JeffT

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Posts by JeffT

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  31

  1000 Years is Like 1 Day?

  by Sorry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  anyone else hear about this.

  as all j-dubs know, whenever someone complains about how long the "new system" is taking too arrive, they use the excuse that jehovah works on his own time.

  quite a few times during the public talks, i've heard speakers say the phrase "1000 years to us is only one day to jehovah" (my parents never stop talking about this).

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  JeffT

  So if one day = 1000 years, then the 2,520 days from Daniel = 2,520,000 years, Making Armageddon due around 2,519,393 CE.

  Edited to add, I'm off by a year because I forgot the no zero year thing.
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  39

  Why Is it the Girls who Hang in There?

  by snugglebunny in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  having seen many, many people leave the org over the years, i have to say that, when it comes to married couples, it's almost always the man who makes the first move to leave.

  conversely, when it comes to being converted into the witnesses, more often than not it's the wife who joins up first.

  although that wasn't the case with my own parents, my father became converted and my mother followed very reluctantly..

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  JeffT

  My wife was mentally out of the JW's before I was, she had more religious (nonjw) background than I did and knew what they were teaching wasn't in the Bible. She'd joined due to family influence. When that disappeared she was done with it.

  We joined another church when we left, she ended up working there for something close to twenty years (teaching preschool), but ended up losing the job because she wouldn't knuckle under to the men running the place.
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  55

  Let's Be Honest - You or One of Your Ancestors Was an Idiot

  by Simon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  why were we ever a jw?

  were we mad?

  we must have been .... well, my excuse is that i knew nothing else.

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  JeffT

  More evidence of how powerful the WT's fear and guilt techniques can be.
  Spouses can't even be honest with each other about their own doubts.

  The story gets better, I've told this part before, I'll probably do it again. By the spring of 1988 I'd made my decision, I didn't want to be a JW. The final straw was a talk at the circuit assembly about the evils of education. I'd already been back to school to improve my life, and I didn't want my children to be incapable of anything more demanding than menial work. So I decided to start doing some research so I'd really have my ducks in a row, this led to a copy of CofC stashed under my side of the bed.

  One Sunday morning, after both of us said something like "I'm not feeling well, I think I'll stay home," I'm sitting at the table drinking coffee and reading the paper. I look up and see my wife coming out of the bedroom with CofC in her hand. I have just enough time to think "this is where it hits the fan" when she grins and says "this is MY copy." She'd found mine and realized we were both reading it.

  At that point we were well on a way out, we went to the DC that summer with that idea of critically examining everything said. As a result, my wife wrote down the phone of number displayed by one of the protesters out front. Turns out he runs a support group of xJW's, which proved to be very helpful.
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  55

  Let's Be Honest - You or One of Your Ancestors Was an Idiot

  by Simon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  why were we ever a jw?

  were we mad?

  we must have been .... well, my excuse is that i knew nothing else.

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  JeffT

  I became a witness in 1973, just as I was graduating from college. I was fighting depression and a mental breakdown, and the talk of the world ending fit my view of current events (Nixon/watergate, the war in Vietnam ending badly, cold war etc). I was sucked in by a friend who had a JW mother. A year later I got married to a young woman who had been pulled in by family members.

  We both started slacking off by the late seventies, but neither of us knew about the other's doubts. We moved across the state in 1983 after I spent a year in school and found a better job (against the elders' advice). We gradually stopped almost all meeting attendance and field service, stopped everything in 1988 and DA'd in early 1989.

  Am I an idiot? I certainly was in 1973, yet I managed to pull my head together and get out before much of the information now available existed. Looking back, I have to say that the JW's did a VERY good job of love-bombing and hiding the dark side of their religion. By the time I understood how JC's and disfellowshipping worked, I was too far in to see my way out. I'm disinclined to disparage those that fall for it.
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  42

  November 1, 2016 TO ALL BODIES OF ELDERS Re: Using and Maintaining Kingdom Halls

  by wifibandit in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  november 1, 2016 to all bodies of elders re: using and maintaining kingdom halls.

  table of contents.

  ownership .........................................................................................pars.

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  JeffT

  My first impression is that they have a big problem with cleaning and maintenance where more than one congregation is using a hall. It looks like everybody is expecting the other people to take care of it. What a wonderful Christian attitude.
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  16

  What happens to the elders?

  by Worldling9 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  with so many khs closing and congos consolidating, what happens to the elders?

  clearly there won't be a place for all of them.

  would the older ones be the first to go, losing their long held positions of 'power'?.

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  JeffT

  I would imagine that the company men will stay, ones that stepped on toes or irritated somebody in a position of power will find that they aren't needed as elders wherever they're assigned.
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  10

  Stephen Hawking predicts, "this pill will change humanity", breaking News today>

  by James Mixon in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  "we can now access 100% of the brain".

  forbes special editorial by jon stewart.......

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  JeffT

  We can access 100% of our brain. That whole "we only use 10% of our brain is BS.

  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-people-only-use-10-percent-of-their-brains/
  
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  16

  Extreme rules on Dating – is this for all congregations?

  by Bonnie_Clyde in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  just found out that in the congregation we used to attend there are two young brothers, both are sons of elders and recently engaged to girls in neighboring congregations.

  instructions are that they may not sit together at assemblies or meetings.

  but get this….they can’t even ride in the same car even if their parents are also in the car.

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  JeffT

  I then was told to not kiss on my wedding video so I wouldnt bring shame on "Jehovah" and our worldly relatives would see how clean we are.

  The worldly relatives probably wondered what the hell kind of f'd up religion didn't let you kiss at your wedding.

  
  
  
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  10

  Which Kingdom Hall Should They Sell? How Does The Governing Body Decide?

  by Brokeback Watchtower in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  well what rule of thumb do you think these financial dim-wits dream up?

  i think those not sending in their money to the org are some of the first properties to unload while you spare the higher payers for last.

  you don't want to piss off the loyal contributers by making them miss meetings,, that's a no win situation so dump the free loaders as a negative asset and keep the more profitable ones.. and those who's loans the wt forgave, watch what happens if you're not send in those regular payments like before, and slack off by a significant amount.

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  JeffT

  I used to do this all the time as an investment real estate accountant.

  It's called a hurdle number, and it's easy to calculate. You have some number in mind that you think you should be able to make on an investment. Right now, most smart finance people are assuming around 4% a year. So you have a Kingdom Hall that should sell for say, $200,000. If you sell it and invest the cash you would expect to make $8000 a year. Do the congregations occupying that hall send you more or less than $8000 a year? If less, you sell and invest the money. If more, you keep it.

  I bet somebody, somewhere as performed that calculation for every piece of property they have. The only remaining question is how quickly they'll dump the losers.
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  12

  The Times they are a'changin (indeed)

  by JeffT in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  bob dylan has been awarded the nobel prize in literature.

  i wonder if they'll let him sing at the ceremony.

  http://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/bob-dylan-wins-2016-nobel-prize-in-literature/ar-aaitpmb?li=bbnb7kz?ocid=ansmsnnews11.

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  JeffT

  Bob Dylan has been awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. I wonder if they'll let him sing at the ceremony.

  http://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/bob-dylan-wins-2016-nobel-prize-in-literature/ar-AAiTpmB?li=BBnb7Kz?ocid=ansmsnnews11