the tribulation is really starting to speed up it's pace.
i just read that atleast 3 types of animal and plant life go extinct every hour.
global warming threatens the entire planet, crimes against women and children are at a all time high, honeybees dying off for unexplained reasons, the threat of nuclear war, the ravage of infectious disease.
The great stone 'not cut out by hands' has been hurtling towards all the kingdoms of this wicked system since 1914. Evidently, the great distance between heaven and earth is surely the explanation for what that stone has been doing the last 98 years--travelling at speeds beyond our comprehension towards this wicked system of things!
--sd-7
i've finally get my hands on a pdf of one of the two newly released brochures, this one entitled "who are doing jehovah's will today?".
here's a link so you can download your own copy.... http://www66.zippyshare.com/v/98881625/file.html.
predictably, the brochure is extremely vague on key topics.
9/15/10 WT, paragraph 7:
"We cannot hope to acquire a good relationship with Jehovah if we ignore those whom Jesus has appointed to care for his belongings. Without the assistance of “the faithful and discreet slave,” we would neither understand the full import of what we read in God’s Word nor know how to apply it."
So...obviously they don't consider themselves the leaders! That settles that! Bonkers yet, anyone??
--sd-7
i've finally get my hands on a pdf of one of the two newly released brochures, this one entitled "who are doing jehovah's will today?".
here's a link so you can download your own copy.... http://www66.zippyshare.com/v/98881625/file.html.
predictably, the brochure is extremely vague on key topics.
SC: The ones on earth aren’t ruling.
Then why are they called a "Governing Body"? What does it mean to govern?
transitive verb 1 a:to exercise continuous sovereign authority over; especially: to control and direct the making and administration of policy in
I wonder if the "Governing" they do falls under definition 'b': b : to rule without sovereign power and usually without having the authority to determine basic policy Sounds like we have a winner! "Governing Body" it is! --sd-7
on page 171 of the "learn from the great teacher" book published in 2003 it shows a picture of a very cute little girl holding a ragged ann doll.
she is sitting on a chair in her bedroom with her hand out toward a man that is coming toward her.. the paragraphs say "so just as jesus needed protection, you also need to be protected from grown-ups-and even from other children-who may try to have sex with you.
usually, these people will pretend to be your friends.
It is good advice to tell the child to speak out and tell on his or her abuser. I'm sure no one disputes that. I think maybe the problem is with how the advice is phrased; you could say that what it DOES say is as important as what it DOESN'T say.
First, the emphasis is that the child should protect themselves. Well, that's all well and good, but these kinds of kids are being trained (as evidenced by the new video) to be OBEDIENT above all else. To trust God's servants, as 'My Book of Bible Stories' says, and not speak against them. Is a child with that mindset going to feel comfortable telling on one of 'God's servants'? And who should they tell? This chapter doesn't go into any details. What if it's a parent? Do they tell the elders? The police? What if it's an elder? What do they do then? For a child who may already feel ashamed, this would be a very confusing messsage for them, in the end. I would say there's a gap in the logic and the discussion here that needs to be filled in, but the Society fails to do that. It's just enough to wash their hands of the problem, but not enough to imply that this is a problem in the congregation or that this can or should go beyond being handled in-house.
I think if it said, 'Tell a parent, tell a policeman, and do it right away', that might have been more helpful; maybe even adding something more on what the parents should do in that situation might help too. I may be wrong. I just think, while this is revolutionary from a JW's perspective, in reality it's just not far enough.
--sd-7
watchtower library online: http://wol.jw.org/.
.
watchtoweronline librarywelcome.this is a research tool for publications in various languages produced by jehovah's witnesses.
"Un-believable." I found out about this from my wife showing my mom, before I even knew this thread was here... Interesting. It does make a nice way to erase the past, but I don't think that's 100% necessary anyway. If they really felt a need to do that to a serious degree, then they would never have bothered to create the Watchtower Library CD-ROM to begin with, because they would've had to do a heck of a lot of erasing. The main stuff JWs care about--JHVH's name, sovereignty, the organization, how awesome JWs are compared to those "Christians"--all of that is still going to be there, so...almost no one will notice anyway.
But...this is cool, in its own way. In the long run, maybe I can delete the CD-ROMs off my computer altogether and eliminate a few hundred MB of clutter off my hard drive. Also, it's easy to mine for quotes, and the last couple of years have so many classic moments, so...this is literally hours and hours of fun. I'll be up all night drawing close to Jehovah...and no doubt this will help many Christian youths in their struggle to flee from Internet pornography.
Said Andre, a Christian youth who struggled for years with the habit of viewing pornography: "Using the Watchtower Online Library really helped me to focus my thoughts on spiritual things whenever I was tempted. I added it to my Favorites folder, and I read from it daily to keep my mind fortified to resist the lure of pornography." He also sought the help of congregation elders to adjust his viewpoint. If you are struggling with some bad habit, can you make use of Jehovah's fine provisions as Andre did? Such a wise course will greatly help you in your struggle.
--sd-7
http://youtu.be/dht3cedgg6e.
watch the right hand side of the screen.. .
i am trying to imbed it but can't make it work.
It happens at the beginning of the video, and I just can't stop laughing throughout the entire rest of the video. Ha ha! I just love how helpless the attendant was to stop her! Beautiful! Beautiful! Ha ha ha!!
--sd-7
in my previous post i mentioned that i'm staying in the org because i think i got a sign from god...some of you asked a lot of questions about my sign and even shared the society's view on asking for signs which i didn't know.. i didn't disclose exactly what the sign was.. some of you asked me what it was and even stated that i know that you all would pick apart and prove that my sign was just a frivolous excuse to hold on to the org.. maybe you were right.. so i've decided to tell you all exactly what it was---no embellishments or exaggerations.
i would love to hear your opinions since i'm still in a terrible mess.sometimes i'm 100% this is not the truth then other times i'm 60%....i feel if god was giving me a sign i'd be 100% this is the truth you know?.
so i woke up that morning and organized to go meeting.
The 607 B.C.E. issue is a tough one. The Bible can be pretty helpful in this, too. Zech. 7:1-5 points out that in 517 B.C. (the fourth year of Darius, and the Society acknowledges that this is a Darius who reigned starting in 521 B.C.--check 'Darius' in the Insight book), the Jews had been mourning in the 'fifth and seventh month' for 'seventy years'. The fifth month was when the temple was destroyed, and the seventh month was when Gedaliah had been assassinated. If they'd been mourning since 607 B.C., then why wouldn't this verse say 90 years? Or even if 607 was the right date, why is this verse discussing something that was long done with 20 years before? Possible, but kinda odd.
Other thing is, Jer. 29:10 was written to people who were already in exile in Babylon, about 10 or 11 years before Jerusalem was destroyed (read the beginning of Jer. 29 and compare it to the end of 2 Kings for proof of that). So it would've been 81 years of exile for them, if the Society is correct about the 607 date. Proobleeem...
The Bible itself fixes the length of Nebuchadnezzar's reign at the least as 43 years. So if there's an extra 20 years in the timeline, it would have to exist between Evil-merodach and Nabonidus. But the Society just had a couple of articles on this issue, and pointed, ironically, to the only 'proof' outside of their understanding of scripture that I've ever seen--an astronomical observation that, as I understand it, has previously been considered by the Society as unreliable, dubious, but now is suddenly proof of 607 BCE! Also ironic is that they spend the entire 2-article series (October and November 2011 Public Edition Watchtowers, if I recall correctly) discrediting the majority of the archaeological evidence...then saying some of it is okay, so far as it agrees with them... Not to mention quoting at least one scholar out of context in a way that is misleading.
(On that note, let me tell you, I have personally researched articles the Society has quoted from in its publications and found quite a few that were quoting out of context. The author's words were quoted to suggest he was in favor of the Society's position, when in reality the author actually rejected said position! Academic dishonesty. You've been in school recently, so tell me, what would your teacher do if he or she learned that you did something like that on a research paper? Wouldn't you expect a failing grade? I know I would.)
'The Gentile Times Reconsidered' by Carl Olof Jonsson is a pretty good work in this regard. Technical, but excellent. I've read it myself, and it pretty much owns the issue on every level.
You are still young, so that works in your favor, as it works against you. The wisdom you will need to weather this situation is going to come gradually, but you'll need to tread carefully--very, very carefully. I wish you the best in your journey.
--sd-7
we have been planning.
an unannounced visit,.
to find out your sins.. all of your sins.. we tapped all your phones,.
We're happy to see
You came to the meeting.
Where've you been?
Where've you been?
We have been planning
An unannounced visit,
To find out your sins.
All of your sins.
We tapped all your phones,
And two of us listened.
We followed you home,
And saw your new women.
We'll hold committee
If you are not present.
For that is love,
Conditional love.
Make sure you don't get
A full education.
We're so near the end,
Near the end.
Though decades have passed,
We're closer than ever
Give us your best--
Hey, that's not your best!
It surely will come
In 'this generation'
And if it does not
Then next iteration
Your last will is ours
After your cremation
For that is love
Your cash is our love.
And oh how we love
Protecting your children!
Hush them up.
Hush them up!
And even with their
Abusers' confessions
Cover it up
We'll cover it up!
Our legal advice
Is not to embarrass
Jehovah's great name
Our children we cherish
Though in the bad way
With stick and with carrot
For that is love
Conditional love.
--sd-7
batman had this thought in a recent comic, batman #10 (from the reboot, the 'new 52' as they call 'em now), and it really spoke to me about what happened when i first googled '1914' on that fateful day nearly three-and-a-half years ago:.
"henri ducard, the great detective, once told me that there's a feeling you get on a case sometimes...a feeling that comes when the pieces suddenly fit into place and the answer you've been looking for all that time begins to appear.
the feeling, ducard said, is like 'a remembering.
Batman had this thought in a recent comic, Batman #10 (from the reboot, the 'New 52' as they call 'em now), and it really spoke to me about what happened when I first Googled '1914' on that fateful day nearly three-and-a-half years ago:
"Henri Ducard, the great detective, once told me that there's a feeling you get on a case sometimes...a feeling that comes when the pieces suddenly fit into place and the answer you've been looking for all that time begins to appear. The feeling, Ducard said, is like 'a remembering.' Not so much a discovery of something new, as a remembering of what you knew all along. Something right in front of you. That feeling is the best indicator you have your answer, said Ducard."
As I was reading 'Crisis of Conscience', I had that feeling descend over me. The late Ray Franz was just showing me what I'd already known, in an orderly and specific manner. I already knew, before I even did that first Google search of '1914', that I was going to find out that it was all b.s. Of course, the more urgent concern of mine was that I was going to be screwed because I still lived at home and hadn't really been preparing to move out. But my personal epic failures aside, I had this extraordinary feeling of having all the answers I needed. It was a relief like nothing I'd ever felt in my entire life. I had to check and recheck to make sure I wasn't losing my mind, but it was all there and all real. And all right in front of me, all along.
Anyone else identify with that sentiment? Well, I'm sure you do. I just had to post it because I'd been thinking about it since the day I read those words in the comic. Ah, Batman. Thank you for making me paranoid enough to realize I couldn't trust anyone, even the ones I trusted most.
--sd-7
in my previous post i mentioned that i'm staying in the org because i think i got a sign from god...some of you asked a lot of questions about my sign and even shared the society's view on asking for signs which i didn't know.. i didn't disclose exactly what the sign was.. some of you asked me what it was and even stated that i know that you all would pick apart and prove that my sign was just a frivolous excuse to hold on to the org.. maybe you were right.. so i've decided to tell you all exactly what it was---no embellishments or exaggerations.
i would love to hear your opinions since i'm still in a terrible mess.sometimes i'm 100% this is not the truth then other times i'm 60%....i feel if god was giving me a sign i'd be 100% this is the truth you know?.
so i woke up that morning and organized to go meeting.
Well, personally, I don't want to minimize how you felt or how you feel. If you took that as your sign to stay inside the organization, then that is your choice and your feeling. I think it would be hard to do anything that goes against one's own gut feeling.
A long time ago, long before I left Jehovah's Witnesses, I took time to study another religion, and I had enough doubts about the Witnesses at that time that I thought about leaving then. In time, as I studied Watchtower literature further, I reinforced my resolve to stay a Witness at that time--and the preaching issue was at the core of that choice. There was a line of reasoning in the 'Live Forever' book that said, if someone knocks on your door, uses the name Jehovah and speaks to you about the Kingdom, who do you usually conclude they are? I thought that was pretty convincing at the time. It seems you have beaten back your doubts with a similar line of thought.
The first thing I would say is, the preaching work is itself not at issue in terms of deciding to leave or to stay. Why would I say that? Because the problem is NOT the preaching work in itself. That was NEVER the problem. The problem is, this preaching work is so thoroughly regulated by organizational procedure that it loses its meaning. It's turned into a compulsory work measured in hours and placements rather than in people and acts of kindness towards one's neighbor that go beyond merely leaving literature with them. To be sure, people can be helped and good can come of it, but the ultimate objective is always recruitment, not unconditional love. On top of that, you are required to preach a message that includes things that simply are not true and cannot be proven by scripture. As I said once before, if you preach a message that is not true, you bear a responsibility for the lives of those who believe it.
So to counter what that ministerial servant said to you, if you cannot preach something that is true, then and only then should you never preach again.
The question is, do you have the option of remaining in the organization without preaching and agreeing--both privately in your own thoughts and publicly--that every word written in [current] Watchtower literature is the absolute truth from God? If you remain in the organization for the sake of how they have organized a preaching work, then the answer will be no for you.
But you can preach something that is true, if you still believe in the Bible's message. The original good news was and is always about one person--the Lord Jesus Christ--and what he did for mankind. If you can open your Bible and show that message to your neighbors, then there is no reason at all for you to stop preaching. The organization isn't the absolute end-all, be-all for preaching.
Witnesses will always find something to guilt you over if you think about leaving or 'slowing down', and the preaching work is often a suitable stick in that regard. It's a form of manipulation, in the end, and designed to keep you busy enough that you don't actually think too hard about what is being taught. Emotional and behavioral control.
I hope you find your way ahead in time. Tread carefully with all this, and for the love of Anthony Morris the Third, don't date anyone.
--sd-7
