Posts by villabolo

40

April 2011 WT: Shoving the Faithful Slave down our throats again

by brotherdan in

the opening article of the new april 2011 wt starts by talking about israel abandoning jehovah.

"in one section of.

their camp, the israelites sawthe pillar of fire.

villabolo

For every finger they point at Jehovah there are three more pointing down at themselves.

It's nothing but a demonic form of self worship.

GOVERNING BODY

Villabolo

38

Changing seasons, time to say goodbye...

by Chalam in

jw
friends

hello jwners,.

well a lot of things have been happening in my personal life.. my wife and i have been through several trials, our youngest who was born with a rare condition will be four this month and last year my wife got the "all clear" from cancer :).

financially, there have been changes too, some regular work from the last five years finished back in june of last year and the lord has been long encouraging me to use some talents he gave me once again.

villabolo

"Our TV died just before new year and we feel no rush to replace it."

I unplugged mine 10 years ago and don't miss it at all. Substitute it with a large, high resolution monitor for your PC if you don't already have one. The internet is all you need to stay in touch with the world.

I'm glad to see your family is OK. Family is of utmost importance.

We rarely spoke to each other and never agreed when we did but I will miss you at JWN.

Villabolo

52

Watchtower Elders Disfellowship an Elder After Talk- Very Shocking And Troubling

by Scott77 in

from http://christianwitnesses.com/, i read the following below.

please what is your reaction to the action of the two elders?

if the account is colloborated, then its very troubling and shocking to say the least.

villabolo

From Wikipedia:

Usage of the ASV By Jehovah's Witnesses

The ASV has been used for many years by the Jehovah's Witnesses. The reasons for their choosing of the ASV were twofold: One reason for adoption of the ASV was due to its usage of "Jehovah" as the Divine Name, which was congruent with their doctrine, and they derived their name from Isaiah 43.10, 12, both of which contain the phrase, "Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah." Also, there was a perception that the ASV had improved the translation of some verses in the King James Version, and in other places it reduced the verses that they found to be erroneously translated in the KJV to mere footnotes, removed from the main text altogether. [2]

Jehovah's Witnesses' publishing organization, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, had printed its own edition of the King James Version since 1926, but did not obtain the rights to print ASV until 1944. From 1944 to 1992, they printed and distributed over a million copies of the ASV. By the 1960s, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, a translation made by members of their group and the rights to which they controlled, had largely replaced ASV as the Bible used most by Witnesses. [3] Jehovah's Witnesses publications have continued to quote ASV renderings of Scripture, and have noted, "it would be good to have in your personal library the Authorized Version and the American Standard Version". [4]

2.^ (For more information see: New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, 'Why a new translation was commissioned,')

4.^ "Choosing a Modern Bible Translation", Awake!, ©Watch Tower, February 22, 1972, page 32

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Standard_Version

Villabolo

71

Would The Witnesses Be Happy To See You Come Back to The Kingdom Hall?

by minimus in

jw
friends

would you get a huge response if you ever went back to the hall?.

would nobody care?

?.

villabolo

Would you get a huge response if YOU ever went back to the Hall?

Let me see?

I was disfellowshipped for apostacy.

A few months later I overturned the Memorial table with all the Matzo plates and wine glasses falling and breaking on the floor. (It did not have to do with my disfellowshipping but was provoked by the attempted suicide of a teenage witness girl.

Many years later, when the Jehovah's witnesses and JW manager of the large JW dominated apartment complex I live in irritated me beyond what I could stand (She had been trying to get rid of me for years even though I had been a nice boy so far) I sent a photocopied advertisement of half a dozen apostate books to every resident.

Throughout that time period I have had elders address me in morbid fear and quavering voice; non Jehovah's witnesses run away at the mere sight of me; elders run from cover to cover, taking pictures of my car while I was sitting in it, because the car engine was smoking badly...

Yes, I think I'd get a huge response from them if I were to show up again at the ding dong hall.

Villabolo

14

How long did it take until you had that 'light bulb' moment?

by Crash Override in

how long did it take for you to realize that something was very wrong with the 'truth'?.

for me, it was about 2 1/2 years into studying.

i'm a guy and i'm attracted to both guys and girls.

villabolo

Welcome Crash Override. Definitely don't get baptized and start fading as soon as possible. Make no further commitments, relationshipwise, in that religion.

For me, the light bulb got brighter and brighter until one day it burst.

I got in at the tender age of 14, on my own. I thought I was learning the secrets of the Cosmos.

At one point, during my study, the elder who studied with me made a commentary on something the speaker had said about the ORGANization. The elder described the role of the governing body as that of a work mule whose task it was to serve the brothers. Soon enough, I started realizing there was something wrong with that picture.

I started suffering from dissonance when I heard things like:

1) Whenever you open up a Watchtower, it's like getting a letter from Jehovah.

2) Even if the Organization is wrong how dare you correct it! You're running ahead of Jehovah.

3) Whenever you have doubts you should say what the apostles told Jesus. "Lord, whom are we to go to.?"

This pathological self worship kept eating away at me like a steady drip of spiritual acid. It was obvious that the mule was in charge.

I also became curious at the fear they demonstrated over their old books. Once, at the Kingdom Hall library an elderly sister; seeing that I was reading; counseled me against reading old books.

On another occasion, a fourth generation sister and her husband were proudly showing off a book that had been in her family for generations. The Finished Mystery. They gave it to me to hold and then I committed what must have been the unforgiveable sin. I opened it and started to casually read it. The Jehovah's Witness couple went hysterical waving their arms and yelling "No, no! It's different". I closed it and gave it back to them wondering why they should want to keep a book that solicited the same histrionics that a book on witchcraft would have.

It was the self glorification of the governing body that eventually got me out. I was getting to the point where I had panic attacks going out in service. I told my partner once, "There's something wrong here". I didn't elaborate. He thought I was talking about myself.

I finally, ever so meekly, questioned an elder on something trivial. I knew deep inside that the "mule" would kick me out.

I wasted only 8 years, but they were the most formative years of my life.

Villabolo

71

1984 WT cover, 1914 Gen That Will Not Pass -- How many of 16 alive today?

by FatFreek 2005 in

those people on that cover were supposed to represent a group of people that would still live on into the new order.

in your best guess, how old were most of those 16 people at the time the photo was taken, and how many do you suppose are still alive today?.

remember, that wt was printed in 1984, nearly 27 years ago.

villabolo

skeletoneil

Villabolo

51

In 25 Years Will The WT.Organization Still Be Around?

by minimus in

jw
friends

i think so.

and i doubt it'll grow much, if at all, but i think it will still be around.. what do you think?.

villabolo

LongHairGal

If the world is still here and civilization hasn't fallen apart and if the governments don't decide to step in and crush religion once and for all - I expect the JW religion will be around in some form.

I think that the health of apocalyptic cults and or high maintenance religions depend on the health of the society they are embedded in. The happier people are, the worse it is for religions that thrive on unhappiness and insecurity.

I personally think that Society and Civilization itself, will be highly distressed 25 years from now due to the effects of Global Warming and the wars, famine and misery it will cause. Unfortunately, that will provide the Bitchtower ORGANization the steroid shots it needs.

Villabolo

206

I need a show of hands: who believes the Bible and to what extent?

by Terry in

i'll start off.. i don't believe anything is divine about bible writings.

i believe there may be some marginal history although not much.

i think alot of folk tales and regional myths are contained in the old testament.

villabolo

Ding:

"I am an inerrantist -- not a popular position on JWN.

Flame away."

Ezra 1:9-11 New International Version

7 Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the LORD, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god. 8 Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.

9 This was the inventory:

gold dishes 30

silver dishes 1,000

silver pans 29

10 gold bowls 30

matching silver bowls 410

Were you Stalked or Chased After Once you Exited the JW's by Elders ?

by flipper in

jw
friends

i tried to fade off the map by moving 30 miles initially in 2004 after i exited in late 2003 .

the first several years they didn't bother me.

i ran into a elder from my former congregation in late 2005 in an antique store - he tried telling me i was wrong for stopping attending meetings.

villabolo

I was disfellowshipped thirty years ago for apostasy and you would probably think that I'd be free from their shenanigans. Unfortunately I live in a very large apartment complex dominated by witnesses and my evil apostacy is well known by JWs who were in diapers when I was df'd.

It therefore should not surprise me, knowing who they are, that the following happened about 3 years ago.

My car had engine trouble and the engine was smoking badly. I parked in one of the alleys in the apartment complex and popped the hood open.

I saw a matronly JW woman looking in my direction tilt her head up with a look of disgust in her face. Within a minute, one of the elders came running out with a cellphone extended in his arm pointed at my car. He was running from cover to cover as if to dodge bullets and became fearful as soon as I made eye contact with him. Elder SFB last took a position behind a half ruined cinderblock wall just 15 feet from me while pointing his cell phone, wincing in fear once more as I looked at him in wonderment.

Elder SFB did not even live where he could have noticed the smoke from his apartment window, so I guessed that Sister "Tilts her nose up at engine smoke" must have contacted him.

When I later informed "Queen Jezebel", the JW manager, of this, she likened the situation to that of a paparazzi who is protected under the 1st Ammendment.

Another day in Paradise.

Villabolo

9

Another religion using Watchtower judicial methods?

by donuthole in

jw
friends

i saw this on reddit this morning.

not sure who the religious group is but if you change just a couple of words (church to congregation) it reads like a jw letter - the kind you get when they are wanting to get you into a jc or disfellowship you absentia.

it's weird how similar these high-control/judgment groups really are.

villabolo

The letter stated that it was two independent members who initially brought up the issue and that they informed the elders only when the individual took no action. This actually seems to be more in line with Matthew 18:15-17 than the JWs.

Dealing With Sin in the Church

15 “If your brother or sister sins,go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. 16 But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ 17 If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.--Matthew 18:15-17 New International Version

In the JWs a member's responsibility is simply to snitch to the elders, not to bring up the sin between him and the errant member alone.

In the scripture, it is only after the errant member shows no change that they go to the "congregation". Seems like this church is following the scripture in the way it was meant to be followed unlike the JWs.

Villabolo