Posts by marmot

My best friend got married really young and divorced not even two years later. Frikkin' bonehead was already chasing skirts looking for a new one just 4 months later.

23

Was the WTS correct?

by chappy in

jw
friends

based on current events, do you think the wts could be at least partially correct on their prediction about organized religion being banned by many governments or even some future un mandate?

what about the western governments (us, britain, france, germany etc)?

think it could or even may happen?

It seems like this is the last remaining hard-core "prediction" interpretation of bible prophecy that the Watchtower society has left. All their other prophecies have vague fulfillments that could take many different forms but there's no mincing words when you say that the United Nations is going to turn on organized religion and kick off the end of the world.

It would appear that such a detailed prediction would make it easy for apostates to change their tune once they saw it being fulfilled, not to mention the witnesses would finally have concrete evidence to use in the field ministry to convince people that they were right.

An examination of the WTBTS history will show, however, that their biggest predictions did NOT come to pass as foretold, and that it was only years after the fact that "new light" showed them that the prophecies had already had a "spiritual fulfillment."

I see it as a certainty that this prediction will eventually be changed with "new light", but how would such a monumental change affect the rank and file? The Revelation book is being studied for what, the fourth time? Add to that the fact that the original interpretation of the UN being the image of the "wild beast" and false religion being "Babylon the Great" dates back to the early 60s and you've got one of the longest-held convictions of the WT society. The 1925 and 1975 dates were accepted doctrine for less time than that and they had a massive negative impact on the organization when they failed.

When (not if) they get rid of this prophetical interpretation there will no longer be a concrete and easily discerned "sign" for the average witness to recognize that the end of the world is here. After all, Jesus' "composite sign" of the end has supposedly been going on since the 1800s and the only other tangible sign they had (the 1914 generation) has just been extended indefinitely.

5

Two kinds of Witnesses--and explanation of the Governing Body

by B_Deserter in

i've come to realize there are two kinds of witnesses: the idealists and the legalists.

the idealists are the typical rank and file.

they believe firmly in the ideal that the watchtower society is directed by god, and the motives of the jw clergy are nothing but spiritual.

marmot

All the male members of my JW family are hard-core legalists and they really get people pissed off. I remember being so embarrassed as a 12-year old when we kept having to change tires on the side of the road after meetings and bookstudies because people kept propping nails up against the wheels.

I seem to be the only idealist, although I don't know about my uncle who DA'd when I was a toddler. I've been trying to track him down but my family won't give me any contact information.

18

Sex dream dilemma

by 5thGeneration in

jw
friends

been married 16 years.

never have or would cheat on my wife.. problem is... .

even when i have a 'dream' about cheating i wake up before i can pull the trigger.. i'm even loyal in my dreams dammit!!!

marmot

It's weird, I never had a dream where I "pulled the trigger" until I was 19. It also happened in the most embarrassing way possible.

I was in hospital for severe appendicitis and had just come out of surgery the night before. I was on hefty pain meds and I settled down to sleep for a bit and was treated to a very...erm..."special" dream involving every single female classmate of my graduating class at high school. It came to a conclusion that would put the Yellowstone park geyser to shame and then I woke up. JUST as the nurse was walking into the room.

I was all drugged-out and groggy and totally incomprehensible and she walked right out again but it was only then that I noticed the damp tentpole. I felt an odd mixture of mortification concerning what the nurse might have seen combined with a feeling of accomplishment and wonder at finally having had one of those newfangled dreams that they talked about in grade 8 sex ed.

11

JWs Don't Believe in Hell...but they DO Believe in Pain & Torture!

by new boy in

i remember being a pioneer and telling people how stupid they were for believing in a "burning hell.".

the analogy they told us to use was..... "if you had a small child and they were bad could you take that child and put it's hand over a flame and burn it's flesh and hold his hand there....dispite his screams and his pain?".

of course the answer was always...."no".

marmot

I asked him about that and he said it's because we're no longer living in the tribal warfare state that ancient Israel was in.

I don't like debating with my uncle because he's never going to entertain an opposing viewpoint. He turns the argument into ad hominem attacks or starts patronizing you for not taking his view. He's able to twist any argument into justifying the bible, no matter how vile the situation.

23

Was the WTS correct?

by chappy in

jw
friends

based on current events, do you think the wts could be at least partially correct on their prediction about organized religion being banned by many governments or even some future un mandate?

what about the western governments (us, britain, france, germany etc)?

think it could or even may happen?

marmot

Not gonna happen.

On paper the UN is also against genocide, but look at how effective they've been in Rwanda and now Darfur.

A riveting book I'd recommend you (or anyone, for that matter) read is "Shake Hands with the Devil" by Canadian senator and former general Romeo Dallaire. He was in charge of the UN force in Rwanda during the 1994 massacre and the tale he tells is one of heart-wrenching ineptitude and maddening bureaucracy at the highest echelons of the United Nations.

Even communism at its strongest was unable to completely stamp out religion, there's no way that bunch of self-serving bureaucrats will be able to do any better.

11

JWs Don't Believe in Hell...but they DO Believe in Pain & Torture!

by new boy in

i remember being a pioneer and telling people how stupid they were for believing in a "burning hell.".

the analogy they told us to use was..... "if you had a small child and they were bad could you take that child and put it's hand over a flame and burn it's flesh and hold his hand there....dispite his screams and his pain?".

of course the answer was always...."no".

marmot

I brought up the dichotomy of the Old Testament baby-killer versus the loving merciful father of the NT to my Gilead-graduate uncle.

His argument was that Jehovah was protecting his special property (nation of Israel) from threats to its existence. He gave me a hypothetical situation where I was confronted with someone who is about to do deadly harm to a loved one and the only way to save that loved one is through deadly force.

It was a tough question but I still can't reconcile God's sanctioned slaughter of innocents.

20

Interesting old article from Time magazine re:1975

by marmot in

don't know if this has ever been discussed on here.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901074-1,00.html .

july 18, 1969 .

marmot

Don't know if this has ever been discussed on here.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901074-1,00.html

July 18, 1969
TIME

WITNESSING THE END

" If this turns out to be the last time they all got together, the thousands of Jehovah's Witnesses who gathered last week in New York City's Yankee Stadium for an international assembly will not be a bit surprised. In fact, they fully expect the cataclysm of Armageddon within the next few years. The latest calculations of this energetic, eschatology-minded sect date the end of the world in autumn, 1975.

Fearful as it may be to other religious believers, the end is a prospect that rejoices the hearts of the 323,688 U.S. members of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, as the Witnesses are officially known (worldwide member ship: 1,155,826). In 1914, according to the sect's calculations, "God's timetable" ushered in the last days. Ever since then, Witnesses have longed for the end of "this wicked system of things" and the beginning of the millennium. According to their literal interpretation of The Bible, based on Revelation 14:1,* the Lord God will then pick 144,000 Witnesses to reign with Christ in heaven. The rest will remain on earth to convert unbelievers; at the end of 1,000 years, the wicked will be annihilated, while the saved will continue to enjoy a worldly Paradise. In his address on closing, day to the week-long assembly of delegates from 78 countries, the sect's president, Pennsylvania-born Nathan H.

Knorr, confidently discussed "The Approaching Peace of a Thousand Years."

Disciplined Theocracy. The New York assembly initiated a round of uplifting sessions of lectures and Bible dramas that the Witnesses will hold in 25 cities around the world, from Pomona to Paris to Papeete, between now and December. Under the supervision of a disciplined theocracy run by Knorr from Watchtower's sprawling Brooklyn head quarters, the Witnesses claim to preach their version of God's gospel in 200 lands.

More than most religious believers, the Witnesses are in almost constant trouble with the law, in the U.S. as elsewhere. They refuse military service, not on the ground of conscientious objection but on the dubious claim that every baptized member of the sect is a minister; as a result, a survey showed, 300 young American Witnesses were in jail last year for draft evasion. Currently, they are having difficulties with several African nations. In Zambia, for example, 3,700 Witness children were expelled from public schools for refusing to salute the flag, which they refuse to do anywhere because it expresses the kind of allegiance that is owed to God alone.

Return Visits. With Armageddon so near, the Witnesses waste no time on the social-betterment projects that so concern other churches, instead concentrate on dogged street-corner and door-to-door evangelism. Last year, for example, Witness ministers spent 208,666,762 hours preaching, made 89,903,578 return visits to those interested enough to buy books or magazines, but recorded only 82,842 baptisms—over 1,000 return visits for each convert.

The Witnesses have what they believe is Scriptural proof that the end is coming. For one thing, their interpretation of Biblical chronology reveals that Adam and Eve were created in the autumn of 4026 B.C., or 5,994 years ago. Linking 6,000 years to the six days of God's creation, they believe it fitting that there be a sabbath-like rest thereafter, beginning in 1975—though Witnesses cautiously avoid a flat prediction linked to that year. What is more, Christ's promise that "this generation will not pass away till all these things take place" means that the generation alive in 1914, when the last days began, will see Armageddon. As they eye the thinning ranks of that generation, Jehovah's Witnesses are well aware the time limit is running out. "

25

I adopted a very special Puppy. Pics...and do you have Tips?

by Sirona in

jw
friends

don't say "i told you so".. .

guide dogs for the blind need people to look after puppies until they are ready to be trained as guide dogs (until approx 12 months old).

the puppy walkers (adopters) need to provide a home and preliminary training for the pup.. .

marmot

When my dog was teething I would soak a knotted sock in water and toss it in the freezer.

House training varies depending on the temperament of the dog and can be easy or hell. My dog took a full year to finally get the idea that pooping inside was bad.

I don't know about seeing eye dogs, but I also found crate training very useful. A rule of thumb is that a pup can spend an hour in a crate for every month of age they have up to a maximum of 8. This enforces the toilet training because a dog will prefer not to soil its personal sleeping space, and it is also good for preventing damage while you are out.