Earnest

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Posts by Earnest

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  41

  OK, OK, 10 reasons Why..You Know The Rest..

  by Englishman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  1. we got pubs.

  1000's and 1000's of pubs.. 2. liz hurley.. 3. manchester united.. 4. the harrier / concorde / a380xxx.

  5. we got more overseas territories than anyone.it is still true, even now.. 6. the s.a.s.. 7. lots and lots of steam railways!.

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  Earnest

  And don't forget REAL cheddar cheese...and all other good cheeses. For a comprehensive list watch the Monty Python skit on the cheese shop.

  And Monty Python...
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  4

  Does anyone remember a scrip "masters over...

  by Leander in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i'm not certain but it seems like there was a scripture that went something like we are not masters over your faith.

  it might have been paul or maybe one of the other disciples talking to a congregation.

  i can't quite remember exactly where its at.. does anyone know what i'm talking about?

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  Earnest

  Paul also said "Who are you to judge the house servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for the Lord can make him stand." - Romans 14:4

  The whole of the fourteenth chapter is a very clear exposition of us having no other master over our faith - "the faith that you have, have it in accord with yourself in the sight of God".
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  2

  How to develop a Company Policy....

  by Earnest in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  start with a cage containing five monkeys.

  inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it.

  before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana.

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  Earnest

  Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

  After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

  Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him.

  After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

  Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm!

  Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

  After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here.

  And that's how company policy begins...

  Not true of all Watchtower policy but certainly true of global grooming and dress standards that are without scriptural support.

  Earnest
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  7

  Where are all the witnesses

  by sleepy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i wish there were more genuine witnesses here to answer our question .. why do you think they dont come?

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  Earnest

  What did you want to know, sleepy ?

  Earnest (in his genuine witness role)
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  34

  J.W's gonna see Harry P ?

  by wheelwithinwheel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  harry potter is getting great reviews.

  looks pretty satanic!

  how many witnesses are gonna go see the movie?

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  Earnest

  The Harry Potter books are the first books my son really enjoyed reading for himself. And I couldn't put them down. The only danger, imo, is that he might think that all witchcraft, spells etc. are just a bit of fun and not avoid the real thing if he came across it. But the greater danger is to see Satan in everything and be influenced by fear and superstition rather than knowledge and understanding.

  Will we see the film. You bet!

  Earnest
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  20

  WTS Encourages Hatred 1.12.01WT

  by ISP in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  examine the following statements and tell me if you think the wts is irresponsible in its furtherance of religious hatred which is an evil plaguing the world today.. 1 article 1. of the un declaration of human rights.

  all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

  they are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.. .

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  Earnest

  outnfree,

  I have to agree that were I in the habit of underlining the paragraph I would come up with the answer that Christians are to "cultivate hatred towards persons and things which are opposed, detested, despised and with which one wishes to have no contact or relationship."

  I would still maintain that the tenor of the article is not on hating people but on hating "what is bad in Jehovah's eyes", namely idolatry, jealousy, immorality, greed, pride...and I think that is the conclusion most will draw from the material...but I also concede ISP was not misrepresenting that paragraph and apologise for too rash a conclusion.

  Earnest
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  20

  WTS Encourages Hatred 1.12.01WT

  by ISP in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  examine the following statements and tell me if you think the wts is irresponsible in its furtherance of religious hatred which is an evil plaguing the world today.. 1 article 1. of the un declaration of human rights.

  all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

  they are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.. .

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  Earnest

  You neglected to include the footnote, ISP, which says :

  "Jehovah himself feels this disgust. For example, Ephesians 4:29 describes bad language as 'rotten saying.' The Greek word used for 'rotten' literally refers to putrefying fruit, fish, or meat. Such a term vividly portrays the repulsion that we should feel toward abusive or obscene speech. Likewise, idols are often described in the Scriptures as 'dungy.' (Deuteronomy 29:17; Ezekiel 6:9) Our natural aversion to dung, or excrement, helps us to understand God's feeling of disgust for any form of idolatry."

  So while it is true that the quotation from the lexicon described the Hebrew word for "hatred" as being "an emotional attitude towards persons and things", which is similar to the English meaning, the emphasis in the article is not on hating people but on hating "what is bad in Jehovah's eyes", namely idolatry, jealousy, immorality, greed, pride.

  You do yourself no justice to take a line out of an article and misrepresent what is being said.

  Earnest
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  8

  WT printing Bibles for Thailand Bible Society

  by CatholicGuy in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  maybe this is public knowledge already...i don't know.

  back about 10 years ago my best friend worked for a christian book store.

  he used to order foreign bibles for the store and one evening i was thumbing through a thai bible on the shelf and was dumbstruck.

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  Earnest

  Sorry guys, I just don't see it. The WTS is a Bible Society and one of its aims is the publication of Bibles. It has previously printed many different versions of the English Bible. Now it prints Thai Bibles and provides some of those Bibles to the Thailand Bible Society. Frankly, it seems to me that you see hypocrisy where none exists.

  Earnest
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  35

  My Take On Anonimity.

  by Englishman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is just a few thoughts that i have regarding the subject of anonimity.

  yes, i am making this post after being in the chat room with several others including kent and prisca.

  it seemed to me that kent posted prisca's pic mainly out of sheer mischievousness and was quite taken aback at her very real distress at having her identity exposed.

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  Earnest

  There are many good reasons for maintaining anonymity on the net, not the least being that there are nutters out there both within and outside the JW community and there is no knowing what they may do if they view themselves as God's avenging angel.

  And being new to this forum I have not had much to say both because my observations would not have been constructive and because, as an unrepentant associate of JW I doubt that I really know where many contributors are coming from. But on this forum I've found humanity in all its hues and have had to confront issues unlikely to arise at the book study.

  Richard Putman, Cambridge
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  15

  What would it take?

  by cynicus in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  in view of the jw reactions on items such as the ngo thing, harbouring child molesters, it made me wonder about what it would take for the average jw to really grasp that the gb, the org and lots of its doctrine is not what it claims to be.. personally i've experienced that after a longwinded argument with an elder about the validity of the 1914 doctrine, he eventually agreed that it wasn't as solid as he thought and that it could be incorrect.

  did he see the light (or its absence)?

  interestingly enough, he immediately added that even if all this were true/untrue, it would not invalidate his loyalty to the org & gb.

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  Earnest

  Funny that something so small as a birthday should have such ramifications. I never accepted that birthdays were wrong but it didn't bother me until I had children. I couldn't teach them something I didn't believe and so they had their parties and presents and balloons. Nothing has ever been quite the same since.