Was'nt it Gamaliel who pointed out taking physical action could actually be seen as taking opposition to god,
In a similar way could the watchtower be encouraging JW.s to take action when it actually might be what god wants?
Idiots
jehovah's witnesses mobilize global response to threat of ban in russia.
march 21, 2017. https://www.jw.org/en/news/releases/by-region/russia/jw-mobilize-global-response-to-threat-of-ban/.
new york—threatened with an imminent ban on their worship in russia, jehovah’s witnesses are responding with a direct appeal to kremlin and supreme court officials for relief through a global letter-writing campaign.
Was'nt it Gamaliel who pointed out taking physical action could actually be seen as taking opposition to god,
In a similar way could the watchtower be encouraging JW.s to take action when it actually might be what god wants?
Idiots
apart, of course, from the obvious example of believing the evidence-free assertion of the governing body to be god's representatives on earth.
not to side-step that issue, but i wonder if it might be interesting to relate that huge mistake to other things i've been wrong about and how they compare and contrast with the big one.
a couple of examples of things i was wrong about:.
I once believed my first marraige would last ,and when I became a witness with my wife I believed the Watchtower advice would keep our marraige even more stable...............stupid young fool I was
"what man among you with 100 sheep, on losing one of them, will not leave the 99 behind in the wilderness and go after the lost one until he finds it?
" - luke 15:4. disclaimer: by posting the following observations i am not complaining.
i am happy to be left alone.
I used to take that scripture seriously when I was a ministerial servant and help as many as possible in our congregation - the end of it was that the Elders warned me not to usurp their headship in this matter , I explained that I enjoyed helping my brothers and sisters in need - another warning,
I was risking my "privileges" so I said that at least I was fulfilling the bibles commands and that they were not doing any more than they had to, as a body . Basically you are an odd ball if you do the right thing - I gave my up priveledges not long after and my wife left me with two kids to raise.
No CO visits or elders ,I'd sit near the front of the Hall so people could'nt see my tears.
how often are jws trying to cover a given territory nowadays?.
logically, they should be trying to cover the territory more and more often the closer armageddon gets, but it seems to me i see them out far less often than i used to..
Here south of Adelaide 30 years ago we would average 10 days to 2 weeks for most maps ,some rural ones were once a month , but sometimes when pioneering we would be short of maps and cover the territory fully 3 times ,hand the map back in and get it back to go within a week . The urgency was strong to not dawdle on the streets and cover fully the houses .
At times with the total territory being covered in under 10 days we would finish a map and then start it again immediately ,with the elders stressing that the angels are working hard and we are there to help them find the last of "the ones sighing and groaning " ,that's how close the end was.
Fast forward to today mmmmm....trolleys ,shuffling along , taking coffee breaks etc.
When I moved to Queensland north of Brisbane for a few years it was hard to adjust to a much slower pace on the territory ,they EVEN HAD COFFEE breaks an hour after being out , one elder even told me to slow down as we'll get the territory done .
When I moved back to my old area in South Australia over the years I saw the complacency begin to grow as "The Generation " was obviously getting old to all observing.
i'd like to relate an experience i had yesterday with a couple of jw's "working" with a cart yesterday.. been coming to this site for many years and these days i don't feel i've got much to contribute ,but i was out yesterday doing some voluntary work for a friend who has gone on an overseas trip .travelling around my local seaside area doing the job at hand ,i came across a couple of jw's sitting in a shelter overlooking the beach and had their trolley propped against a large public rubbish bin ,it was actually hard to see ithe trolley from most angles - whatever happened to lifting the basket to show the light stuff ...oh well .the large carpark was pretty empty except for us ,we've had pretty wet weather here lately ,bad storms and here they were set up for a days witnessing rugged up with wind and spitting rain ,i sort of thought " well that's dedication " ....that was my first thought then i pulled myself together and then thought "if i wanted to get some time in and not have to work at it too hard this maybe the place to go if i was a jw still".. well i finished my pickup and looked over at the two and realised i'd read other's experiences about approaching the cart people and wondered if talking to them would be of any benefit as i had witnessed this area for many years and my stance against the wts for hiding molestation of children is well known ,i thought, and they avoid me like the plague.. they were'nt familiar to me so i went up to them and introduced myself and quickly let them know who i was and what i am doing now as regards jw's.
they were a married couple middle aged been in for a long time and could relate to changes in the org very well to pre 1975 when i had first contact.
they pretty much suggested i was blinded to the truth ,when challenged on the royal commission into sex abuse they pointed to a case where they believed a victim they supposedly knew of in the jws was a liar ,so that's their case for the org -unbelievable.
Well it's been many months now and it's summer ,still no signs of a trolley.......
i have had a conversation this evening with a jw friend i have known since childhood.
he is of the opinion that armageddon will have come and gone within the next 5 years.
are the jws now pinpointing 2020 as the supposed year?
Thanks for giving me another failure to look forward to in 2020 ,I look forward this failure it's given me reason to live for 3 more years......
starting an o.p is a challenge.the person who starts the o.p then relies on fellow posters to obtain feedback and hopefully keep the o.p, informative and positive.
so starting an o.p becomes " shared accountabilility" between o.p starter, and thread poster.. some o.p's will be more of a risk factor than others, because some topics are more controversial.
so when i start an o.p i now ask myself what is:-.
I wonder if you now think Randall's OP is risky and worth your admiration
hi guys.
a fellow ex jw shared this with me.
haven't time to read them yet (i'm using my phone to go on internet).
I can't recall them announcing publicly the reason for disfellowshipping a person ,but early on I heard of cases of this happening locally . But what I personally witnessed was ,at the service meeting, an announcement given and name given ,and immediately after ,by another brother ,a special needs talk given on whatever the person was d/f'd for ,it was common practice till the late eightees.
so is he a witness or if not what are gb going to do about it since she identifies with the watchtower society?.
Thanks Blondie for your comment ,that makes it a bit clearer, I acknowlege it would be hard to chase someone down who travels so much and talk to them but is'nt the sisters mother a witness? If they wanted the sisters to stop talking as if they were witnesses surely they would go thru the mother?
Seems to me they are riding a wave of passive advertising for free ........hypocrites
so is he a witness or if not what are gb going to do about it since she identifies with the watchtower society?.
There was a time I remember that un baptised publishers were working under the same rules as baptised ones ,and they would be asked to stop publishing (or speaking to people on behalf of the org) if they did something wrong that disqualified them .
So if Serena is in the above category surely she should be treated with the same counsel as others? But maybe not . I am not questioning her life and morals but rather the hypocrisy of the WTS.