Convention release may have to go through several hands, and various modifications. The present publication may have first been given a substantive identity before any Forum suggestions had been provided.
I rather think it is a circular, stereotyped mechanization that reveals why certain publications are eventually released. What goes around, comes around. Obviously some high pressure meeting established that a book on Christ had not been published for a while. So Presto! Out it comes. The same considerations are being applied to next years publication, and the year after that and the year after that......ad infinitum.
I am almost certain the publication for next year's Assembly has already been written, in answer to some need, legal or otherwise.
Having been written in 1985, and revised in '89 I feel that the "[Human] Reasoning" book is fast approaching its use by date. It just isn't ambiguous enough. It just doesn't say the different things it needs to simultaneously say that current publication do. Look out for a replacement soon.
Cheers
according to the watchtower of may 1st 1989, the watchtower society made.
"significant changes" to its practices in 1917:.
watchtower 1989 1st may - babylon the great takes a fall.
Badboy, you bet Russell was an apostate.
If he walked into an average KH today, he would promptly be thrown out on his arse.
And this is the guy, according to the latest "revelation Climax" book, who is communicating through the spirit realm, with the WT leadership today.
Cheers
hey guys, i went to the party this afternoon, and mouthy wanted me to post about it and let you know that she is really busy with company right now, but will post again sometime soon.. anyway, mouthy's party was lots of fun--almost everyone there were ex-jws.
i really enjoyed meeting them and talking about their experiences.
they all had their eyes opened in different ways--for some it was a gradual awakening, for others it was a sudden unexpected scripture verse and bingo, the blinders were off!
Haaa...py birthday... to you....haapy birthday to you..... haaapy birth...day dear Mouthy.......happy birthday to you.......
Now common over 'ere and give us a big big kiss
Cheers
i'm putting together a list of scriptural examples of jehovah directly intervening in the affairs of nations for his own purposes.. and then of course a much smaller list of all the times satan did that.. (obviously this is intended for jws, so i'm going by their interpretations of things.).
here's what i have so far for jehovah:.
1: jehovah hardens the heart of pharoah so that he won't let israel go.. 2: confuses the human languages, at the tower of babel.. 3: causes esau to lose the birthright and creates two entirely different nations, plus predetermines the political relationship between the two.. 4: gave nebuchadnezzer a dream predicting the next couple world powers.
You are going to have to be prepared to receive a heck of a lot of different views since it involves a verse in Scripture that may be interpreted widely.
For a start I am not sure what you mean by the expression "system of things" That is Watchtower-speak, which is another way of saying it is Freddy Franz-speak, since this was one of his favourite expressions. When I ask a WT follower for a definition, I get a series of meaningless phrases all pointing suspiciously toward the definition of "world" yet they insist that it is something different. The strange thing is that no one asked me for a definition when I was a WT follower, so like everyone else I assumed Franz had a correct "translation"
The actual term used in the Greek is "Aion" simply meaning a time period, an age. 2Cor 4:4 describes Satan as the "god of this age" or the "god of the times in which we are currently living". The extent of his influence is limited and is described for us in this very verse.His power evidently made possible on the sufferance of God, lies in his ability to "blind the minds of people so that the illumination that comes from the Gospel message of Christ - not the WTS, not Jehoover, not any organization, not any GB - will not shine through. Paul states quite finally in 2Cor 4:5] that we [ie True Christians] are preaching NOT OURSELVES, ie the WTS, not jehoover, not any GB to be loyal to, but Christ as Lord. Could it be that some J document somewhere will reveal that Kurios listed here is in fact YHWH? [See 1Cor 12:3 in J14]
The WTS makes a great play about Satan ruling this "world" as if he controls the nations. It is naturally in their interest to push this view, because it encourages their acolytes to remain exclusively bound to their apron strings. If their acolytes spent any amount of time deciding whom to vote for, or if they went to union meetings, it's that much time taken away from their attention that they might give to the organization. Like the master they serve, the WTS leadership has an arrogant and demanding posture they adopt with their followers. It is to them, and them alone you must bend the knee, and touch the forelock.
There is certainly nothing in Scripture to indicate such a blasphemous view of Satan's power.. God is in control of the nations. He always was and He always will be. Ps 47:8,9 makes this plain. "God is the King of the earth He reigns over the nations" Satan's ability to influence minds may indeed extend to those rulers of the world whom he considers fitting subjects.
And Rom 13:1 makes it plain that the Christian has a social obligation towards the governments of the world, Why? Because, Paul says, those governments are "BY" Greek - Hupo - God. The pompous "translation" made by Freddy Franz here reads like a lawyer's dream "Stand placed in their relative positions by'' 37 letters in 7 separate words to render a simple three letter word in Greek.
The world Satan actually controls is described for us in Eph 6:12: "The world of this darkness, [not the world of the nations] the wicked spirt forces in the spirit realm" It is this demonic realm, with it's occult practices, and which the WTS evidently embraces, in that it is in contact with the spirits of the dead ex-leaders of the organization, that the True Christian must contend with.
OK... Having said that what about the incident regarding the Temptation of Christ? How could Satan promise to give Christ the nations of the world if he didn't control them. It is because he is a liar, remember. Like a snake oil salesman, or a con artist, satan was trying to sell something he did not have to sell in the first place. Remember Christ has made one definitive statement regarding Satan: "There is NO truth in him" [Jo 8:44] It is not that he tells the truth sometimes, or maybe or possibly. It simply is that he never, ever tells the truth. So it is simple really. Always believe the opposite of what he says. If he says you will live, it means you will die. If he says he will give you something he never will, because he doesn't have it to give. The blandishments of Satan, persuasive to the physical eyes, are in fact fatal.
What influence Satan exacted in the OT "aion" or time period is not revealed. The revelation of a devil in the Hebrew OT is amorphous at best, and subject to several variant readings. The demonic authority of Satan is peculiarly a NT teaching. And it there that we need to turn if we want to know his operations.
As a free people, unfettered by bonds of darkness exacted by those making extraordinary claims about being the exclusive spokesmen of God, we need to ensure that the "god" they represent does not tell lies, is neither fraudulent, nor a flimflam mirage.
Cheers
humbly submitting to loving shepherds.
*** w87 6/15 p. 15 par.
500-501 par.
Aaaaah yeees .....them were the days. Gad. To strut about the congregation, looking humble but acting otherwise.
I mean...like.... all you said was "The Society says...." and everyone jumped. We had more authority than the medieval Catholic Church.
Now all I got to strut over is Miss Moggy. And she's so bloody spoilt she simply ignores anything I say anyway. Just thumps her tail, wiggles her whiskers in disdain and turns over in sleep. So there.
> sigh< Them were the days.
Cheers
i wish i had posted this earlier so you guys could have gone to school this week to check it out, but the km school was a long winded plea plea for cash donations, reminding us that "jehovah will be grateful".. how i wanted to raise my hand and ask if the great need was related to paying off the child molestors or ask what happened to the$100s of millions from the property sale, or ask why they needed money after kicking out all the bethelites (two booted bethel couples in the congo).
anyway you guys missed a good laugh.
if anyone wants i'll post the km magazine.
Oddly enough, this appears to be the one weak link in our research facilities here on JWD. The Kingdom Ministry publication, the one used at the Service Meetings. We used to have a guy, as I recall, who kept us up to date with the programme, and who scanned them regularly.
Dunno what happened to him, but I reckon we need a "Service Meeting Overseer", same as we have a WT Study conductor [Blondie] and a Theocratic School Instructor [Leolaia]
So, step right up guys. The hours are long and the pay lousy [pay? what pay?] but we need ya.
Cheers
jehovah is such a righteous, merciful, loving god -- slow to anger, overflowing with loving kindness and blessing.
yet it somehow bothers many of you that he will shortly execute his judgment on mankind and wipe out 99.9% of the world's population, as if that somehow is supposed to conflict with his loving qualities.
personally, i have no idea why many of you feel this way.
Right on, Leolaia!!
The WTS has'nt done any favours for their followers by publishing this stark picture, especially in view of the fact that my Moggy caught sight of it. She cant wait for the next one to come a-callin. Gunna bite 'em right there - where it hurts the most!!!!.
Ouch! Makes me eyes water just thinkin' bout it.
Cheers