Posts by alanv

28

JW's Never Closed the Door On A Russian King of the North

by scotoma in

jw
friends

king of the north.

union, the "king of the south" can be none other than the rival non-communist bloc, under the .

so who is the king of the north now?

alanv

The one thing I have learnt with the Watchtower over the years is that they always give themselves wriggle room.

They will post two completely opposite statements sometimes, so that they can always point to the correct statement when it comes true. They also have said that prophesy can best be understood when it is actually fulfiiled, which actually means they can select the best scriptures to prove something was said years ago that has now been fulfilled.

It has been said that you can make the bible say whatever you want, and the Watchtower society regularly does that.

35

Confused?

by nomorepain13 in

i have been going to meetings since i was a child, long story short only recently i've started taking the truth seriously, i am not baptized but just an unbaptized publisher.

truth is i am so lonely in the congregation.

the other young people in the cong don't like me because they dont think i am going to "stay" for long, i've even worked on the ministry with an older brother and asked her am i giving the wrong impression to people?

alanv

Your main job I would say is to check yourselves if this really is the truth or not. Certainly if you get baptised you will be welcomed with open arms, but then in the future if you realize that actually this may not be the truth, they will avoid you like the plague. Even if you just question one doctrine you will be treated coldly by your fellow witnesses.

So do yourself a huge favour, check out the orgs history. Have they proved to be totally trustworthy or have they in fact been misleading people for decades? But you must check others views not just JWs as they will be totally biased.

I wish you well and hope you will come to the right decision and enjoy the rest of your life.

17

The Revelation of Saint John the Divine

by Caupon in

apparently there are anointed members of god's earthy organization, or the jehova's christian witness church.

my understanding of this is that those select few appointed by holy spirit directed by he who is above will rule over the other sheep with the jesus in heaven.

their biblical proof of this is supposedly in the acts of the apostles and the last book, the revelation.

alanv

You can make Revelation say whatever you want it to. People have done that for centuries and JWs just joined the others. They have changed the meaning of Revelation as soon as it was obvious their last guess was wrong. People will probably carry on doing the same for centuries yet

13

Where Is All The Money Going from Sales of WTB&TS `s Real Estate Properties.

by smiddy in

what governmental requirements are their for full disclosure of the proceeds from sales of property made by a not for profit organization such as the wtb&ts.. how does the wtb&ts explain their charitable status when they do not provide any charitable benefits to anyone , when all their members , jehovahs witnesses are not employed by them , they are just volunteers.. does american law allow religous institutions to hide monetary transactions or is their full transparency regarding their use of their money.. how can a multi million $ publishing company , engaged in a multi million $ real estate organisation be considered as a not for profit organisation .. is their anything like an auditor general in the usa that needs to investigate these things ?.

just asking.. smiddy.

alanv

Pretty nice problem to have though. Lets hope they spend it all quickly then find the cotributions are drying up.

15

District Assemblies, Were they a Financial Burden to you? They Cost $1200 to $2000 in some lands!

by RottenRiley in

why does the watchtower place a harsh burden on it's low-paid and low-skilled army of witnesses?

the district conventions don't really add much value, you have witnesses making minimum wage with both husband and wife working while the elite witnesses can afford to burn a ton of cash making the poor witnesses feel worse about themselves.

i remember, some of the really poor witnesses would bring their own "cooker" to the motel to make "top ramen" and mac&cheese" while the company men had the elites take them out for "surf and turf" and other great feasts, the poor witnesses get the shaft was they are told how lucky they are to financially struggle to afford to pay for their hotels.. .

alanv

I was a single brother and only had to travel 20 miles by coach. I had to take 2 days holiday from work to get there. But it was no hardship at all. And I never put anything in the contribution boxes, although paid for any new releases.

9

March 1st 2014 Days Text

by Conchappie in

become imitators of god.?eph.

5:1.. one way to imitate jehovah is to adopt his viewpoint regarding matters.

jehovah hates sin, and so should we.

alanv

I love the way they say dont try and refute the arguements of apostates. For the very simple reason they will never win an arguement because they cannot defend what the organnisation has done and is doing now.

9

£517.00 per room for 3 nights.

by quellycatface in

jw
friends

the premier inn where my mum is staying for the twickenham assembly is the above price.this obviously doesn't include transport or food.she will be sharing with another sister, so the cost is half, but still, that's a lot of money.. poor sods..

alanv

quelly, surely your mum new that was a rip off price, so why did she agree to go there?

9

£517.00 per room for 3 nights.

by quellycatface in

jw
friends

the premier inn where my mum is staying for the twickenham assembly is the above price.this obviously doesn't include transport or food.she will be sharing with another sister, so the cost is half, but still, that's a lot of money.. poor sods..

alanv

10

World population vs Number of JW's where's the growth going?

by ed60 in

the rate of growth of publishers has dropped from an average 5.64% per annum over the 15 years prior to 1995, to 2.55% in the 15 years after 1995. had growth remained above 5%, the 4,950,344 witnesses in 1995 would have exceeded 11 million in 2010. instead, there were only 7 million in 2010 - a difference of 4 million people.

factors on conversion and retention, such as internet education, resulted in growth of 2 million instead of 6 million, just one third of that expected in 1995.. http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php.

i read this and it got me thinking about how much the global population is rising by annually.

alanv

Thanks Ed60.

So 2013 service reported 2.1% increase in average publishers. I should have thought 1% of those were young ones who started in the door to door work that year. That is only 75000 worldwide. So which ever way it is looked at, the increase is totally pathetic considering the 18 billion hours they spend trying to recruit new publishers.

17

District Assembly arrangements 2014.

by quellycatface in

jw
friends

my jw mother drives me nuts.

she lives in quite a cut-off part of the uk and this year, is expected to travel to hq (rugbyfans), aka twickenham.

she's great to make the trip, it's like a spiritual holiday for her.. i said i thought it ridiculous and unreasonable for the gb to expect people to travel that far and pay for accommodation near london.

alanv

You should be thankful they are not seven day assemblies like they were years ago. Even in the 1990s they were four days, now I believe they are three.

And the circuit assemblies are now down to one day. What with the weekly meetings being cut as well, witnesses should have more time available to them now. They even do less hours in the preaching work than say 20 years ago.