do you think that torturing a baby is ever justified?.
have you seen this rather well done movie?.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx7irfn2gdi.
First of all: That was a very well delivered speech: Great actor!
Now, I happen to agree. and for those who believe that it is only in the old testament: What about Ananias and Sapphira? they both died because they told the apostles that they were giving in all the money of the sale of their property while in fact, they kept a portion for themselves. Seriously... could you imagine a court in the US, Canada, or in Europe deliver such a sentence? None sense.
here is a change of pace, what was the nicest thing a jw has ever done for you or you have seen done?
it wasn't all bad all the time!
When I was a kid, my dad bought a house that turned into a "Money Pit". When the friends heard about it, they decided to help out. Turns out that for a weekend, the sight of our house was like that of a quick built project. Most of the congregation was there, sisters were cleaning up, painting, and preparing food while the brothers worked on the house.
Looking back at all the years that I have been a witness, I can truly say that I have meet amazing people and have witnessed wonderful acts of kindness. Unfortunately, I have also witnessed horrible, evil acts. What really bothered me at the end was their willingness to attribute all the nice wonderful things to the JW religion and dismiss all the bad things on the human individuals.
the last article in this new wt, shows me that the organization is dealing with much information that is damaging them.
i am sure that the many recent lawsuits are being noticed by the r&f.. here are some gems from that article, titled the naive person believes every word.
we must be very selective about what we consider worthy of our attention.
I once had a conversation with my dad where he was saying that even if they do bad things, we must follow the Organisation. The reasoning behind this is that the Jews were selected by God and had to remain Jews despite their evil priests and kings. Likewise, the JWs are selected by God and we need to stay in the arc, good or bad.
I then told him: The Jews were selected by blood, by their race. Later on, they were rejected as a whole for their actions. Today, God's people is to be identified by its actions. Thus, we have no other option but to analyse the actions of our religion, the good and the bad and make our informed decision. Wouldn't it be possible for a good religion to go bad? Isn't it exactly what happened with the Jews? Isn't it exactly what happened to the first Christians? Why could it NOT happen to the JWs?
(http://www.world-mysteries.com/sar_4.htm).
(http://www.zmescience.com/other/most-amazing-unexplained-artifacts/); .
(http://beforeitsnews.com/beyond-science/2013/01/13-world-mysteries-without-explanation-2440676.html); .
a witness friend wanted to meet up recently and talk.
since this person was a close friend and who i thought had a level head, i'd go ahead and speak with him.
our conversation actually helped me figure a few things out not only for myself but also about the witnesses.. so we're talking and i'm telling him my experience and the doctrines that i disagreed with as well as the scandals that made me disgusted with the organization.
Some of the core teachings held by Jehovah's witnesses are: no hell, no trinity, no saints to worship, no virgin marry, resurrection on earth, no learned prayers.
The problem here however is that these are not really core teachings. If they had been, Jesus would have spent much more time to elaborate on these. Rather, he spent much of his time denouncing hypocrisy, liars, tyranny, those who judge, the type of core teaching that is actually understood by the great majority of christian religions.
What has changed through the years? Things that actually change the lives or the christian and deal with the core teachings of christianity: No blood, preaching work as a requirement, no smooking, no celebration of the majority of holidays, no beards, disfellowshipping, understanding of apostacy, demogracy in the congregation, acceptance of civil service vs going to war, etc.
It is not because you change something that you can call it details. These things all change the way JW live their lives and puts boundaries on how and where they display love.
so, one of the kids on reddit posted this video - an evangelist trying to witness to guardians of the cart.
(both sides are fairly respectful imo).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwbc9c4ajly&feature=youtu.be.
Luke 4:43: I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.
It appears that the good news is the kingdom of God made possible through jesus' sacrifice. So, both are right and arguing on stupid details.
Obviously, both agree to live by the principles common to Christians. Both believe in the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ. So, they have the basis there. And yet, they argue and call each other false teachers when rely... who cares!
If you call God "God", "Yahweh", "Jehovah", or "Jesus", how will that impact your faithfulness to your wife? And if you believe in Trinity or not, how will that change the love you give to your family and friends? And if you believe you will live on earth or in heaven, how will that change anything to you're idea that God will take care of you after your death?
What really matters in the end is what we do, our actions: these define who we are. We are not defined by what we believe or dream about. Its what we do! Yet, somehow, JWs and many other religions miss the point by arguing, calling other faiths all sorts of names and questioning their motives.
i was thinking about this the other day.. a common way for apostates to "fade" is to pretend to have depression or anxiety problems.. is it possible, that when apostates become known, the elders report to the society that said person was undergoing mental health problems?
i can see a scenario where the society then took those statistics that were reported and just decided, "well, it looks like the only ones leaving are those with mental diseases.".
oh, and not to mention the subliminal messages conspiracy theorists.
I find this topic very interesting. I didn’t want to go to the meetings anymore, so I told the elders that I had to work all the time. Now that I am completely inactive, they are probably assuming that it is because I worked all the time that I have left while in fact, it is the other way around.
Same thing with my wife, she told them she was sick. Though that was also true, she was not sick to the extent of missing every meetings for months. So now, elders are thinking that she became inactive due to missing meetings while it’s the other way around.
If they actually stopped to think about it a little, they would understand that many are leaving based on the teachings. However, since no one is allowed to question these, we all say what they expect and feed into the wrong theories: If you don’t study the bible, don't study the watchtower publication, don’t go in field service, don’t pray, don’t go to meetings or don’t associate with your brothers and sisters, YOU WILL FALL.
In fact, it is the other way around. It is because of things found in the bible, in the watchtowers, the erroneous teachings pushed in field service, the unanswered prayers, the abrasive teachings at the meetings and the lack of love from the brothers and sisters, that we have chosen to leave the JW.
We have done exactly what they told us to do. And because of these things, we have left. And because they don't want to hear it, we have to say that we are sick or working all the time to shut them up. Pathetic.
so this weekend there was a part about not following jesus at a distance.
the speaker made a big point of stating that any baptized jw male who was not either appointed ms/elder, or at the very least "reaching out" actively, was in fact following jesus at a distance.
he said that the only way to live through the big a was to follow jesus closely.
this is from the last talk of the convention ......... clip 1:30 minutes longhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrej8tlyiso&feature=youtu.be.
clip 3 minutes long.
ron and brenda sutton ................warwick 3 children
it was the missed association with family that brought them back.
Lately, I have the feeling that my dad is avoiding me. He does not want to tell me that he needs to shun me as he is, has been, unable to explain this using his bible and arguments provided by the watchtower.
He often talks fondly about his own mother and I wonder what he would have thought of her if she had shunned him for leaving the Catholics. I wonder if he ever asked himself that question.
