fifteen years ago, jehovah god was as real as the ground below me.
as it turns out, my belief was founded on lies, half-truths, and a burning desire on my part to possess a theory of everything, something that tied up all the loose ends and make sense of the world.. i stopped going to meetings nearly six years ago, and ive mostly given up the search for the ever-elusive theory of everything.
im not really a science guy, but ive read a few books on atheism and biology in the past few years.
MLE:
I agree with all you have said -- you put it so succintly (is that spelled right?).. live for today, do what you can to make life better for those you love, and maybe for a stranger, don't worry about the future, the majority of any book are people's opinions, we are all human and mostly end up with the same answers, and they are no further ahead than another person, no matter how educated they are, we are all of the same destiny and after that who knows.......
we've discussed a few potential reasons why the wt is promoting april 2011 as a month of special activity.
reasons include manipulating statistics, and trying to provide some kind of spark to increasingly apathetic and discouraged congregations.
i'm sure there are others i'm missing too, feel free to include those.
Jookbeard:
It's funny that you relate the WTBS to a company and their sales targets -- I have thought about this for years, especially as my background is in retail marketing and sales targets and building up the sales force - I see it at every meeting at the hall and chuckle to myself how people are motivated by machination of the mind..
I saw myself doing the same thing and although we always did make our targets, it impressed on me how manipulation gets the desired results and unfortuantely in this case, the results are life altering, using Jehovah to achieve the target of a publishing company who build, build, build and tell the pubs to give,give,give to get life....
TL
when the devil and demons,and wild beast are cast into this lake of fire and brimstone, are they destroyed forever or are they being tortured forever?
does early language tell us exactly what is meant by this scripture?.
and if those who will not listen to god( who are supposed to be perfect by then) after the 1000 years are declared wicked, and are thrown into this lake, does the second death indicate they being perfect before the judgement was passed, the sentence had to be worse that just the first death,?
Ding,Dan, PS and Leo --
thanks so much for your insights -- a great help
at least this gives me some ammo as I was stuck!
TL
when the devil and demons,and wild beast are cast into this lake of fire and brimstone, are they destroyed forever or are they being tortured forever?
does early language tell us exactly what is meant by this scripture?.
and if those who will not listen to god( who are supposed to be perfect by then) after the 1000 years are declared wicked, and are thrown into this lake, does the second death indicate they being perfect before the judgement was passed, the sentence had to be worse that just the first death,?
When the devil and demons,and wild beast are cast into this lake of fire and brimstone, are they destroyed forever or are they being tortured forever? Does early language tell us exactly what is meant by this scripture?
and if those who will not listen to God( who are supposed to be perfect by then) AFTER the 1000 years are declared wicked, and are thrown into this lake, does the SECOND DEATH indicate they being perfect before the judgement was passed, the sentence had to be worse that just the first death,?(where death ended all sin) and they too will be tortured forever?
HELP!
during any elders school, was it ever mentioned that you would be princes in the earth after armageddon?
i know that in the past, this has been hinted at in the wt but was wondering if this carrot was dangled, seeing that a lot of elders are now stepping down and out.. thanks.
.
During any elders school, was it ever mentioned that you would be Princes in the earth after armageddon? I know that in the past, this has been hinted at in the Wt but was wondering if this carrot was dangled, seeing that a lot of elders are now stepping down and out.. thanks
elder, have you contacted the society's legal department and asked if they would recommend you carry a personal liability insurance policy?.
it would be interesting to hear their response.
would they say yes, no, or that is for you to decide.. the society has been sued and has paid out big settlements.
With the advent of the new elders book, is this issue covered in that they are being told to get coverage??
It would seem that someone who is suing the society would also include their home congregation and the elders... would the congregation then be involved? Or could, if the lawsuit was won by the plaintiff, the hall be lost because of the win? If there is a win, could the elders lose their homes,etc?
TL
we were not at the meeting last weekend and just wondering if the "30 hour" rule for april 2011 pioneer hours was actually read to the congregations ???.
rub a dub.
It is official -- due to the memorial season, they want more out in service -- asking for 30-50 hours for the month of April in the letter-- they said this is the only month they will be giving this privledge
christian congregation of jehovah's witnesses'.
same meeting.
meeting.
At our hall, they mentioned do not call other hotels -- because the hotel would not give the same rate for the DC hence , have to pay full room charge if not on the list..... we always stayed at any place we wanted, no matter what - most hotels/motels were so noisy with all the kids... we just travel home to the dc now and back .only 1 hour away, they never change the location and with all the bedbug reports - its a good thing to do
in my "study" with jw's, we're in ch 7 of the "bible teach" book.
we did pars 17-20 last week.
this week, the co is in town, and my conductor is having him sit in.
simply ask why the anointed is going up - this year 11,202 -- no decrease even tho the articles in the past say there has been decreases
They are NOT replacements -- otherwise the numbers would stay the same and start to decrease as people died off..... we were led to always believe the numbers would get less and less as the end of the system got closer -well, they say its around the corner, but the anointed are getting larger in number, no smaller..
Much like Moshe' explanation
for the most part this "persecution" is confined to countries where political balance can change on the drop of a dime.
watchtower witnesses who go door to door will speak of their religious views which include not voting or supporting the political parties.
where the watchtower control a percentage of the population through their kingdom halls and they turn people off from voting they have in effect formed their own type of independant political organization.
DoubtfullyYours:
You must be a young'un..
Try Forum18 on the web =this is an independent, objective factual reporting of religious world news --- you will see how all religions are being persecuted -no matter what their faith -- so the statement that we are being persecuted shows we are the right faith is WRONG -- Jesus meant Christians of allsorts, any who profess Jesus and worship of God --- I am a JW but in no way do I believe that just because the society says we are being persecuted for our faith, that those other faiths are not being persecuted for trying to do what they believe also -- even Muslims in some countries, Baptist, anglicans, Bahai's --- granted, the Muslims hold Mohammed as the highest prophet but believe in Jesus as well, as he is to come and destroy Satan --and some followers think Allah and Jehovah are the one God almighty..
Its just not Jw s who are in jail worldwide ------- and as far as Mexico goes, the society allowed them to buy cards and not be persecuted the same time as the brothers and sisters in Mozambique were being raped and murdered because they were told NOT to buy political cards...
Check it out.. keep your eyes open like the Boreans did, remember the lesson today.. prove prove
