The numbers are down across the board, that's for sure. About the sales tax issue: I'm sure there are a lot of complications to the reasoning. One reason is common sense. The lower something costs, the more people will buy it. Plus when you tack on "plus tax" on something it feels more like a purchase than a donation, and people feel better about themselves when they donate rather than buy something.
Mikeus
JoinedPosts by Mikeus
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Is the watchtower in the red or planning for something ?
by 5go init does but doesn't seem to be in trouble monetarialy.. what is going on.
are they ok but seeing the writing on the wall with lawsuit or something else.. or, are they broke and just hiding it..
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The serious conversation with the wife about the cult
by OnTheWayOut inif you needed my background, this thread will tell it-.
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/121888/1.ashx.
my wife recently asked me about not commenting at a wt study.. our discussion was the topic of this thread-.
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Mikeus
Hey onthewayout, I feel for you. My wife was once a very zealous JW, as is her entire family. She was born and raised in the Org, as were her parents. Her father is an elder, her mother does 60 some hours of service a week, and her brother is a pioneer. By the grace of God, my wife no longer calls herself a JW and has stopped attending everything WT, and now sees the blatant control over her family and ex-friends (while she is not df'ed, she is shunned by all but her parents). I was never a JW, although I did attend Sunday night meetings for a few months and met weekly with elders to "study". I didn’t begin studying directly with elders, but when one of the first two (an ex-Catholic) started agreeing with me that both Yahweh and Jesus were the Alpha and Omega spoken of in Revelations, I guess they decided to send “more faithful brothers” to my house on Saturdays. It just gave me better practice at talking to the more hardcore JWs ;)
You know how to speak to your wife and are obviously very tactful and have a great relationship. With my wife, my in-laws, and the elders I spoke with, I found the most effective way to get through the JW antiprocess is to simply state information, not an opinion. Example: "The doctrine of Jesus being fully God in the flesh is an orthodox doctrine that many of the disciples of the disciples (church fathers) wrote many volumes teaching and defending. What are your thoughts on that?" Or outside of the Biblical realm of things: "Organizations like the Mormons, the World Wide Church of God, and the Unification church also think you must study their literature to come to the knowledge of truth, and that they are the only ones who are truth. What do you think?" I’m sure since you’ve been reading Hassan, this is old news to you. But it worked and still works very well when I dialogue with a JW.
When my wife was seriously doubting the Organization, I repeatedly told her I only wanted to present information and let her choose what she wanted to do with it from there. I always emphasized I was not trying to press an opinion upon her and wanted her to make her own decisions. She was very receptive to this method of conversation.
Anyway, I hope you can draw something from this. It seems you’re a capable guy and know what you’re doing. I’ll be praying for you.
Mikeus -
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"Every lie is an untruth, but not every untruth is a lie"
by becca1 inso says the february 1st 2007 watchtower in bold print on page 6.. the name of the article is: why be truthful?.
under the subheading, what is a lie?
it reads:"every lie is an untruth, but not every untruth is a lie.
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Mikeus
Has anyone posted this WT as a pdf? I'd really like to read it. Maybe their trying to quiet the rank and file from wondering why the Tribulation didn't occur back in October when KN37 was supposed to be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
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The Sorrow and the Pity of the Watchtower: denial of DUE PROCESS
by Terry innounthe state, action, or principle of treating all persons equally in accordance with the law.
fairness is something familiar to even the smallest child.
being treated without bias is a hunger humanity has fought for in every society; some less successfully than in present day.. in america we are guaranteed fairness when dealing with the state or federal government due to the imbalance of relative power between the individual and the state.
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Mikeus
" For example, Yahweh puts the invisible gun to heads of all Christians with the threat of Armageddon. When it comes (teehee!), if you haven't been doing what he says, you're toast. Probably eternally burning toast too. That aspect of the theology removes the possibility of free will. God says "My way or I'll kill you. Maybe not today, but I'm definitely gonna get you. " This is going off topic, but my view on Hell is that it's an affirmation of free will. If you reject God in this life, either directly or indirectly, God will respect your free choice and not force you to spend eternity with Him. You might say that Heaven would be a hell to someone who wants nothing to do with God.
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NEW Theology and Cult Blog
by Mikeus inhey everyone, just wanted to let you all know i've recently started a new blog with another scholarly-type friend of mine.
it's called theodyssey.
we'll be writing a lot about jehovah's witnesses, the watchtower society, and theology in general.
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Mikeus
Hey everyone, just wanted to let you all know I've recently started a new blog with another scholarly-type friend of mine. It's called THEOdyssey. We'll be writing a lot about Jehovah's Witnesses, the WatchTower Society, and theology in general. Give us a visit, and let me know what you think. Thanks! In Christ, Mikeus
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NEW BLOG
by Mikeus inhey everyone, just wanted to let you all know i've recently started a new blog called theodyssey.
i'll be writing a lot about jehovah's witnesses, the watchtower society, and theology in general.
give us a visit, and let me know what you think.
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Mikeus
Hey everyone, just wanted to let you all know I've recently started a new blog called THEOdyssey. I'll be writing a lot about Jehovah's Witnesses, the WatchTower Society, and theology in general. Give us a visit, and let me know what you think. Thanks! In Christ, Mikeus
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JW Reform, It will NEVER happen...
by AuldSoul ini have read several posts by posters who fervently hope jws will become a mainstream religion, or will become "the truth," or will stop teaching this doctrine, or tweak that one, and "oh, if they would only [fill in the blank].".
such dreaming will, in the end, come to naught.
there are practical reasons why.. (1) the rank and file have no authority over the governing body.. (2) the rank and file do not hold sway over any of the corporate interests.. (3) the vast majority of memorial partakers are not credible in the eyes of the governing body, nor do they have any authority over anything.. (4) the organization shows a willingness to publicly claim beliefs to which jehovah's witnesses do not actually subscribe in order to improve public image (see lisa's interview with j.r. brown), while retaining the same hard-line beliefs in reality.. (5) the governing body is unwilling to relinquish control over the organization, to share authority with underlings (e.g.
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Mikeus
I have to agree, I don't see a possibility for reform of the WTS's doctrines. When you get down to it, a lot of people will always believe what they want to believe. They will shift and sway here and there, but reform to an actual mainstream religion? I just can't see it. That's like saying Catholics will one day stop saying Hail Mary's. There are certain things about the JW's that make them feel SPECIAL (i.e. Arianism, abstaining from holidays, etc). What we have here is a case of religious tradition. The GB appoints successors who are like-minded. As previously touched on, unless there is some sort of Rutherfordesque overthrow, things are for the most part going to stay the same. But, as stated before, we're dealing with millions of people with ingrained beliefs, not a few thousand scattered followers who's only leader just died. Just look at the people who were Witnesses in the 40's and are STILL Witnesses. Things may sway, the publications and predictions will continually miss the mark, but it is a tradition and it is RIGHT (in their minds).
For example, I have corned Mormons in argument, proven them dead wrong, and the response I repeatedly get is "I don't know, but I trust the elders" or "There has to be an answer to that, but I just don't know it".
Of course, there is always hope for the people in the cult to realize what's going on and get out. I think most of us can at least attest to that.
"Like a ship tacking into the wind..." Watchtower 12/1/81 p.27 -
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Mikeus
The tetragram is in none of the Greek manuscripts. Out of the thousands available, it doesn't appear once. The whole argument for the Hebrew versions they have found which do indeed use the divine name is actually very incriminating against the WTS. Where the WTS has replaced "kurios" (Greek for Lord) with Jehovah has been biased, as the phrase "Lord Jesus" should read "Jehovah Jesus" as it does in the Hebrew NT manuscripts. The WTS has OMITTED the tetragrammaton around 50 times, in order to uphold their worldview of Jesus as a lesser god.
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New Campaign: "The End of False Religion Is Near" and the Tribulation
by Mikeus inyesterday my wife (an inactive-but-not-yet-df'd jw) and i went over to visit her parent's house (still very active jws), and my mother-in-law handed my wife a flyer entitled 'the end of false religion is near' with a nice evil-destroying lightning bolt pictured on the front.
she whispered to my wife that this was a new campaign and was not supposed to be handed out until next month, but was "very excited, because this is supposed to bring about the tribulation".. they may be right.
inside the two pages they call catholics condoning child molesting (ironic), non-jws blood thirsty war mongers, and how people involved in politics are under mind control (again, ironic), among other things.
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Mikeus
Hello all and thanks very much for the warm welcome! I've been a long time lurker, just decied to post for once. Yeah, I can see that this is the same old crap. Just the concept of "bringing about" the tribulation is extremely odd to me. Can one really "push" God's plans into action, and through handing out tracts? Anyway, what really hurts my heart is to see my mother-in-law so excited about it all.
I'll make sure my info isn't dated next time, hahaha. -Mikeus -
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New Campaign: "The End of False Religion Is Near" and the Tribulation
by Mikeus inyesterday my wife (an inactive-but-not-yet-df'd jw) and i went over to visit her parent's house (still very active jws), and my mother-in-law handed my wife a flyer entitled 'the end of false religion is near' with a nice evil-destroying lightning bolt pictured on the front.
she whispered to my wife that this was a new campaign and was not supposed to be handed out until next month, but was "very excited, because this is supposed to bring about the tribulation".. they may be right.
inside the two pages they call catholics condoning child molesting (ironic), non-jws blood thirsty war mongers, and how people involved in politics are under mind control (again, ironic), among other things.
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Mikeus
Yesterday my wife (an inactive-but-not-yet-df'd JW) and I went over to visit her parent's house (still very active JWs), and my mother-in-law handed my wife a flyer entitled 'The End of False Religion Is Near' with a nice evil-destroying lightning bolt pictured on the front. She whispered to my wife that this was a new campaign and was not supposed to be handed out until next month, but was "very excited, because this is supposed to bring about the tribulation".
They may be right. Inside the two pages they call Catholics condoning child molesting (ironic), non-JWs blood thirsty war mongers, and how people involved in politics are under mind control (again, ironic), among other things. Basically the same old crap, but in a very aggressive way this time.
They also talk about the Revelation book at some length, which I found interesting seeing as they just released a new one.
So, heads up. The WTS is launching a new campaign in November basically telling it's members to try and go get beaten up so Armageddon will hurry up and get here.
-Mikeus