J-Guy, the money doesn't disappear into a black hole. It's sitting right out where everyone can see. They are constantly investing--loaning to KH builds (the interest of which which are a huge source of income), building 30 story buildings in New York City, making gigantic complexes in Patterson, NY, buying pieces of printing equipment worth millions of dollars, etc.
There's really no secret. What you see is what you get. And what you see is HUGE--I don't know why people need for some dark secret money hole to exist when what's right out on the surface is scandalous enough.
OH and the source of their protection is also obvious enough--they use the laws of the free countries of the world in a clever way. They lawyer up. They take it straight to the Supreme Court and they win most of the time. Again, there's no big secret--they and some others like the Scientologists have realized that if you call yourself a religion and drape yourself in ritual and scripture, you can get away with all kinds of stuff. Also the design of the Society is decentralized, like a cancer. You can't kill invasive, metastatic cancer buy cutting out one or two tumors, you have to irradiate and provide chemicals. Same with the Society. New York City could fall into the sea tomorrow and they'd still exist, they're like a hydra.
under_believer
JoinedPosts by under_believer
-
32
The Society Isn't about Money. The Governing Body isn't the Illuminati.
by under_believer inno, it's not a vast conspiracy for the governing body to get rich.
it's about power and control, but not personal power and control.
the watchtower society is a living, nigh-sentient entity unto itself.
-
-
under_believer
-
32
The Society Isn't about Money. The Governing Body isn't the Illuminati.
by under_believer inno, it's not a vast conspiracy for the governing body to get rich.
it's about power and control, but not personal power and control.
the watchtower society is a living, nigh-sentient entity unto itself.
-
-
under_believer
OUTLAW, I am assuming you're referring to the Governing Body members.
They get a lot of creature worship, and they can travel all over, and they have free healthcare, but they don't have access to everything money can buy. They don't have opulent mansions, rich food, nice clothes, a great television set, high-class hookers, Lamborghinis with leather seats, and iPod Nanos. These guys live in rooms about as nice as you'd get at a Motel 6 for their entire lives. They also work pretty damned hard for what they DO get.
I'm not defending the governing body, but they're not rich dude. -
14
Do you, too, see JW chronology numbers everywhere?
by GermanXJW ini regulary look at my digital alarm clock and it says "19:14" and i think "hmm, used to be the end of the 'gentile times'" than i take a look at my number of posts and i have already passed 1914, 1918, 1925. when i look at car plates i get reminded of year numbers having been hammered into my brain.
well, this is not really serious, but i get always reminded of my jw past.
i have to add that chronology was something important to me and carl olof jonsson's book "the gentile times reconsidered" was an important one for me.
-
-
under_believer
Yep, I get that too. Some people are more susceptible to this kind of thinking than others--it's really a mild form of OCD.
-
32
The Society Isn't about Money. The Governing Body isn't the Illuminati.
by under_believer inno, it's not a vast conspiracy for the governing body to get rich.
it's about power and control, but not personal power and control.
the watchtower society is a living, nigh-sentient entity unto itself.
-
-
under_believer
No, it's not a vast conspiracy for the Governing Body to get rich.
It's about power and control, but not personal power and control. The Watchtower Society is a living, nigh-sentient entity unto itself. The individual people caught up in the movement aren't any more important to the whole than individual cells are to your body. The entire Governing Body could die in a plane accident tomorrow morning; and nothing would change, not a single thing. A few Witnesses would shed a few tears and a year from now the organization would look exactly the same as it does today.
The organization is rich, yes; and getting richer every day. I don't see how anybody can deny that, when looking at their massive, publicly visible real estate and stock holdings. Yes, the printing arm operates at a loss, but assemblies and kingdom hall builds more than make up for those losses. But no individual members are rich, not at the bottom and not at the top. The Governing Body members wear the same JC Penny's suits that the random publisher hacks do. When your body gets fat, do your skin cells individually get fat? No, they don't. There are just more of them.
Here's another scenario for you. What if the entire Governing Body had a collective change of heart and decided to reverse course and publicly decry the last 150 years of lies?
They'd be disfellowshipped, all of them. And the hybrid, nigh-sentient, unstoppable organization would go on just the same way it always has. It's specifically literally designed in such a way that it is self-sustaining.
You can't kill it and neither can anybody else. Exits from the Society are personal and individual. That's the only way it happens. If the Society dies, it will be a slow senescence, a dying much like that of old age. Many people believe this process is well on its way, and maybe that will bring you hope, if you wish for such a thing, but really that's just not comforting to me, or a hollow comfort at best. -
25
I am not a jehovah's Witness, so please take your time and explain this!!!!
by kidder222 inok to begin i was born catholic, recently became intune with god, and now just believe in the holy scripture.
but i have many question to you guys who are jehovah's witness'.
many of the things i have read you believe in sound completely false, and ridiculous.
-
-
under_believer
Why don't you try actually reading some of the responses, cheese whiz? This isn't a JW site. Got it? Stop saying "you guys believe" and so on. Go to http://www.ewatchman-exposed.co.uk/research/ if you want to fight with some Witnesses.
You are either a troll, or just really dumb. I'm provisionally leaning towards the latter, but I haven't ruled out the idea that you're just trying to pull someone's chain. -
25
What makes you HAPPY about life when it all seems so FUTILE?
by hamsterbait injust saw the film "perfume".
that poor baby.
aaaahhhhh.
-
-
under_believer
My question is why would you watch such a f***ed up movie if you are this emotionally vulnerable? I learned my limits long ago and avoid stuff of this nature like the plague.
Anyways--I personally say get some tea and watch something funny like So I Married an Axe Murderer, or maybe something brainless like The Matrix. That'll fix you right up. Also get laid. -
24
God Is Love
by under_believer ina meditation on love, using only scriptures.
from the nwt, for easy readability for any witness readers out there.
1 john 4:8 - he that does not love has not come to know god, because god is love.. .
-
-
under_believer
avid, good thing you live in the West. A billion people wake up every morning to no food and no hope. Where is their Almighty? Why does He love you but not them?
-
24
God Is Love
by under_believer ina meditation on love, using only scriptures.
from the nwt, for easy readability for any witness readers out there.
1 john 4:8 - he that does not love has not come to know god, because god is love.. .
-
-
under_believer
A meditation on love, using only scriptures. From the NWT, for easy readability for any Witness readers out there.
1 John 4:8 - He that does not love has not come to know God, because God is love.
1 Cor 13:4a - Love is long-suffering and kind.
Numbers 32:10-13 - Consequently Jehovah’s anger blazed on that day so that he swore, saying, "The men who came up out of Egypt from twenty years old upward will not see the soil of which I have sworn to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, because they have not followed me wholly, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, because they have followed Jehovah wholly." So Jehovah’s anger blazed against Israel and he made them wander about in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that was doing evil in the eyes of Jehovah came to their end.
1 Cor 13:4b - Love is not jealous,
Exodus 34:14 - For you must not prostrate yourself to another god, because Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, he is a jealous God;
1 Cor 13:4c - it does not brag, does not get puffed up,
Exodus 34:6 - And Jehovah went passing by before his face and declaring: "Jehovah, Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness and truth,"
Job 38:4-7 (Jehovah speaking) - Where did you happen to be when I founded the earth? Tell [me], if you do know understanding. Who set its measurements, in case you know, Or who stretched out upon it the measuring line? Into what have its socket pedestals been sunk down, Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars joyfully cried out together, And all the sons of God began shouting in applause?
1 Cor 13:5a - does not behave indecently, does not look for its own interests, does not become provoked.
Exodus 32:9-11 - And Jehovah went on to say to Moses: "I have looked at this people and here it is a stiff-necked people. So now let me be, that my anger may blaze against them and I may exterminate them, and let me make you into a great nation." And Moses proceeded to soften the face of Jehovah his God and to say: "Why, O Jehovah, should your anger blaze against your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?"
Deut. 6:15 - (for Jehovah your God in your midst is a God exacting exclusive devotion,) for fear the anger of Jehovah your God may blaze against you and he must annihilate you from off the surface of the ground.1 Cor 13:5d - It does not keep account of the injury.
Exodus 34:7b (about Jehovah) - "bringing punishment for the error of fathers upon sons and upon grandsons, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation."
Deut 6:16 "YOU must not put Jehovah YOUR God to the test, the way YOU put him to the test at Mas´sah."
Deut 23:2 - "No illegitimate son may come into the congregation of Jehovah. Even to the tenth generation none of his may come into the congregation of Jehovah."
1 Cor 13:6,7 - It does not rejoice over unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Genesis 6:6,7 - And Jehovah felt regrets that he had made men in the earth, and he felt hurt at his heart. So Jehovah said: "I am going to wipe men whom I have created off the surface of the ground, from man to domestic animal, to moving animal and to flying creature of the heavens, because I do regret that I have made them."
1 Cor 13:8 - Love never fails.
Zeph 1:18 - Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Jehovah’s fury; but by the fire of his zeal the whole earth will be devoured, because he will make an extermination, indeed a terrible one, of all the inhabitants of the earth.
AND YET...
1 John 4:8 - He that does not love has not come to know God, because God is love.
-
-
-
under_believer
It DID feel great. It felt great to break a rule. It felt great to feel like I was helping someone out. It felt great to, finally, after over 30 years, not feel guilty when walking by the kettle-keeper. It felt GREAT.
-
-
-
under_believer
I'm so bad.