Mad Sweeney

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Posts by Mad Sweeney

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  16

  God's Love book - Prologue examined

  by Mad Sweeney in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  eventually i would like to do a deconstruction on the entire book but for now, lets start with the prologue, which claims to be written by the governing body of jehovah's witnesses.

  if anyone feels this is useful, please let me know.

  ] in your life and thus keep yourself in gods love .

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  Mad Sweeney

  Thank you. First, Second, Third person terms edited out.

  There must be another word/phrase, then, that describes what they've done. Anyone know it, or do I have to google?
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  15

  Oh Those terrible horrible, no good, very bad wordly people !!

  by man in black in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  saw this in the chicago tribune today, thought some of you might enjoy it.. put a lot of those jw "worldy people".

  http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/ct-news-hageman-fire-20100327,0,5478590.story.

  chicagotribune.comaurora house fire restores faith in peopleit took a house fire to make reporter william hageman see the good in peopleby william hageman, tribune reporter.

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  Mad Sweeney

  Awesome.

  I wish there was some sort of magazine published that would spread good news to people.
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  16

  God's Love book - Prologue examined

  by Mad Sweeney in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  eventually i would like to do a deconstruction on the entire book but for now, lets start with the prologue, which claims to be written by the governing body of jehovah's witnesses.

  if anyone feels this is useful, please let me know.

  ] in your life and thus keep yourself in gods love .

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  Mad Sweeney

  Eventually I would like to do a deconstruction on the entire book but for now, lets start with the Prologue, which claims to be written by the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses. If anyone feels this is useful, please let me know. Also, if anyone feels this is a waste of my time, let me know that, too.

  "Prologue

  Dear Lover of Jehovah:

  “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” said Jesus. (John 8:32) How encouraging those words are! [Appeal to Emotion.] Yes, it is possible to know the truth, even in these critical “last days” when falsehood and untruth abound. (2 Timothy 3:1) [No evidence is presented, the reader is supposed to agree without proof. This is apparently an appeal to authority of the writers in an attempt to control the reader's Thoughts about the present world. The reader's Thoughts must agree with the writer's thoughts because the writer says so.] Do you remember when you first recognized the truth as explained in God’s Word? What a thrilling experience that was! [Appeal to Emotion.]

  However, as important as it is to have an accurate knowledge of the truth and to have a regular share in telling others about it, we must also conduct ourselves in harmony with the truth.[Behavior control. Again, no evidence is presented to support any of the three claims in the sentence. In addition, the Loaded Language phrase, "the truth" is repeated, equating in the reader's mind the slavish obedience to the directives of this sentence with the freedom promised by Jesus in the opening verse John 8:32. The overlying theme of this entire book is the emphasis on Behavior control.] To do that, we [Notice that this paragraph has reverted to using "we" and "ourselves" when the writers really mean "you"] need to keep ourselves in God’s love. What does this involve? Jesus’ words on the night before his death answer this question. He told his faithful apostles: “If you observe my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have observed the commandments of the Father and remain in his love.”—John 15:10.

  Notice that Jesus remained in God’s love by observing his Father’s commandments. [This isn't what Jesus said. He said if you do one, you will do the other AND Jesus goes on to explain why this is the case in the following verses. If one obeys his commandments, that one will remain in his love BECAUSE HIS COMMAND IS TO LOVE. He nowhere indicates that this applies to ANY other command but the command to show love or that God's love is conditional and based on obedience. That is the message the writers want the reader to get, though, "if you don't obey, God won't love you."] The same is true of us [Meaning "you"] today. To remain in God’s love, we need to apply the truth [Loaded phrase again.] in everyday life. That same evening, Jesus said: “If you know these things, happy you are if you do them.”—John 13:17.

  It is our sincere hope that this publication will help you [Changing back to "you", as in the first paragraph, brings the reader back to that Emotional high that was appealed to there.] to continue to apply the truth [Loaded phrase again.] in your life and thus keep yourself “in God’s love . . . with everlasting life in view.”—Jude 21.

  Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses"
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  12

  I feel deceived and taken for a fool

  by dgp in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i was reading a few of the books yknot provided in another thread (http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/watchtower/beliefs/190996/1/why-did-my-old-friend-do-this-to-our-friendship-please-help-me-understand).

  i checked the theocratic school book.

  wow!

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  Mad Sweeney

  I now feel it morally wrong NOT TO TAKE A PERSON OUT IF YOU CAN.

  I agree. The borg is THAT bad. One exception: the elderly. If someone has wasted their entire life on this nonsense, it might be cruel to make their last years full of regret; they're probably already feeling that anyway.
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  16

  Are You Still Interested in Looking for Truth?

  by cameo-d in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  what are our origins?

  what has this life all been for?

  is there anything after this life?

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  Mad Sweeney

  Answer: 42
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  12

  armageddon in 2034????? yeh right !

  by xbro in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  is the watchtower predicting the.

  end by 2034 through subtle hints?.

  the watchtower, december 15, 2003, pages 14 - 19. please be patient while the web page loads page scans of the watchtower article.

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  Mad Sweeney

  Armageddon isn't what they say it is anyhow, even if it were true. Revelation is clear that it is the Kings of the earth versus God. Period. Nothing is said about God bringing a genocide.

  The OT junk about God bringing mass slaughter was just to make the Israelites feel good about themselves and their volcano god.
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  44

  Not Getting Over It! Ex-JWs Face Residual Psychological, Physical Damage

  by TMS in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this is not an essay or "my story".

  these are just a few personal observations from someone who lived, breathed and.

  slept the jw religion for over 50 years.

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  Mad Sweeney

  Amen everyone. It is perhaps the hardest thing I've ever gone through. While I wish it happened 20 years ago I'm also thankful that it didn't happen 20 years later. My family is still young enough to grow up normally and get a good education and career. I still have half a lifetime left, assuming medicine continues progressing well. I am trying to look forward with hope rather than look back with regret. It isn't easy, but this board helps. We have each other, don't we?
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  37

  Why the Memorial partaker numbers have gone up...

  by undercover in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  ...well, as was explained to me anyway.. since countries that were previously under ban are now able to report, this has resulted in the partaker numbers to go up.. .

  .

  um, yeah... .

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  Mad Sweeney

  Why are the numbers going up?

  Because the borg doesn't have the tight control over its members that it would like to have. If they could prevent the increase they would.
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  35

  First Time that I Didn't Go to the Memorial - Now Depressed

  by daniel-p in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  so this was the very first time in my whole life that i didn't go to the memorial.

  my wife went, and she was sullen before and after... i know she wanted me to go.

  i told her afterwards that if she wants me to go next year i would, but she didn't say anything.

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  Mad Sweeney

  I'm feeling down today, too, after a first-time absence from the M. For me, I think it is the residual guilt and fear programming, and the knowledge that the fade can't last forever; they WILL catch up and DF me sooner or later. The thought of living on the run (so to speak) is hard to take. It's stressful.

  It just takes time to come to terms with everything.
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  36

  I just want to say how much I hate the f***ing cult

  by Confuzzled in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i posted here a few times some months back about my jw bf, and i'm glad i did because i was on the fence about the whole thing.

  i had to stop because the nature of his profession might have brought him here, and the details i had given it wouldn't have taken much to figure out who i was talking about.

  i still lurk though, daily.. i hate this.

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  Mad Sweeney

  Has he seen the Jehovah's Witnesses Exposed video (in 7 parts) on youtube? It is a bit dated but that just helps to show how long this organization has been pulling the crap it still pulls today. You can explain away some things but if you explain away everything, you've given your mind over to the borg, sadly.