At recent Circuit Assembly, the circuit's new C.O. made mention that new information was coming on the Generation. Keep a look out at jw.org for the April 2010 WT -- it might be in there or perhaps the May issue.
Ultimate Reality
JoinedPosts by Ultimate Reality
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New light: Generation
by 5thGeneration ingot some info from the annual meeting.. unofficially, the 'generation' is now categorized as 2 groups.
the first is 'the 1914 group' and the second is the younger anointed 'contemporaries' who 'actually work for a period of time with those anointed ones'.. the 'generation' is now 'the lifespan of those who actually saw the beginning of the sign and then the lifespan of those who worked with those who saw the beginning of the sign'.. here we go again....
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2009 Annual Worldwide Service Report -- 7.3 Million Publishers
by Joker10 inchina: the number of publishers has increased.
in some parts of the mainland, they can openly go door to door without much interference.
there are actally buildings now used as kingdom halls.
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Ultimate Reality
Don't forget about this:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/184119/1/48-165-New-Publishers-in-ONE-MONTH
The Kingdom Ministry reported 48,165 new publishers in August. This number is being manipulated. Those that are "re-activated" get counted again, unbaptized publishers, 15 minute publishers, "studying" with one's children, and all those that didn't turn in time reports before the August service year cut-off.
This way they can hide how many are actually leaving; the true influx of new baptized ones barely makes up for those leaving.
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What Josephus Really Wrote about the 70 Years
by Ultimate Reality inthere have been some partial quotations of josephus on this board recently in relation to how he explained the '70 years'.. .
in the interests of scholastic honesty and so that his words are not taken out of context, here are some relevant passages with their context.
you might ask yourself, do the 70 years (as spoken by the prophet jeremiah) begin with the destruction of the temple or before the destruction of the temple?
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Ultimate Reality
haste, having but a few with him, over the desert to Babylon; whither, when he was come, he found the public affairs had been managed by the Chaldeans, and that the principal person among them had preserved the kingdom for him. Accordingly, he now entirely obtained all his father's dominions. He then came, and ordered the captives to be placed as colonies in the most proper places of Babylonia; but for himself, he adorned the temple of Belus, and the other temples, after an elegant manner, out of the spoils he had taken in this war. He also rebuilt the old city, and added another to it on the outside, and so far restored Babylon, that none who should besiege it afterwards might have it in their power to divert the river, so as to facilitate an entrance into it; and this he did by building three walls about the inner city, and three about the outer. Some of these walls he built of burnt brick and bitumen, and some of brick only. So when he had thus fortified the city with walls, after an excellent manner, and had adorned the gates magnificently, he added a new palace to that which his father had dwelt in, and this close by it also, and that more eminent in its height, and in its great splendor. It would perhaps require too long a narration, if any one were to describe it. However, as prodigiously large and as magnificent as it was, it was finished in fifteen days. Now in this palace he erected very high walks, supported by stone pillars, and by planting what was called a pensile paradise, and replenishing it with all sorts of trees, he rendered the prospect an exact resemblance of a mountainous country. This he did to please his queen, because she had been brought up in Media, and was fond of a mountainous situation."
Against Apion (partially 20 and 21):
Hereupon Cyrus took Babylon, and gave order that the outer walls of the city should be demolished, because the city had proved very troublesome to him, and cost him a great deal of pains to take it. He then marched away to Borsippus, to besiege Nabonnedus; but as Nabonnedus did not sustain the siege, but delivered himself into his hands, he was at first kindly used by Cyrus, who gave him Carmania, as a place for him to inhabit in, but sent him out of Babylonia. Accordingly Nabonnedus spent the rest of his time in that country, and there died."
21. These accounts agree with the true histories in our books; for in them it is written that Nebuchadnezzar, in the eighteenth year of his reign, laid our temple desolate, and so it lay in that state of obscurity for fifty years; but that in the second year of the reign of Cyrus its foundations were laid, and it was finished again in the second year of Darius. I will now add the records of the Phoenicians; for it will not be superfluous to give the reader demonstrations more than enough on this occasion.
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What Josephus Really Wrote about the 70 Years
by Ultimate Reality inthere have been some partial quotations of josephus on this board recently in relation to how he explained the '70 years'.. .
in the interests of scholastic honesty and so that his words are not taken out of context, here are some relevant passages with their context.
you might ask yourself, do the 70 years (as spoken by the prophet jeremiah) begin with the destruction of the temple or before the destruction of the temple?
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Ultimate Reality
Josephus Antiquities 11.1.1:
IN the first year of the reign of Cyrus which was the seventieth from the day that our people were removed out of their own land into Babylon, God commiserated the captivity and calamity of these poor people, according as he had foretold to them by Jeremiah the prophet, before the destruction of the city, that after they had served Nebuchadnezzar and his posterity, and after they had undergone that servitude seventy years, he would restore them again to the land of their fathers, and they should build their temple, and enjoy their ancient prosperity. And these things God did afford them; for he stirred up the mind of Cyrus, and made him write this throughout all Asia: "Thus saith Cyrus the king: Since God Almighty hath appointed me to be king of the habitable earth, I believe that he is that God which the nation of the Israelites worship; for indeed he foretold my name by the prophets, and that I should build him a house at Jerusalem, in the country of Judea."
Against Apion:
19. I will now relate what hath been written concerning us in the Chaldean histories, which records have a great agreement with our books in oilier things also. Berosus shall be witness to what I say: he was by birth a Chaldean, well known by the learned, on account of his publication of the Chaldean books of astronomy and philosophy among the Greeks. This Berosus, therefore, following the most ancient records of that nation, gives us a history of the deluge of waters that then happened, and of the destruction of mankind thereby, and agrees with Moses's narration thereof. He also gives us an account of that ark wherein Noah, the origin of our race, was preserved, when it was brought to the highest part of the Armenian mountains; after which he gives us a catalogue of the posterity of Noah, and adds the years of their chronology, and at length comes down to Nabolassar, who was king of Babylon, and of the Chaldeans. And when he was relating the acts of this king, he describes to us how he sent his son Nabuchodonosor against Egypt, and against our land, with a great army, upon his being informed that they had revolted from him; and how, by that means, he subdued them all, and set our temple that was at Jerusalem on fire; nay, and removed our people entirely out of their own country, and transferred them to Babylon; when it so happened that our city was desolate during the interval of seventy years, until the days of Cyrus king of Persia. He then says, "That this Babylonian king conquered Egypt, and Syria, and Phoenicia, and Arabia, and exceeded in his exploits all that had reigned before him in Babylon and Chaldea." A little after which Berosus subjoins what follows in his History of Ancient Times. I will set down Berosus's own accounts, which are these: "When Nabolassar, father of Nabuchodonosor, heard that the governor whom he had set over Egypt, and over the parts of Celesyria and Phoenicia, had revolted from him, he was not able to bear it any longer; but committing certain parts of his army to his son Nabuchodonosor, who was then but young, he sent him against the rebel: Nabuchodonosor joined battle with him, and conquered him, and reduced the country under his dominion again. Now it so fell out that his father Nabolassar fell into a distemper at this time, and died in the city of Babylon, after he had reigned twenty-nine years. But as he understood, in a little time, that his father Nabolassar was dead, he set the affairs of Egypt and the other countries in order, and committed the captives he had taken from the Jews, and Phoenicians, and Syrians, and of the nations belonging to Egypt, to some of his friends, that they might conduct that part of the forces that had on heavy armor, with the rest of his baggage, to Babylonia; while he went in
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What Josephus Really Wrote about the 70 Years
by Ultimate Reality insee next post.... moderator, please delete this one..
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What Josephus Really Wrote about the 70 Years
by Ultimate Reality inthere have been some partial quotations of josephus on this board recently in relation to how he explained the '70 years'.. .
in the interests of scholastic honesty and so that his words are not taken out of context, here are some relevant passages with their context.
you might ask yourself, do the 70 years (as spoken by the prophet jeremiah) begin with the destruction of the temple or before the destruction of the temple?
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Ultimate Reality
There have been some partial quotations of Josephus on this board recently in relation to how he explained the '70 Years'.
In the interests of scholastic honesty and so that his words are not taken out of context, here are some relevant passages with their context. You might ask yourself, do the 70 Years (as spoken by the Prophet Jeremiah) begin with the destruction of the temple or before the destruction of the temple? Was the temple destroyed during a 70 year period or was it desolated at the beginning the 70 year period described by Jeremiah?
Whatever Josephus says, he is not the final authority. However, the Society and others have a habit of using certain quotes from him out of context.
Josephus Antiquities 10.7.3:
3. Now when Zedekiah had preserved the league of mutual assistance he had made with the Babylonians for eight years, he brake it, and revolted to the Egyptians, in hopes, by their assistance, of overcoming the Babylonians. When the king of Babylon knew this, he made war against him: he laid his country waste, and took his fortified towns, and came to the city Jerusalem itself to besiege it. But when the king of Egypt heard what circumstances Zedekiah his ally was in, he took a great army with him, and came into Judea, as if he would raise the siege; upon which the king of Babylon departed from Jerusalem, and met the Egyptians, and joined battle with them, and beat them; and when he had put them to flight, he pursued them, and drove them out of all Syria. Now as soon as the king of Babylon was departed from Jerusalem, the false prophets deceived Zedekiah, and said that the king of Babylon would not any more make war against him or his people, nor remove them out of their own country into Babylon; and that those then in captivity would return, with all those vessels of the temple of which the king of Babylon had despoiled that temple. But Jeremiah came among them, and prophesied what contradicted those predictions, and what proved to be true, that they did ill, and deluded the king; that the Egyptians would be of no advantage to them, but that the king of Babylon would renew the war against Jerusalem, and besiege it again, and would destroy the people by famine, and carry away those that remained into captivity, and would take away what they had as spoils, and would carry off those riches that were in the temple; nay, that, besides this, he would burn it, and utterly overthrow the city, and that they should serve him and his posterity seventy years; that then the Persians and the Medes should put an end to their servitude, and overthrow the Babylonians; "and that we shall be dismissed, and return to this land, and rebuild the temple, and restore Jerusalem." When Jeremiah said this, the greater part believed him; but the rulers, and those that were wicked, despised him, as one disordered in his senses. Now he had resolved to go elsewhere, to his own country, which was called Anathoth, and was twenty furlongs distant from Jerusalem; and as he was going, one of the rulers met him, and seized upon him, and accused him falsely, as though he were going as a deserter to the Babylonians; but Jeremiah said that he accused him falsely, and added, that he was only going to his own country; but the other would not believe him, but seized upon him, and led him away to the rulers, and laid an accusation against him, under whom he endured all sorts of torments and tortures, and was reserved to be punished; and this was the condition he was in for some time, while he suffered what I have already described unjustly.
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Does anyone have PDFs for the Watchtowers of January and February 2010?
by dgp inanybody has them?.
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our KH (worth half a million ££) is to be sold
by quietlyleaving ina local congregation is the owner.
(this hall occupies an area of 1000sq ft).
other khs to be sold too.... i don't know how many.
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Ultimate Reality
In the U.S., our congregation had a "review" done on the articles of incorporation. This was initiated by the Legal Department through the C.O. As a result the dissolution clause was changed (through a rubber stamp vote of the congregation) so that upon dissolution the proceeds will go to the Society.
The Society has been doing this everywhere and as a result they now (or soon will) effectively control all KH assets. If the elders resist, guess what, they will be removed and replaced by more compliant men. And, no one in the congregation has the will to stand up to this. Donated money for construction and remodels, volunteer labor, loans with interest from the Society, donations to maintain the property and in the end, the asset ends up in the hands of the Society.
I think that is why they eliminated the Book Study and shortened the Public Talk by 15 minutes. Now you can have 1 Hall that easily handles 4 congregations.
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Recent Annual Figures, 2009
by Joker10 inpeak publishersincreasepercent.
memorial attendanceincreasepercent.
australia.
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Ultimate Reality
bohm:
Here's the post on the numbers:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/184119/1/48-165-New-Publishers-in-ONE-MONTH
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Recent Annual Figures, 2009
by Joker10 inpeak publishersincreasepercent.
memorial attendanceincreasepercent.
australia.
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Ultimate Reality
The U.S. numbers are cooked. According to the KM over 40,000 new publishers appeared in August.