we had an interesting local needs.. first it clearly stated if you are not making all the meetings you will not make it in to the new system period no exceptions.
they twisted the story of the red sea to make an example.
saying you can not disobey once, or else you be left stuck in the bottom of the red sea.. from now on the elders will be making shepherding calls on those that are not attending regularly.. also, it was stated that if you know of any not attending regularly.
It really doesn't sound like anything new, heard it all before.
They used to say that when I was in. If you knew anyone who was missing from the meetings let the Elders know.
Plus the old line, "If you're not attending all the meetings - you will not get through Armageddon."
If the Elders in my last congregation are still the same. Then a person can expect a visit sometime during the next 5 years.
i received my km yesterday and was studying the numbers since it has been such a hot topic on here for several weeks.. here is my take.
many lands have say 5 - 40 publishers and if say 2 - 6 leave or are da or df'ed that land then they report a 15 - 25% decline in publishers.
conversely, if 2 - 6 publishers come to a land to live or are babtised then a 15 - 25% increase is reported.
Here in Britain we had a 3% increase, over 2006. Of course the JW's are smug about it.
They had, in round figures, an average of 125,000 and a peak of 131,000.
But when I started my journey out in 1996 they had an average of 126,000 and peak of 132,000.
So during the past 11 years, during which numbers fluctuated, they are still quite not back to what they were 11 years ago.
Its like having a congregation of 100, which over the years loses and gains members but ends up with 99 members and claims and increase.
i swear more new light is available here than in the corridors of the wts.
in leviticus the israelites are instructed not to eat things strangled or already dead, but if they do, they are only unclean, not stoned to death.
so why has it been upgraded by the wts to be this unforgivable sin?
In leviticus the israelites are instructed not to eat things strangled or already dead, but if they do, they are only unclean, not stoned to death.
Also an Israelite was allowed to sell such an animal to an "alien resident" (non-Jew). thus showing the prohibition on eating blood only applied to the Jews.
Yet the JW's use Gen 9 about Noah being told not to eat blood as being binding on ALL mankind they called it a "universal law"..
So by selling a dead animal with its blood to a non-Jew - would the Jew be breaking this "universal law".
hi .
can anyone help .
i'm looking for a pdf file of feb 15th 2008 watchtower, the whole magazine.. the one i found on here posted by "alphaomega" says its no longer available .
hi .
can anyone help .
i'm looking for a pdf file of feb 15th 2008 watchtower, the whole magazine.. the one i found on here posted by "alphaomega" says its no longer available .
matthew, mark and luke claim that jesus died on passover (nisan 14) john, however, claims that jesus died on the day of preparation for passover (nisan 13) "now it was preparation of the passover" -john 19:14 nwt (it helps to read the context, several verses before and after.
) john also doesn't mention the lord's evening meal with his his apostles on passover.
it would have been impossible, because he was already dead, according to john.. the bible contains many contradictions that can possibly be reconciled if you have enough imagination, but this contradiction seems pretty blatant.
with in the next week and a half(maybe sooner) there is going to be a very insightful post about the borg.
merry christmas every one, and a happy new year.
"the truth--why the core beliefs and doctrines of the wtbts will never change" by the gb of jehovah's witnesses.
also, on the lighter side..... " how i invented the internet, why i will not debate global warming, and other musings of an ex vice president" by albert gore, jr.. and, finally, for you young ones.... "teenage chastity for dummies" by jamie lynn spears .
for me, it was a combination of things over a long period of time.
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how about you?
Over the years I had doubts about some of their teachings especially about Jesus. Also when you get two Elders on separate occasions tell me that they believed Jesus was God. You start looking at things differently.
But the specific event was at a time when I and my family needed love and support from what I had believed was "Jehovahs loving organisation". Was totally missing. People I had known for 25 years disappeared. Elders who's idea of help, for acute clinical depression and being suicidal, was "attend meetings and go on field service". Their answer was to get me out the family home because I was a "spiritual danger". I have said that if just one of them had said "We'll help you and your family get through this." and given the support needed. I could well still be a JW.
In the 5 years from when it first occurred to when I disassociated. I had about 4 "shepherding visits" none during the two years I stopped attending meetings till I DA'd.
It was during those 5 years I began to learn the REAL truth about the WT and its teachings and history. It was almost as if I was led to finding it all out. It was no sudden decision. I spent 3 years research before stopping going to meetings. Then another two before I DA'd. Even though it cost me contact with my wife.
talking with my father (exjw) me (exjw) family 60% still jw he mentioned that fallen angels can no longer materialise into human form................. he says they they were forbidden after the flood........... i do watch, read and speak to many ex-freemasons (illuminati) and they are very confident that even today fallen angels have the power or means to take on forms if they wish to (even human) ............................... what do jw's use as a scriptual basis for this argument......................????.
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These wicked angels were not thrown into a literal place called Tartarus. Rather, Tartarus, which is mistranslated "hell" in some Bibles, refers to the abased or fallen condition of these angels. They were cut off from the spiritual light of God’s organization , and they have only everlasting destruction awaiting them. (James 2:19; Jude 6) Since the time of the Flood, God has not permitted these demon angels to take on fleshly bodies, so they cannot directly satisfy their unnatural sexual desires. Yet they can still exercise dangerous power over men and women. In fact, with the help of these demons Satan is "misleading the entire inhabited earth." (Revelation 12:9).
It says "since the time of the flood, God has not permitted demon angels to take on fleshly bodies"
Incidentally where in the Bible does it say they can't?
But those angels mentioned in Rev 12 are not ones who took human form before the flood and put in Tartarus. They are ones who were in heaven and were thrown out when they had the war with Michael. This according to the WT took place around 1914.
How can they be "cut off from the spiritual light of Gods organisation" ? Surely they can see whats printed by the WT and hear what is spoken by "Gods organisation".
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