Posts by neverendingjourney

149

Public Talks To Be Discontinued!!! (NOT! - see page 8)

by minimus in

jw
friends

after the sunday culttower study is over, everyone will be expected to preach because the end is soooooooo close!.

[minimus i have added to the title so people can read yor correction.

otherwise i think people might just miss it.

neverendingjourney

Ignoring the nastiness on this thread, I thought I'd add a point that may or may not have been brought up already. I haven't read through all of the replies yet. When I was a regular pioneer, probably 10 or so years ago, the CO came up to a group of us to share some "exciting news." It turns out that his Bethelite son had just called to inform him that the latest out of Brooklyn was that the Society was going to discontinue printing luxury Bibles (the ones with the faux leather covers). This was back when the society was barely starting to entertain the softcover books idea. I think they had already cheapened the quality of the Watchtower paper by then. Well, they were still printing luxury Bibles as of two years ago when I stopped going to meetings.

The point is that C.O.'s can be just as gossipy as anyone else. It is quite possible that this guy got an "inside scoop" from a third or fourth hand source and the message had been altered in the process. COs typically like the attention they get and the look of awe from the publishers faces when they share special insider knowledge with them. I'm sure it makes many of them feel like gods. It could very well be true that your mother shared exactly what she heard from the CO with you, but that the CO, not your mother, was the one that was confused. My $.02.

15

JW Illustrations Ripped off from Secular Sources

by neverendingjourney in

first, let me apologize for my extended absence.

i was out of the country and took a vacation a while back.

when i came back, i realized that i had inadvertently broken my jwd addiction.

neverendingjourney

AudeSapere,

I've also heard that illustration, not directly from the platform, but I heard JWs talk about what a wonderful illustration it was. What a crock!

Since jw's are discouraged from spending 'useless' time reading non-witness material, most will not know that the concepts are plagerized. Some are likely loopy enough to believe that unscrupulous worldly people have pirated from the org.

This is exactly on point and another reason why the WTBTS does not want their members going to college. The more educated we become about the world around us, the more we understand that there is very little original material actually emanating from the Tower. In fact, as we now know, the precious "doctrinal truths" that we once cherished were ripped of from the Adventist movement that preceded JWism. The WTBTS prefers to have ignorant members. They're more easily manipulated. The ignorant JW just sits back in awe of the "wisdom" being provided by "Jehovah's people." Unfortunately, they don't understand that they just ripped off most of the material from other places.

15

JW Illustrations Ripped off from Secular Sources

by neverendingjourney in

first, let me apologize for my extended absence.

i was out of the country and took a vacation a while back.

when i came back, i realized that i had inadvertently broken my jwd addiction.

neverendingjourney

I found the exact quote from the movie:

CARDINAL LAMBERTO

Look at this stone. It has been lying in the water for a very long time, but the water has not penetrated it.

[breaks the stone]

CARDINAL LAMBERTO

Look. Perfectly dry. The same thing has happened to men in Europe. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity, but Christ has not penetrated. Christ doesn't breathe within them.

15

JW Illustrations Ripped off from Secular Sources

by neverendingjourney in

first, let me apologize for my extended absence.

i was out of the country and took a vacation a while back.

when i came back, i realized that i had inadvertently broken my jwd addiction.

neverendingjourney

First, let me apologize for my extended absence. I was out of the country and took a vacation a while back. When I came back, I realized that I had inadvertently broken my JWD addiction. I lead a very busy life--as most of us do--and realized that JWD was simply taking up way too much of my time. I did not do a farewell post since I still check this site on a daily basis and plan to participate in the discussion from time to time, just not as often as I once did. Now I'll get on to the point of this topic.

Some seven or eight years ago, an elder shared an illustration with me. He told me he had heard it from a circuit overseer a few years before, and that it had made a profound impact on him. In essence, the illustration was that some children are like rocks in a river. They are surrounded by water, but if you crack them open, they are completely dry on the inside. In like manner, some children (the rocks) are surrounded by water (the "truth") and even though they have been in that condition their entire lives, their insides (their figurative hearts) are dry (the "truth" never takes hold in their heart). This was, and still is, a very stoic, somber man, but when he shared the illustration with me, I could almost see the hair on the back of his neck stand up. It clearly still had an impact on him after all those year.

Much to my surprise, I watched the Godfather III on DVD for the first time years after its release, long after I had started to fall away from JWism, and I realized that the "moving" illustration was ripped off from that movie almost word for word. This particular scene involves Michael Corleone confessing his sins to Cardinal Lamberto (who in the movie later become Pope John Paul I). Lamberto tells Corleone the same illustration, but he uses the word "Christianity" instead of "the truth" to represent the water in which these rocks sit.

Obviously, I was more than a little amused, if not downright disturbed, especially since the Godfather movies are rated R and prohibited viewing for any JW in good standing. This poor brother must have revered this circuit overseer for his supposed wisdom not knowing that the true genius behind the illustration was probably either Mario Puzo or Francis Ford Coppola. I'm sure the circuit overseer must have gotten an equally favorable reaction from every congregation he visited.

Have any of you similarly heard illustrations used in JW talks or printed materials that were ripped off from secular sources?

81

Why, exactly, are you here?

by animal in

jw
friends

why, exactly, are you here on jwd?.

are you out of the jw's and still needing association with like people?.

do you lack the skills to have real friends in real life?.

neverendingjourney

I had been inactive for about a year and a half or so before I found this site. A JW acquaintance of mine sent me a stupid e-mail saying that some brother gave a talk saying that the GB felt that Matthew 24:14 had been fulfilled. I had no one to call to verify this, so I went online to see what I could find. That search brought me to this board, and I spent countless hours reading thread after thread. It was very therapeutic reading story after story that resembled my own. I read people's statements that mirrored my own thoughts, and it let me see that there was nothing wrong with me and that I wasn't going crazy.

There were a lot of new things that I discovered here that further reaffirmed my suspicions that the JW religion was crap, although I had pretty much figured that out by myself. After a few months, I got kind of hooked. There are a lot of emotions running inside of me that I can't let out because I can't share them with the JWs I know for fear of being disfellowshipped and non-JWs simply cannot relate. I'm using this board as a way of getting these feelings and thoughts off of my chest. I have no other outlet for them at the moment. I also like to keep abreast of what’s going on in JW land through the forum. Thankfully, I have a healthy social life outside of this forum. I’m in a new city where nobody knows about my JW past.

23

UN finally announces end of Religion

by NotaNess in

jw
friends

this seems to be a topic on the beginning of the big a, that i dont see on this forum.

a jw i work with seems to live his life waiting & emphasizing this one sign.

whats deal, im tired of hearing.

neverendingjourney

This is one of the most ludicrous WT teachings, and that's saying a lot. This particular interpretation of prophecy assumes that the UN actually has authority to do such a thing. THEY DON'T! The UN cannot enforce its own decrees. They have no military. To worst they can do is sanction a country that violates its orders. Can anyone imagine the UN issuing a decree banning religion and people waking up in Saudi Arabia the next day tearing down their mosques in response? Of course not.

I really struggled with this one when I was an active Witness. I had to go through some arduous mental gymnastics to make it work in my mind. I would tell myself that, even though it doesn't make sense, Jehovah says that he will put this thought into the minds of the world leaders, and Jehovah can make anything possible. Why, people scoffed at Noah when he told them God would bring a deluge and their laughter didn't stop until the doors of the ark were closed...

Deep down inside, I was just waiting for 'new light" to clean that mess up. The possibility of a world body issuing a decree banning religion is less of a possibility now than it was at any point in the last century. Back when the Soviet Union was the great enemy of the U.S., you could potentially envision a scenario where the Soviet Union would win the Cold War and promulgate atheism in order to further their cause, but they've long disappeared from the planet. Many experts believe that the world is in the middle of another Great Awakening. Religion and religious fanaticism in particular, is growing throughout the world, not just in the Middle East, but in Latin America and the United States as well. Religion isn't going anywhere, folks, no matter what the U.N. has to say about it.

48

Was the Watchtower taken off guard by the internet and XJW forums

by JH in

jw
friends

do you think that the internet and xjw forums caught the watchtower off guard?

just a few years ago, disfellowshipped ones were powerless and rendered silent by the watchtower.. to what degree do you think the internet has made life difficult for the watchtower?.

neverendingjourney

There is no GAIN and it is ALL LOSS.

I disagree. There is the benefit of knowing that we are now living in a fact-based world anchored in reality as opposed to an imaginary one. That's all the incentive I needed to leave.

37

Do you think the society will abandon 1914?

by B_Deserter in

it seems to me that they're slowly dismantling the date theology that ties the end times to this period in history.

first, they updated the generation teaching to mean a figurative generation, thus removing the possibility in the near future when all who were alive in 1914 are dead.

then, they abandoned 1935 so the annointed will never die off, and prove their belief that the annointed will see armageddon wrong.

neverendingjourney

Thanks. I think I remember that article. I don't recall the 120 years ever coming up in the publications during the 90s. In fact, one elder explained the 120 year verse in Genesis to me to mean that men would not live to be over 120 years after the flood, in contrast to the several-hundred year life spans people supposedly enjoyed before the flood. Obviously, he was mistaken about the proper, JW-authorized explanation of that verse, and he was not slacker. He studied the Watchtower publications just as much if not more so than any JW I ever met. I'm sure many JWs will be able to connect the dots without the society having to explicitly draw a picture for them.

37

Do you think the society will abandon 1914?

by B_Deserter in

it seems to me that they're slowly dismantling the date theology that ties the end times to this period in history.

first, they updated the generation teaching to mean a figurative generation, thus removing the possibility in the near future when all who were alive in 1914 are dead.

then, they abandoned 1935 so the annointed will never die off, and prove their belief that the annointed will see armageddon wrong.

neverendingjourney

I stopped going to meetings completely two years ago, and I was pretty irregular for year or so before that. How hard are they pushing this 120 years/Noah/2034 line of reasoning now? I don't remember the official publications pushing this at all. I do, however, remember a few JWs that made the connection by themselves.

17

DRUNKINESS AND ALCOHOL AT BETHEL

by badboy in

jw
friends

how much was there?

neverendingjourney

A person who is very close to me served four years in Bethel. He told me that the Bethelites there drank quite a bit. He even told me a story about a time when he and a good Bethelite friend of his drank so much that they would have gotten kicked out of Bethel had a higher up found out about it. His troubles with alcoholism began in Bethel. He later left Bethel to get married. He was appointed elder at 25. Throughout the years he was able to hide his alcoholism from his wife, who's father never drank alcohol.

He was assigned to one congregation not too long ago where he had an immediate clash with an over-righteous elder who didn't like his relaxed attitude. At the same time he was going through some financial and marital problems. It all came to a head and his alcoholism spun out of control. His wife came home to find him passed out drunk at their house on a few occasions. Of course, the elder he was clashing with immediately seized on the opportunity and had him publicly reproved. His problem continued for a while longer. He finally was able to see a therapist and enrolled in Alcholics Anonymous. He claims to now be sober for over a year, and there haven't been any relapses.

He's become very "weak" in the truth as a result of the negative experiences he encountered at his hall, and I'm hoping he can bring himself to just quit the religion altogether, but his wife won't allow it, I'm sure. She married him because of his status as a Bethelite. Her demeanor has completely changed toward him ever since he was removed as an elder and got publicly reproved. However, his whole battle with the bottle began at Bethel, and from the stories he told, he wasn't the only one with that problem. It's a way that a lot of these Bethelites mask the problems they encounter there. They have to put on a happy face every time they're in public. They work at the house of God, afterall