The spiritual food is based on God's word but at the same time is still not from men?
If I write some literature that is based on Herman Melville's Moby Dick, can I say that it is not from me but Melville himself?
easyreader1970
JoinedPosts by easyreader1970
-
20
this weeks watchtower---Please Comment
by TheLoveDoctor inunity identifies true worship........ comments on these 3 paragraghs.
7 the one source of spiritual instruction first-century christians enjoyed unity because they all received encouragement from the same source.
they recognized that jesus was teaching and directing the congregation through a governing body, composed of the apostles and older men in jerusalem.
-
-
-
112
Can anyone come up with a morally acceptable reason for waiting thousands of years to end wickedness?
by gubberningbody ini can't.. some bar-bet between jehovah and satan balanced against all the evil allowed just doesn't wash..
-
-
easyreader1970
A thousand years is quite a long time for a human, but just a day in the eyes of Jehovah. So while from our point of view we have been suffering in torment for several thousand years, writhing in mental and physical agony, It's really only been less than a week for Jehovah. Problem?? We're just like little moths, of little importance except to ourselves. I'm being sarcastic, but that is how many people reason this stupidity in order to make it make some kind of sense.
My main problem is this. The "challenge" made by Satan was that people would not serve Jehovah if their life was hard. Jehovah said "Bet!" So, what the Watchtower is saying is that because currently much less than one percent of the population of Earth is serving Jehovah, that somehow this makes God a winner? What kind of math is that? It appears that not only has Satan won, but it was a beat down of Biblical proportions. Can we just declare him winner and move on?
-
5
Why do the JWs have secret law codes when the "world's" laws are public?
by easyreader1970 ini've glanced over the new book.
i won't comment on the rules and regulations themselves because they read as though they were drafted by lab reject monkeys.. my issue is: why the secrecy?
if these are laws and rules that all jws must abide by to remain in good standing, why can't they have access to them?
-
-
easyreader1970
I've glanced over the new book. I won't comment on the rules and regulations themselves because they read as though they were drafted by lab reject monkeys.
My issue is: Why the secrecy? If these are laws and rules that all JWs must abide by to remain in good standing, why can't they have access to them? The Bible has Moses hand down laws to the Israelites. The Witnesses don't deserve the same courtesy? Further, how can you prepare for your judicial meeting, if you are called to one, when you don't even have access to the rules, thus making the hearing decidedly unfair?
-
-
-
easyreader1970
Fellow WoW player here.
The best part of this quest chain is when you are asked to infiltrate their ranks to find out what they are up to. You get a cult uniform, meet one of their doomsayers, and you get a placard and are given "territories" to work. So you go to these different locations and speak prophecies of doom and destruction. Then you report back to turn in your time slip. Okay, there is no time slip, but if there are any Witness or former Witnesses who play this game, this series of quests could not be glossed over.
-
18
For those still trapped in the cult, be careful with your sanity
by TastingFreedom ini relate to your pain and suffering.
you remind me of the struggle i had for over a year, where i was pushing myself to go the meetings and even gave public talks because of friends and family, even when i knew it was all bullshit.
i was so sick to my stomach, that i literally felt like puking during the meetings.
-
-
easyreader1970
I'm still trapped as I don't want my immediate family (wife, two sons, daughter, mother) ripped to pieces. When I was 22 I tried to leave. I wrote my parents a letter. I was guilted into returning by my crying mother, whom I love dearly. She didn't convince me that any of it was true, just that I couldn't stomach living without my mother.
Nearly 20 years later with a wife and kids, I want even less for those relationships to be destroyed. I am already sick to my stomach with stress, anger, frustration, and often depression. The thought of being separated, even on a limited basis, from my kids is also stressful. I hate my life because either option is a disgusting one.
And I know that the GB says that it's wrong for a wife to divorce a husband, but I guarantee that she has no qualms about a "separation" because of "spiritual endangerment", which the GB supports wholeheartedly. And for those people who say I could file for custody, I have no chance of that given that I have no support system outside of family members (hers and mine) in the Watchtower.
So I sit here. In pain, even now. I have constant stomach/intestinal trouble and I have been having it for the past eight years. Only now it has gotten worse. I've been to the doctor several times, but the best guess they can come up with is IBS. I knew what it was; I just wanted some medication for it. But their drugs don't work.
I have to go to the meeting tonight and I am dreading it.
I salute you who have been brave enough to accept your losses and escape. I am not quite able to accept mine.
Torment and agony is what the future has in store for me.
-
67
When will the crashing and burning of this organization begin?
by easyreader1970 inas i see it, there are three looming threats that all have the potential - individually or combined - to bring the wbts to its knees, at least in the united states, anyway.. 1. youth retention.
the young people aren't buying it.
the watchtower will argue that faithless young people are giving in to demonic persuasion and leaving the truth.
-
-
easyreader1970
As I see it, there are three looming threats that all have the potential - individually or combined - to bring the WBTS to its knees, at least in the United States, anyway.
1. Youth retention. The young people aren't buying it. The Watchtower will argue that faithless young people are giving in to demonic persuasion and leaving the Truth. I sumbit to you that this is not the case. Young people are just not stupid. We live in an age where we no longer have to take someone's word for something. Something can be questioned or verified within minutes. Immoral sex isn't causing young people to check out of the Watchtower Hotel, though that is what they would have you believe. Young people are smart. As time goes on, congregations (in the US) will become smaller and smaller.
2. Fewer males able to teach. Thanks to Number 1, there are fewer males taking the lead. The elders and even many of the ministerial servants now are fifty or sixty years old. Existing men are being overworked and there is no relief coming. Unless the Watchtower suddenly allows for females to start teaching, in about ten years there aren't going to be enough brothers to successfully carry out all of the work.
3. Science. Science and atheism are enormous problems for the JWs right now. They no longer publish science-like articles in the Awake! anymore. This is because, with a couple of searches on Google or Wikipedia, the Watchtower can immediately be called on their bull$hit. Immediately. This isn't 1981 when it took some effort to get down to the library where we likely wouldn't even find the sources that the Awake! used in their articles. This is also why they haven't had another edition of that lame Creation book since 1984 (or whenever it came out). It is becoming more difficult to reconcile God's creation with "how the universe actually works" so they will now begin ignoring it.
As a side note, I have heard three separate talks (one at a convention) where they did not deny the creation of the universe in a massive explosion. They admitted that the universe is 14.7 billion years old, based on current scientific evidence. However, they do deny a random "big bang". The energy that caused the explosion would have had a First Cause, which was Jehovah. I had mixed feelings about the comment, but it's evident to me that some science is difficult to refute. It was their way of saying that they are not "behind the times" when it comes to science. They even acknowledged that the Earth took billions of years to form. But they're not budging on the "God created Adam from dust" business.
My point, though, of all this is that the WBTS seems to be losing its grip - on everthing. Once the infrastructure of congregations starts to crumble, there won't be much else to do. Their only alternatives will be to:
1. Allow sisters to teach. They will do this as a sign of progression but in reality it is a sign of desperation.
2. Do like many other religions have done and stop denying science and evolution. If you cannot sufficiently explain why Jehovah would give man vestigal tail bones and ear muscles, you need to let go of the fairy tale. Allow for God to have caused the "big bang", but don't tell me that Eve was made from a spare rib.
3. Stop driving away young people (and many older ones) with unscripturally rigid laws and regulations that don't even make sense 3500 years after they were written.
-
26
Assembly talk admits that meetings are boring.
by easyreader1970 ini made a post yesterday about some of the stupidity that has been flowing from my most recent assembly program.
one things i forgot to mention was this:.
hd television, video games, cell phones, and other interactive electronics - all of these things are very highly stimulating to the eyes and ears and kids (and maybe some adults, too) get used to receiving this type of visual and auditory input.
-
-
easyreader1970
So looks like they are tightening the grip on rules and regulations. I thought Jesus said his load is light? Oh wait, JW's don't believe in Jesus as their leader, they believe the GB is.
Oh, and they made sure that they reminded us at least twice at this assembly that Satan wants us to think critically about the Governing Body instead of just swallowing what they give us without asking. If someone is thinking critically, then this is demonic influence.
They gave the example of some Witnesses using Facebook as a place where they could question some things the WBTS has done recently, even something as simple as changing the song book.
-
26
Assembly talk admits that meetings are boring.
by easyreader1970 ini made a post yesterday about some of the stupidity that has been flowing from my most recent assembly program.
one things i forgot to mention was this:.
hd television, video games, cell phones, and other interactive electronics - all of these things are very highly stimulating to the eyes and ears and kids (and maybe some adults, too) get used to receiving this type of visual and auditory input.
-
-
easyreader1970
I made a post yesterday about some of the stupidity that has been flowing from my most recent assembly program. One things I forgot to mention was this:
HD television, video games, cell phones, and other interactive electronics - all of these things are very highly stimulating to the eyes and ears and kids (and maybe some adults, too) get used to receiving this type of visual and auditory input. Exposure to these things should be curtailed because when they get to the meetings and have to sit down for two hours, they get bored.
???
So the solution is not to make the meetings more interesting, but to make other things more boring.
Nice going, WBTS.
-
61
Crap my District Overseer says
by easyreader1970 inhere are some things that came from the mouth of the district overseer over the course of the two days.
1. the recession isn't going to end.
things are screwed because the demons are controlling the world.
-
-
easyreader1970
2 - An insane demo on wearing suits when eating out after a DC. Elder counsels a younger guy (inferred that he was a MS) about wearing shorts and a polo shirt to go to dinner after the DC. This dork was wearing his badge, BUT no, not good enough. The young man goes back to his room to change into his convention outfit before going to dinner. Audience reaction (based on some joking conversations afterwards I had with some elders/ms, rolling and head shaking.
We had this same lame demonstration, and I remember now that several times the issue of dress (especially for women) came up in different talks. The bottom line is that the powers that be feel that sisters are dressing like tramps and/or hobos. If they're not sashaying around in stiletto heels and with plunging necklines, then they're going out in the field service with flip-flops. On three occasions, they mentioned the little flyer about how to dress when visiting the Bethel facilities. If you're not dressed to code, you fail as a servant of Jehovah the Governing Body.
Regarding television, I wonder how our previous circuit overseer would have felt about this. He had satellite television hooked into his apartment below the kingdom hall. I am not sure if the congregation paid for this or if it was a gift from one of the elders.
-
61
Crap my District Overseer says
by easyreader1970 inhere are some things that came from the mouth of the district overseer over the course of the two days.
1. the recession isn't going to end.
things are screwed because the demons are controlling the world.
-
-
easyreader1970
There are a few other things that were even more ridiculous that came from the stage, but I don't have my notes with me right now (taking notes is the only way I can manage to stay awake), and I think my brain refused to remember them because the logic made my brain tissue swell and bleed.