Posts by billyboy

55

Jehovah's INEFFECTIVE Witness...(Why no TV ministry???)

by Terry in

jw
friends

what if i asserted the following as true?

the watchtower bible and tract society has no interest in an effective evangelical program of conversion.. would that sound silly?

disfellowshipping would lead to having a big target placed on the ex jw's back at armageddon.. .

billyboy

I agree that JWs should make more use of the net - however TV ministry is very expensive & ineffective - many "Christian" groups are winding down this method as this quote indicates:

"A review of the history of religious uses of television suggests that religious television at present is at a crossroads in its development. The evangelical and fundamentalist strategy of building programming on direct audience support and purchasing air-time for religious programming for the purpose of evangelism has been shown to have not succeeded. The paid- time religious programs' audience sizes have levelled off with only a small minority of Americans viewing; their syndication patterns and audience characteristics indicate that they have not been effective in reaching to a great extent outsiders to the Christian faith nor in achieving their theological objectives; and they face mounting financial pressures with a possible decreasing base of support. "

Don't discount house-to-house & informal ministry , however. In UK , the door-to-door selling of electric & gas contracts is the most effective method of promotion:

http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/nao_reports/00-01/000185es.pdf

76

Wow LittleToe!

by IP_SEC in

jw
friends

dang man, your site has seen a lot of traffic over the past few years .

nice.

http://www.angelfire.com/trek/littletoe/profile.html.

billyboy

Thanks for your balanced comments , Eduardo.

My personal view is that the witnesses come to the meetings to listen to the scriptures developed in harmony with the doctrines developed by Jehovahs’s witnesses. They don’t go to hear a speaker exploiting his position to give vent to his views and opinions which are in direct opposition to the views of his audience and which cause hurt and upset.

During Princess Diana’s funeral , her brother , Earl Spencer , took advantage of the opportunity to criticise the royal family. He knew that everybody was listening and no-one would dare intervene. Many may have agreed with his sentiments. Yet it wasn’t the time , place or forum to express his views.

LTs talk wasn’t courageous - it was rude , ill-considered and showed contempt for his audience.

76

Wow LittleToe!

by IP_SEC in

jw
friends

dang man, your site has seen a lot of traffic over the past few years .

nice.

http://www.angelfire.com/trek/littletoe/profile.html.

billyboy

I ask again - how would you feel if a speaker in your church acted like you did? Would you make an effort to stop the individual or would you feel that it was his right to say whatever he wanted?

You will recall the way John McCririck spoke at Robin Cook's funeral - I put your conduct in the same category.

http://212.58.226.40/2/low/uk_news/politics/4147952.stm

76

Wow LittleToe!

by IP_SEC in

jw
friends

dang man, your site has seen a lot of traffic over the past few years .

nice.

http://www.angelfire.com/trek/littletoe/profile.html.

billyboy

These experiences flatter the ego of the participant & go down well with opposers. Personally I feel it is a betrayal of trust. Those I know who endured LTs talk feel he was abusing his position & speak of it in very negative terms - they would be disappointed (but not surprised) to learn that it is available in MP3 format online. How would he feel about a speaker in his church doing the same thing?

28

SOME GENUINE QUESTIONS FOR PMJ

by diamondblue1974 in

i have some genuine questions for you pmj which i hope you will take the time to answer;

i was brought up as a witness and left over a decade ago; i have always struggled with these points and hope you can provide an explanation.

the main answer to the questions in relation to wickedness being permitted is that jehovah is proving satan to be a liar (in other words to prove a point).

billyboy

1... Yes (See account about Job for further details)

2... Setting of precedent - natural justice , preventing of further Satans

3... Ransom doctrine

4... Refer to answer 2

5... (a) Major issue at stake - needed to be resolved

(b) Others suffer innocently when an issue is at stake - eg 1 st Gulf War Resurrection hope to resolve

6... Refer to answer 2

7...No - he knew that some would follow him

8...Wicked at time of Noah - “took no note” Community responsibility

9...”Must worship in spirit & truth”. Non-Jews destroyed in Canaan.

Overiding principle- “God does not desire any to be destroyed , but desires all to attain to repentance.”

13

Martin's Method of Giving a Testimony to JWs: Would this really work?

by Oroborus21 in

jw
friends

ok so i read in walter martin's the kingdom of the cults how he claims to use the following method to give a testimony to jehovah's witnesses who come to his door periodically, and frankly i find it a bit dubious, despite his claims that he has successfully done it many times.

he calls this method "subliminal seeding" (pg.

487-8) [a dubious title already]:.

billyboy

There was an old man in our territory who would insist on praying "the Lord's prayer" (including the spurious added-on bits) at the start of any visit. Any visiting witness used the same argument with him - arguing that he was praying to a different (Trinitarian) God & quoting Mt 6.

I suspect that the approach mentioned by Eduardo would not impress the average witness although it would be a novelty to find a "Christian" who gave some kind of witness or testimony - most never bother.

42

Comments You Will Not Hear at the 2-12-06 WT Study (Righteousness)

by blondie in

25-29)(righteousness).

is this the only example of how a young woman can seek righteousness first, .

3. what is righteousness?

billyboy

Thanks for your comments. My argument is simply that "Blondie" is not objectively analysing the WT article - she is criticising it. While she does make some legitimate points , the problem is that she resorts to nit-picking because she consistently presents the articles in a negative way. I would have more respect for her articles if she occasionally acknowledged the truthfulness of a point or argument - I've read through a few of her articles and never seen one case of this (although I do stand to be corrected on this).

The WT discussions in our congregation are open and often a balancing point is made by the conductor or by someone in the audience. The brothers are not quite as dim as some ex-witnesses would think - they can see through weak argumentation. A recent WT article depicted a picture of witnesses enjoying social activities by having a group sing-song of Kingdom melodies - several brothers & sisters pointed our the irony of this in their answers and the WT overseer admitteed that the picture was rather unrealistic.

1

End of Eastern European Fund

by billyboy in

this fund has now been disbanded & merged into the wwf - announced yesterday.

billyboy

This fund has now been disbanded & merged into the WWF - announced yesterday.

18

Response from Society over UN Membership

by skyman in

i'll try to repost the letter

billyboy

I think this is fairly well known - it was published in a newspaper over here. Most of the informed JWs I know are aware of it although they do tend to dismiss it as inconsequential (as I do).

24

Why am I not bitter?

by DannyBloem in

many people on this board seems to be a bit bitter and angry.

many do feel a form of hate towards the gb or even witnesses in general.. i do understand that many feel this way, some have all rigths to be bitter.. wy do i not feel like that?

i am not bitter, nor hate the gb or witnesses.

billyboy

I agree that many posters are bitter - and from my reading of some (but by no means not all) of the PMs I have received , some are very angry towards existing JWs. (By the way , my Mum & Dad were married when I was conceived!)

I suspect that JWD posters are a "hard core" of former JWs who still take an interest in JW matters composed of a loose grouping of classic "apostate nutcase" types , many who still have family & friends in the organisation and some who feel they have found friendship and companionship (albeit via an electronic medium) with others. According to the UK map on this website, only about 30 or so Brits post compared to many thousands who have left the Truth in this country , so you are talking about a select group of people.

If you do a search on the net , you will find ex-Catholic , Mormon , Anglican and numerous other message board websites and the attitude and bitterness is very similar.

I asked a couple of long-term faders in my family if they felt bitter about their experience as a JW , but they both felt that broadly the experience was positive - they had just moved on to different interests. I suspect if they were bitter , they might have been more inclined to contribute to websites like this one.