I wouldn't be surprised if Russell & Rutherford's WTBTS follows a path similar to H & G Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God: casting off their most peculiar doctrines, loss of members, and becoming another tele-evangelical group. Also note how similar many of their doctrines are!
GLTirebiter
JoinedPosts by GLTirebiter
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22
The fading of a well known American religion. Could this happen someday to Jehovah's Witnesses?
by Balaamsass2 innew york times 9/5/24.
" there are only two shakers left.
they've still got utopia in their sites.. "by jordan kisner.
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Do JWs believe Jesus is an angel?
by slimboyfat ini would suggest:.
the short answer is yes.. the longer answer is a qualified yes, with some caveats.
the short answer is yes because jehovah’s witnesses teach that jesus is michael the archangel, their leader, eldest and most powerful, and have taught this since the very beginning of the religion.
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GLTirebiter
Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that Jesus is Michael the archangel, their leader, eldest and most powerful
That shows misunderstanding of the Archangels. They are not the highest rank of angels, but rather the second lowest. What sort of angels surround the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant? They are not archangels (Exodus 37).
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2025 Convention Theme leak
by ukpimo inaccording to the next boe letter to be read at next week's midweek meetings in the united states,.
the theme of the convention for next year is.
pure worship.
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GLTirebiter
As an ex-UnBelieving Mate, one thing I never saw during the few times I joined my ex at the Hall was anything resembling worship. Sermons? Yes. Circular-reasoning talks "proving" the Watchtower by citing another Watchtower? Yes. Uninspired songs? Yes. Scripture readings? A little, but often out of context, and always from the mediocre NWT. But actual worship of the Lord? None!
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Do we have "original" indipendent documents proving that Rutherford was an alcoholic?
by psyco ini was wondering if you could prove with "original" independent documents that rutherford was an alcoholic.... .
i read penton, but since he is a former jw he could not be considered an independent source.... .
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GLTirebiter
I thought it no coincidence that Beth Sarim was (a) about as far as you could get from Brooklyn/Bethel within the 48 contiguous states, and (b) a short ride to Tijuana, where booze was readily available in exchange for Yanqui dollars.
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Charles T Russell -a freemason and the connection to the illuminati...
by dolphman inok, 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, .
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GLTirebiter
What does Charles Russell have to do with Jehovah's Witnesses?
- Inspired by William Miller (of "the great disappointment")
- Applied pyramidology (*) and numerology to Bible interpretation
- Founder and proprietor of Zion's Watchtower publishing company
- One of the five "Bible Students" who formed what became the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society
- First secretary/treasurer and second president of that organization
- Donated the publishing company to the religious society around the time of his divorce
- Author of Studies in the Scripture, the multi-volume set that laid out the original teachings of the sect (the final volume was completed and published posthumously by his successor, Joseph Rutherford)
- His original teachings changed considerably under his successors: Rutherford, Nathan Knorr, and Fred Frantz
(*) In Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, Martin Gardner cites Jehovah's Witness teachings in the chapter on Pyramidology:
... In 1891, Pastor Russell published the third volume of his famous series Studies in the Scripture. It is a book of Biblical prophecy, supplemented by evidence from the Great Pyramid. ...
According to Russell, the Bible and Pyramid reveal clearly that the Second Coming of Christ took place invisibly in 1874. This ushered in forty years of "Harvest" during which the true members of the Church are to be called together under Russell's leadership. Before the close of 1914, the Millennium will begin. The dead will rise again and be given a "second chance" to accept Christ. Those who refuse are to be annihilated, leaving the world completely cleansed of evil. Members of the church alive at the beginning of the Millennium will simply live on forever. This is the meaning of the well known slogan of the Witnesses--"millions now living will never die."
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"Everyone Wants To Leave"
by NotFormer ina thread about steve hassan re-emerged and got me looking him up.
his wikipedia entry had a point under "criticism" that there is an underlying assumption in his approach that all members of high control groups ultimately want to leave*.. while it is generally believed that there are a lot of pimos still attending, doing field service and giving lip service to the wt, i doubt that everyone within the congregations want to get out.
it's not always internally and logically consistent, but it's been around long enough for enough workarounds to make it tolerable to emerge.. what do you think?
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GLTirebiter
Look at it through this analogy: AA cannot help an alcoholic who does not want to reform and live a sober life.
Neither Hassan nor anybody else can change the mind a member of a high-control group who does not want to leave. A family with two teens can have one grow up to enroll in pioneer school, while the other becomes a DF'ed "apostate" attending an evangelical mega-church. Neither will change until they decide they don't like where they are. Arguing about it it and pressuring them not only won't change their mind, it is likely to strengthen their commitments to their chosen paths.
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For all JW's: Stop calling others "apostates."
by BoogerMan inif you don't want to be thrown into gehenna, read what your own faithful evil slave & christ say:.
cj chap.
3 p. 110 chapter 3 - "jesus christ said: “whoever says, ‘you despicable fool!’ (apostate) will be liable to the fiery gehenna.” (matt.
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GLTirebiter
The Watchtower's mission is to turn followers of every other religion into apostates, by convincing them to turn away from their beliefs and dedicate themselves to the Watchtower Society.
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Holiday Humor
by GLTirebiter inhas this ever really happened?
it's in the bee, so you never know!.
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GLTirebiter
Has this ever really happened? It's in The Bee, so you never know!
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Do you play the LOTTERY?
by Fisherman injw view gambling as a sin and sadly people get addicted to gambling causing them financial and health problems.
but is playing a couple of bucks a week on some lottery tickets actually gambling?
what do you have to lose?
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GLTirebiter
No, I don't play. Lotteries are a regressive tax imposed on the desperate and the ignorant. Correcting a lotto ad slogan, "If you don't play, you don't lose!"
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Secret Elders Book? Bwahahaha!
by NotFormer ini remember a couple of decades ago when the internet was relatively young and the wt was at war with it, that they were battling to keep the pay attention book secret, commencing legal action against anyone who published it online (and of course, trying to out anyone who leaked it).
i think it was a norwegian skeptics organisation who had it available for download and dared the wt lawyers to come after them.. so i guess the new shepherd the flock book came out to try and put the genie back in the bottle and reassert some air of mystery and secrecy back into the equation.. so i typed jehovah's witnesses secret elder book into google.
colour me gobsmacked!
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GLTirebiter
It is very similar to a corporate Policies and Procedures manual, which is no surprise because that's basically what it is.