i think most religions have their good and bad points about them.
some religions (most) teach if you're a "bad" person or a sinner who doesn't become "born again", that you're going to burn in hellfire forever and ever!
some religions teach intolerance toward "infidels" or "apostates".
I think the freedom to have faith in a set of religious creeds, moral teachings and hopes is fine as long as people realize that this will
differ from person to person and should be respected. The problem is, that most people point there religious outward instead of
inward, eagerly telling others how they should live, while not working on their own weaknesses.
i was looking over the december 1 watchtower,the one for the public.on page 8 there is an article called the appointed time is near.is is a small article on all the events of the last days.all the scriptures.but not a word about 1914.i heard a while back that 1914 may just start to fade from the literature.did any one else see this article?.
no, they aren't waiting. 1914 is the last "date" doctrine and will die as older witnesses die.
nearly every living thing is drowned to death because of the badness and general mischief going on during noah's day.
why aren't the angels who materialized bodies and fathered a race of giant, violent freaks destroyed as well?.
i know that they, presumably, left their bodies just in time to escaped the flood, but that shouldn't be enough to escape the wrath of almighty god.. it's interesting that the genesis account says very little about them.
Why didn't the angels that stayed loyal to Jehovah prove his Universal Sovereignty?
it came on the car radio this morning, and reminded me that this was probably the big single of 1977 - just about the beginning of the end time for me with the jehovah's witnesses.. now, you might understand that as a doubting elder with many deep issues at hand (it was the ray franz era of disenchantment for many elders)...i never heard much from them about the lyrics.. however - listening to it today, i can see where a "good" dubbie might find it to be at least as demonized as the smurfs cartoons.. and yet, very ironically, looking at them then and now, i always viewed it to be a sort of pop-social commentary on the california celebrity scene.. stretching it a little, you could almost compare the traveler's nightmare experience to getting trapped into the jehovah's witnesses - thinking it was a safe haven but then finding out that "you can never leave".. "we haven't had that spirit here since 1959".
"in the master's chamber they gathered for the feast".... yes, i can apply a lot of this to the cult entrapment experience..
i've always heard it was about the decadent life in California. seems to be the theme of other songs on the album
such as Life in the Fast Lane
some witnesses speak to me quite normally/.
others avoid me like the plague.. how are you treated by the witnesses?.
I am shunned by all witnesses except my immediate family and they talk to me only
under certain conditions.
i believe someday it will be as obscure and strange as say the russelites.
the meetings will only be attended by ppl over sixty or so and it will hardly be considered anywhere near as significant a religion as it is today.
i wonder what will begin this process.
the slowdown to a virtual standstill of the door to door work has already moved witnesses into obscurity. very very few people know even the very basics about witness beliefs, much less so that 20 or 30 years ago.
jackson family to host first christmasmichael jackson's family is to hold christmas celebrations for the first time this year (09) - putting their own religious beliefs aside for the superstar's three children.. the jacksons were all brought up as jehovah's witnesses, a christian-based religion which does not recognise birthdays or christmas.
but the thriller hitmaker deviated from his family's belief system and always enjoyed the holiday season with prince michael, 12, paris, 11, and seven-year-old prince michael ii.
and family matriarch katherine jackson, who has full custody of the kids, is determined to put their former traditions aside in december (09) to keep the youngsters' lives as normal as possible.
no win situation for the witnesses, they either look like hypocrites or heartless
the 'old-timers' generally carry a congregation.. .
i grew up in a cong' with six members of the 'anointed' - only one remains, a lovely lady with genuine warmth and interest in people who is now in a nursing home.. .
what happens when the depth that these individuals bring is lost?
1914 and any doctrines related to specific end times will be replaced by a more general, the end must be close ideology similar to that of other religions.
The door to door work will end and be replaced by what used to be called "informal" witnessing, but will become known simply as witnessing to others
similar to that done by other religions.
Disfellowshipping will end and be replaced by a less formal shunning practiced more by word of mouth that by edict from the platform, similar to
other religions.
Blood transfusion will continue to be considered a bad health choice but not demonized.
The religion that I knew as a child is already gone. Even the one I left 21 years ago really is only a shadow of its former self.
i'm looking for ideas.
four years running and dressing like a monk is wearing off.
my wife as the witch wants to change as well.. she won't do elvira, oh rumplestilskin!!.
I'm going as Adam before Eve was created.
watch study ed.
july 15 2009 life story of edwin ridgwell explains how he pioneered during the rutherford era in estonia and latvia.
usual pioneer horror stories of being "covered in bedbugs and standing in a freezing cold river for relief..." "sleeping on peoples floors in the cold.." he explains about his wife: "we had hoped to live on together through armagedon into jehovah's new world, but the cruel enemy death snatched her in 1998. that was a devastating blow - one of the greatest trials of my life...".
they don't think like that. if they are in that mind set, they see doing what they do as their life.
sad, but true.
