Posts by GLTirebiter

31

Name a song title..........

by punkofnice in

replace one word in a song title with the word 'elder/s'.. eg.

the elders are back in town' (boys).

smoke on the elder (water).

("I heard that elder knocking, knocking on my door, my knees they were a-shaking, while I hid on the floor, 'cuz I'm up for a JC, my mother won't see me no more, and my father had me fired, from my job moppin' floors...")

58

No more official visits to disfellowshipped & disassociated ones

by AverageJoe1 in

new letter today (please visit avoidjw.org for a copy of the official letter and yes, i also noticed they got the date wrong!).

february 28, 2017. to all bodies of elders.

re: visiting disfellowshipped or disassociated individuals.

GLTirebiter

I can't help wondering if Cease-and-Desist orders and harassment laws are part of the motivation. The official policy is written to defend WTBTS from legal action. But do feel free to drop in and chat with them if you happen to be out in their neighborhood during service (nudge nudge, wink wink!)

35

In what decade was it clearly apparent that Watchtower was a high control religion?

by UnshackleTheChains in

i'm just curious to get people's views on this.. the bible students seem to start of as quite a liberal group under charles taze russell, albeit he had some whacky teachings going on.

obviously things began to change under rutherford.

but what decade did it become abundantly clear that the society was indeed high control religion or even labeled a cult?.

GLTirebiter

I'd say it was when Rutherford began demanding the members go door to door with his tracts and records. Early to mid 1920s, I think. I'd push the date back to the demands for WWI "neutrality" (draft resistance), if he had not gone to jail over it himself. That is one of the times he showed some integrity.

19

JWs don’t break up families

by Jules Saturn in

i get very angry when i hear this claim being made by jws and get even angrier when i read the article they have on their faq section on jw.org which i’ll leave a link here:.

https://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/faq/families/.

i know that the majority of this article is written about having a spouse that isn’t a believer and how the bible encourages them to stay together but that’s one of the things that can cause division in a family, for an example if a son or daughter marry a nonbeliever or a worldly person the parents aren’t going to attend the wedding.. once i was told by an elder that if i continued with my behavior of wanting to seek worldly friends and worldly companionship that i would have to leave my home because the holy spirit would leave my house and that would have a huge impact on my family.

GLTirebiter

How many other " Christian " based religions institute a rule like that?

The WTBTS will try to justify their shunning policy based on Matthew 18:

“If your brother sins [against you], go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won over your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, so that ‘every fact may be established on the testimony of two or three witnesses.’ If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen even to the church, then treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector."

So WWJD? He ate with tax collectors such asZacheus, He recruited Matthew the tax collector to be one of The Twelve! He associated with gentiles, including an oppressor of the Jews: the Roman centurion!

If you expect to convert somebody, you must engage them. Not partly, not halfheartedly, but fully engaged. You must truly be friend and family, not an adversary.

37

Protect Your Family??

by Tech49 in

here is an article in the current study copy of the wt.

tell me your thoughts and i will tell you mine.!

this is a topic that i am very sensitive about, as i could never see not protecting my family, even if that meant using whatever means at hand to do so!

GLTirebiter

My smith 686 .357 revolver dosent dissemble and those damn bullets just keep jumping into the cylinder

They will jump around less if you use a speed loader!

37

Protect Your Family??

by Tech49 in

here is an article in the current study copy of the wt.

tell me your thoughts and i will tell you mine.!

this is a topic that i am very sensitive about, as i could never see not protecting my family, even if that meant using whatever means at hand to do so!

GLTirebiter

By accepting the role as head of a family, you assume an obligation to protect your wife, children, and other vulnerable members of your household. Wielding obviously effective tools are for doing makes it less likely that you will need to employ them (Dobermans are much more effective deterrents than kittens).

72

JW`s Lie about Christendom hiding the Name Jehovah.or its equivalent Yahweh

by smiddy in

jehovahs witnesses have been outspoken over the years/decades that christendom have been hiding or obscuring or even eliminating gods name jehovah from the general public.. how true is that statement .?.

1. it was a catholic monk of the 13th century that first coined the name jehovah in the english language.. 2.the roman catholic douay version of the bible does have the name jehovah in it.

about the 16th century.

GLTirebiter

Here is the text of Bishop Challoner's note found at Exodus 6:3 of the Douay-Rheims (Project Gutenberg #1609) :

My name Adonai. . .The name, which is in the Hebrew text, is that most proper name of God, which signifieth his eternal, self-existent being, Ex. 3.14, which the Jews out of reverence never pronounce; but, instead of it, whenever it occurs in the Bible, they read Adonai, which signifies the Lord; and, therefore, they put the points or vowels, which belong to the name Adonai, to the four letters of that other ineffable name Jod, He, Vau, He. Hence some moderns have framed the name Jehovah, unknown to all the ancients, whether Jews or Christians; for the true pronunciation of the name, which is in the Hebrew text, by long disuse, is now quite lost.

177

Charles T Russell -a freemason and the connection to the illuminati...

by dolphman in

jw
friends

ok, i'm not one for conspiracy theories but lately i've uncovered some interesting facts that i think warrant some attention.. first of all, russell was a freemason.

all the early watchtower and books he authored have freemason symbology and art throughout them.

not a big deal i thought, until i read more about freemasons and the so-called "illuminati", a group of 13 families that supposedly control the world.. supposedly these 13 families, such as the duponts, mcdonalds, kennedys, .

GLTirebiter

@reslight:

I suspect that Russell (and/or his successor, Rutherford) was a copycat of the Freemasons, a wanna-be who wished to command an organization comparable in size and name recognition. I'd say it was a success, at least for the peak years preceding each failed Armageddon-is-nigh prophecy.

21

New Kingdom Halls in Strip Malls & Real Estate Listings

by 4thgen in

i met with a jw today and they showed me a picture of the new style kh build.

the building was located in a ***strip mall**** in florida.

i'm always amazed (and disgusted) at the new and inventive ways they think of expanding their real estate holdings.. along that vein...i recently discovered this: .

GLTirebiter

Orphan Crow's links sum it up pretty well. The rental market for space in smaller retail centers is ailing, with high vacancy rates and many complexes failing. The old outlet center near me now has several storefront churches occupying spaces which had been sporting "For Lease" and "Going Out of Business" signs. The landlord is happy to have tenants who pay the rent and don't cause them much trouble, and neighboring business are just glad to see potential customers coming into their retail ghost town very weekend.

83

Russell's Pyramidology Originated In Edinburgh Scotland

by cofty in

the edinburgh city observatory sits atop calton hill at the east end of the city centre adjacent to burn's monument, scotland's national monument modelled on the parthenon, and nelson's monument with the time ball that falls at 1pm every day except sundays.. .

the second astronomer royal of edinburgh was charles piazzi smyth (jan. 1819 - feb. 1900).

smyth was a man of many and varied interests including meteorology, producing weather observations that still form an important part of uk climate records to this day.. building on the work of james taylor, smyth became fascinated by the great pyramid of egypt at giza.

GLTirebiter

Russell's dabbling with Pyramidology attracted some attention from a well-known writer. Martin Gardner discusses how cherry-picking the relationships and fudging the measurements ("pyramid inches") can manufacture amazing coincidences at will, how Russel borrowed liberally from Smythe (and further fudged the data to predict 1874, then fudged it again to arrive at 1914).

"Judge J. F. Rutherford, who succeeded Russell after the pastor died in 1916, eventually discarded Pyramidology entirely. Writing in the November 15 and December 1, 1928 issues of The Watchtower and Herald, Rutherford delivered a double-barreled blast against it, and advances many ingenious arguments that the so-called Altar in Egypt was really inspired by Satan for the purpose of misleading the faithful... The sect now discourages the sale and reading of Russell's writings, and although the members still believe the Millennium is about to dawn, no definite dates are set."
"The ability of the mind to fool itself by an unconscious "fudging" on the facts--an overemphasis here and an underemphasis there--is far greater than most people realize. The literature of Pyramidology stands as a permanent and pathetic tribute to that ability."

[NB: originally published in 1952, long before the "Stay alive 'til 75" frenzy]

-- Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science (second edition: 1957), Martin Gardner, Dover Publications, p. 182