Naked, wet, and rubbing your entire body with slippery soap--these are all the tools of Satan the Devil!
Baptism is the only contact with water that true Christians need. It's the example that Jesus set. He got wet all over when he was baptized. Other than that there was hand and feet washing, but nothing in between. Later the bible records in detail that he used his superpowers to avoid contact with water by walking over top of the water instead of getting wet by swimming.
now that district overseers have been deleted, now that bethelites are being devalued and increasingly dismissed, now that special pioneers are being deleted in u.s., and maybe elsewhere gradually.
who would have ever thought?.
yet, now what is the value to be a regular pioneer to the org?
the org. doesn't have to pay anything for them.
And the org gets what they pay for.
I suppose they create some extra hype in congregations and some may get others to go in service more.
I knew plenty of pioneers that created hype and took bragging rights about their position, yet they had no "progressive" bible studies and rarely went out with the "average" publishers on the weekend. Their specialty was finding studies in the local jail and driving around during weekdays counting their time.
Do RPs donate financially much to the org?
Most that I knew didn't have much to donate financially and considered their time preaching as their donation.
a number of years ago when i was still active, our service group was having a coffee break with the visiting circuit overseer.
during the conversation he mentioned that the "society" was now being run like a business.
being raised in the "truth" i thought that rather odd (and my eyes began to be opened!
OTWO: The problem would be self correcting if the printing corporation recognized the drying up of money for literature and reduced spending. But it could not reduce it fast enough.
Agreed. And as WT reduced spending with cheaper publications, fewer magazines, and cutting the magazine pages in half, the donations from publishers would easily decrease into a downward spiral. With every cutting of cost that publishers could see, why would they keep donating the same?
And with no defined price on the publications and DVDs, it's completely at the whim of the sheeple to donate or not donate for the stuff. And with their shift away from printing and toward online content, expenses will continue and income will continue the decline. Who pays for web content that it freely available? Who donates money to YouTube or Facebook?
The old publication sales and profit model has completely collapsed.
new to the board, first time posting a topic.
i just wanted to say how refreshing and sometimes funny it has been lurking here.
so much so that i decided to sign up to this message board.
at the latest co visit something very strange happened.
during the meeting with the elders and servants he passed out a copy of a hypothetical publisher card and asked us what we could learn from it.
upon receiving it i saw that the average hours were pretty good, it had return visits and quite a few bible studies.
It's like I always say...
"In conclusion, it's a cult!"
sorry if this is old news but just heard that there will only be about 75 people left at sydney bethel after layoffs.
Hail the the-o-cracy ever decreasing!
Wondrous contraction is now taking place!
disregard if already posted.. .. 2015, 10/19/boe.
.. click the green download button.. re: service meeting part for week of december 21, 2015 .
http://wwwb.fileflyer.com/view/vistoa4.
I think that one sentence needs some proofreading. This sounds more like it:
However, it must be acknowledged that the Kingdom work is expanding invisibly at an accelerated pace and the Governing Body can only do so much with the invisibly present funds at their disposal.
just got a phone call from an older sister saying that a couple that got re-assigned from bethel 4 years ago to live at their kh apartment as special pioneers, just received a letter saying "as of january 2016, your special pioneer assignment will be discontinued".. they live in a south miami kh(snapper creek congregation).. this couple had only served in bethel for 15 years before they were sent out into the special pioneer work.
they are now in their mid 50's and the sister said that they have to find part time jobs to support themselves.. the older sister (does not have a pc or internet), says that the couple are just devastated!
.
I'm so glad that I'm miles and years away from all the bethel and pioneer crap.
There are probably plenty of my old "friends" that are suffering from all these cuts. I hope they wake up, get out, and get on with life like I was able to.
for the next two weeks, wt will attempt to lay the basis for their imitation "faith" by discussing the "imitate their faith" book, chapter on the flood.
a golden opportunity to share faith strengthening details with your believing friends.
do not miss it!.
Here's something from an earlier thread of mine.
In conversation, a friend was telling me how he knows he's supposed to preach to his workmates, but he's not comfortable doing it. Rather than twisting his arm to preach, I gave him the perfect reason not to preach. I explained, "Well, I learned that you have to be really careful, because you have to work with them every day. And you don't want to be in front of a group of coworkers when one of them asks the 'kangaroo question.'"
Which, of course, led him to ask, "Kangaroo question? What's that?"
Me, playing coy, "Oh, I think I shouldn't have mentioned that." Of course, that statement just made him even more curious. So then I explained how it was not uncommon for JWs to get asked questions about the flood that we couldn't answer. 'Kangaroo question' was how kangaroos got from Australia to Noah's ark, then from Turkey back to Australia after the flood. Then he was really confounded trying to solve this riddle. I had to tell him that there was no solution to that, nor to a lot of other questions that I hope he never gets asked. Since I was the ex-bethelite, he wanted to know what to do with such a question. I explained, "Since there is nothing helpful published, if you get asked a question like that at the door, you have to say that you'll go and research the question... but you never go back to their door. If you get asked by a workmate where you can't run away, you have to say that Noah's flood is a parable and not literal."
Here's another thread about a terrible 1969 flood article failure:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/183719/from-noahs-ark-australia-awake-jan-8-1969-pp-5-8
did anybody else read this article and just think wth?.
sometimes god approves of war.. sometimes god doesn't approve of war.. when the israelites fought battles and won it was because god blessed them.. when they lost it was because god had not blessed them.. sometimes god fights for oppressed ones.. sometimes they must wait and have faith.. it is so clear that the bible contradicts itself on this issue and that the nation of israel had a totally different view of god than the early christians.
it is also clear that the nation of israel was highly superstitious and would attribute every battle's outcome to the whims of a higher power.
Maybe that's why armageddon hasn't come. Gog of Magog got his hands on some iron war chariots... and a musket.
Bronze Age desert gods don't have access to iron or gunpowder.
