not on the front page, not in the study articles, but carefully camouflaged in the questions from readers on page 18 (watchtower march 15, 2015).
you can bet most jws wont even read it..
there is no apology...just the usual excuses..
"....we ought to be reluctant to assign an antitypical application to a certain person or account if there is no specific Scriptural basis for doing so."
Wow. This interesting admission by the Society could also be applied to any number of highly disputable and downright dubious teachings/policies of the Society where there is absolutely no "specific scriptural basis" for asserting a dogmatic viewpoint. Eg, birthdays, smoking, higher education, etc.
from that nutty red book of insanity, the grand climax at hand book, chapter 22, paragraphs 7 & 8. .
i had my doubts since childhood.
i went along with it to please people.
Aside from the Reasoning book, there are no 20th century JW books in the book area of the WT Online library.
That in itself speaks volumes...
That is remarkable. They really are embarrassed by their past publications, as they should be. All those 20th century publications, heralded as so much 'rich spiritual food' at the time, now just forgotten, not even worth putting a copy of online.
i think with all this change we see occurring with the watchtower corporation's to deal with things means they are in financial trouble and are seeking to consolidate their real estate holdings for easy sale if needed to stay financially solvent.. they will stop or slowly decrease the door to door work and focus on the material potential of each member young and old for what ever they can get out of them.
this will lead to more leaving under their tyranny.
.
What finkelstein said. Presently they are absolutely flush with cash, wallowing in coin like Scrooge McDuck.
Nevertheless donations are drying up. Publisher growth in the western world has plateaued and in many countries is going negative, with the only real numerical growth now is in the poor countries. This has resulted in a real drop in cash donations.
To counteract this, the organisation has been implementing tranches of strategic rationalisation to survive for the long-haul. Firstly, they have been selling all their super valuable Manhatten real estate. Secondly, they have been slashing all the printing waste and moving to a more online marketing environment. Now they are rolling out a heavy rationalisation of their Kingdom Hall assets, in conjunction with recently demanding all congregations send them all their savings and enacting what is essentially a regular tithing payment.
so where did god exist before he created the heavens?
It is common for theists to retreat into deism when faced with difficult questions.
Exactly cofty. And ultimately deism is meaningless, hollow. It's a belief in a distant, non-intervening God; one may as well believe in no God at all. (makes more sense to believe in ancient aliens frankly lol).
so where did god exist before he created the heavens?
Nicolau, if you prefer hearing the answer to your question from someone with faith you could try reading Peter Kreeft's articles. He's a well known Christian philosopher. Website here:
http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics-more/20_arguments-gods-existence.htm
so where did god exist before he created the heavens?
Christians get around this by saying God exists "outside of time and space". Which means he is utterly irrelevant, may as well not exist at all lol. Which is basically why Buddhism says forget about metaphysical pontifications regarding God's existence or not. He's clearly buggered off to the other end of the Universe, if he is even in the Universe in the first place.
A totally aloof and non-intervening God is for all intents and purposes no God at all.
this week has been the week when my whole way of thinking shifted.
i still cannot believe how this can happen so fast.
over a period of seven days i went from not even imagining that i could ever not be a witness to wanting to get out of this organisation.. .
the wt study (feb study edition) for today stated "the jews had established a pattern.
of worship.
they regularly met together.
Why are JW's boasting about modelling themselves on Jews and not Christians?
The first century Christians predominantly met in HOMES. So what does the Watchtower Society do - cancels HOME book studies. They cancelled the very thing they should have retained if they want to make claim to following any first century pattern.
But since when are the JW's modelled on first century Christianity? They are a quasi Jewish cult that constantly harks back to the OT. They even took their name from the OT.
from last weeks meeting.
"we are now going to talk about experiences from trolley witnesssing" .
this is the honest to god response.
sorry for the long post but i need help.
ive been a jw for 20 years - still active and attending meetings, baptised at 18, i have recently become very dissillusioned.
a few reasons: ill treatment of my kids by a prominent 'assembly speaker' elder, then my son left the truth at 15 (not baptised) and was 'dropped' instantly, despite this community having been his whole life for 15 years.
