being real careful here.... i know one that runs and owns a very busy shop that has zero taxable income...maybe its 'legal' someway but i sure dont think it's moral!
oz
i was on the phone complaining to my wife how much i owe in taxes this year.
no refund.
she started in about how sister soandso is a pioneer, and since she considers this her career, she claims things like shoes, gas, clothes, and even if she has a part on a circuit or district, she claims the expenses for hotels and such.
being real careful here.... i know one that runs and owns a very busy shop that has zero taxable income...maybe its 'legal' someway but i sure dont think it's moral!
oz
in my research i have decided to go waaaay back.
so, one of the first things i did was look at the beginnings with regard to charles taze russell.. while this may be old news to many, this is indeed new to me.
and i want to tell this to the jws that are no doubt on here too.. you are an adventist sect.. without posting the expanded (very long) version of my research, i will post the basics that lead me to this conclusion.. how unique are jehovahs witnesses?
Thanks for the comments and links... and some extra details re the other groups.
When i did this exercise, my aim was to see how unique they are and just on the better known adventist groups basic beliefs concluded that they are not special and indeed the others have just as many if not more 'claim' to be God's chosen ones. Add in the groups that i am yet to x reference to the JW and i am in no doubt that they will reconfirm to even a greater degree that the JWs are not 'special ' and not 'the truth'. That they are no more than just another Adventist off-shoot. ( I did not compare them to only the SDA but attempted to encompass the basic core of most 'adventist' ideas)
oz
edit: i found that the seventh day adventists changed the stand on the trinity in an attempt to mainstream themselves... i'd have to re-google that bit to find the date.
edit: http://biblicalresearch.gc.adventist.org/documents/Trinity%20in%20SDA%20History.pdf
contains the history of SDA and the trinity. The years 1931 to 1957 are seen as the years of acceptance of the teaching.
in my research i have decided to go waaaay back.
so, one of the first things i did was look at the beginnings with regard to charles taze russell.. while this may be old news to many, this is indeed new to me.
and i want to tell this to the jws that are no doubt on here too.. you are an adventist sect.. without posting the expanded (very long) version of my research, i will post the basics that lead me to this conclusion.. how unique are jehovahs witnesses?
In my research i have decided to go waaaay back. So, one of the first things i did was look at the beginnings with regard to Charles Taze Russell.
while this may be old news to many, this is indeed new to me. And i want to tell this to the JWs that are no doubt on here too.
You are an ADVENTIST SECT.
Without posting the expanded (very long) version of my research, i will post the basics that lead me to this conclusion.
How unique are Jehovah’s witnesses? Do other faiths share significant beliefs and practices? When did the IBSA get its start and what were its influences?
Most Jehovah’s witnesses believe that the beginning of their religion (in modern times as they refer to it) was when a free thinking young man named Charles Taze Russell began to look for answers after being disillusioned by mainstream religions.
The Proclaimers book (jv 1993 published by the WBTS) gives a basic account of this event. Russell credits various men with renewing his lost faith. Mentioned are Jonas Wendell, George W Stetson and George Storrs. Later Nelson H Barbour also became very much an influence on Charles.
What do these men all have in common? All of them were ‘Second Adventists’. The line of second Adventists can be traced back to William Miller.
Aside from all Adventist sects being quagmired in date setting controveries, the following is a basic list of the similarities. A total of 34 that i came up with. No doubt there are more, and as expected, some differences too.
Day for a year principle in prophecy/ Shut door policy on remnant (Jw recently changed it)/ baptism vow/ baptism by immersion/ scriptures infallible/ substitutory atonement of christ/ Resurrection of the dead/ evangelical in nature/ second coming of christ/ end times/ no separate soul/ conditional immortality/ no hell torment/ universal issue/ remnant of end times/ writings considered a source of truth/ anti-abortion/ hetrosexual marriage only/ conservative in dress grooming & entertainment/ anti gambling/ appointed overseers no salary/ publishing house/ 2 main magazines/ beleive they are the remnant church/ catholic & protestant & others babylon the great/ no 'once saved always saved'/ to go to another religion is apostacy/ disfellowshiping practiced/ claim god blessed rapid growth/ holy spirit led/ creator is God/ lords supper.
I found that both brag just as loudly as each other about their zeal and growth as proof that THEY are the ONE TRUE religion. If that is the standard, plus the above list, then the Seventh Day Adventists have it hands down. Perhaps you need to think... what if, after Rusell died, God did not favour Rutherford? what if he transfered favour to some other branch of Adventism? What if he was never with Russells branch? THINK!
Now, i expect, some may want to argue. Some may add to the list. No matter to me, i don't claim my list is perfect. This is my conclusion, that is all that matters to me. If you dissagree i suggest do your own research... all you need is wiki pedia and your own WTCD library.
The Jehovahs witnesses, Watchtower bible and tract society, etc etc, is nothing more than another Adventist sect.
Oz
well, some of you know that i have a 16 year old son who lives with his jw mother.
she has already mastered the art of guilt control on him.
i am most anxious that he not get baptized at all or at least unless he has really understood the whole truth, not just the watchtower truth.
Thankyou Yknot, what you said means alot as i was (and still am) constantly told what a bad dad i was (am)
Wuz, i am beginning to see the same with the kids and their mother... i have never lied to them nor tried to poison them either, but they do see their mother lying to them and me...
oz
we all regardless of our spiritual beliefs have in common a past damaged by brain washing and mind control.
there is no doubt that our mental health has been affected to different degrees.
but we usually go and continue our life trying to patch the injuries on our own.. one of the reasons we find it so difficult to deal with the world is precisely that.
It saved my life.
One of my counselors told me she had never had a client who had such a low sense of self worth.
oz
hello i used to serve at wallkill bethel.
i lived in the c building, i remember doing my watchman asignments with the little divice that you use to scan the areas you are supposed to reach.
at this time the construction was not complete in the printery and areas next to the main lobby.
i worked in what we called 'meat works' here in aust. sounds like a regular kill method...
one day, a real big bull got knocked... well, it fell over dead... then with a hole in its head up it got, before the guys could chain its legs and ran up the blood tunnel, scattering workers on the kill floor and out the building! They had to send some guys with guns to catch it in the paddocks and finish the job.
The poor freaked out animal (now dead for real) was then dragged back and had to be cut up and fed into the hopper as the adrenilin in its system poisioned the meat.
sorry if this little story upsets some of you... It is 99% of the time a humane death as oposed to just sliting the throat.
oz
side note; Does anybody have photos of fat cat bethelites and their cadillacs!?
borg message incoming.
on screen.. borg: blizzard is irrelevant.
even though this is a judicial matter, it's really a shepherding call.
Its an awful place to be in. While not entirely the same situation, i know loss.
For my case, there is a some background i wont publicly post at the moment... But in order to gain my sanity, i walked away. I moved out because in my wifes eyes i was a piece of trash in the gutter. I could not survive in what had become a hostile enviroment to me. By that move in the end i lost my wife of 16 years, real time with my kids, the house, the cars, the assets, every friend i had made from 10.
i too was suicidal, for me it was because i truly thought i gone over to satan and that i was no good. The pain of it all was almost too much one day... nuff said. I had literally zero help. It was a dark dark time.
But i learnt to deal with the losses, for me, one day without confrontation was worth more than a thousand with it. It is really hard to have the relationship you cherish so much go sour. My wife and i were best friends, we married when she was just 18, we played house and had babies. Until our baby boy almost died one night, we had never even spent one night apart in 10 years. Now it has turned to hate, she lashes me with spite equal to the love she once had. It still hurts if i let it come up.
but i have made a new life, with true friends, my kids and i get on great, i have a new wife who loves me more than i ever thought possible. You are in dark days sd-7. But dont do anything rash... please. Your kids will need to more than you know one day... be there for them. If you need to walk away to avoid doing yourself or anybody elsr harm, do it. you will look back in years to come with gladness in your heart. Every time my children and i have some good time, i am so glad i walked away and did not kill myself because that stupid religion made feel like a sack of shit and that my wife bought it.
hang in there.
Oz
well, some of you know that i have a 16 year old son who lives with his jw mother.
she has already mastered the art of guilt control on him.
i am most anxious that he not get baptized at all or at least unless he has really understood the whole truth, not just the watchtower truth.
update:
Have been leaving talking to the kids alone a bit the last month while waiting to go into mediation with the mother.
Interesting but small things of note, the talk i had with my son about the internet being controlled by some govt and religious organizations has stayed in his mind... he commented on this when google was in the news recently over china.
also today had a little talk to my just turned 13 daughter about university. See, she wants to be an artist. She said she would probably just do the school art subjects and see where life took her...(WARNING BELLS) I took the conversation back to pro education, even if it was not in the arts. How it was entirely possible that by the time she is 22 she could have a degree etc and still be young enough to do anything, that at that age, when her friends are managing McDonalds she could be managing an art gallery, working with museums, or be on her way to being a doctor, a lawyer.
I told her that if she did not do that sort of thing it can be near impossible later, with marriage, mortgages, kids etc to go back and do it later. That she might think thats a long way off, but it is not really, 3 years more and i said you will 16 and doing year 11... it comes fast.
she said she had not thought about it that way. I concluded by encouraging her to remember that she must not let ANYBODY hold her back from doing things like that in her life.
small steps, small steps
oz
"youth" book and "young people ask" admitts that 97% boys and 92% of girls masturbate but of course none of the holy decent witness teenagers would ever do such a thing and earn jehovahs anger!
how realistic is this?
97% of the world have t.v's or a telephone!
i had the dad chat with my boy... i told him never to let ANYBODY make him feel guilty for being a normal red blooded male with run-away hormones. A deliberate attempt on my part to usurp what he is getting told by the org, and because i never want him to feel the 'shame' and guilt i was burdened with as a teenager.
oz
when i pioneered we travelled to a small "outback" town every week...population 1,200, to assist 2 witness families with preaching.
a special pioneer sister {single not that great looking 40 year old} started a study with a tough hard working aussie bloke, but....rather then hand it over to me she continued to hold onto the study for afew months.
see outback australia is a bloody hot place during the summer so it's easier to spend the afternoon under a fan having a study rather then door knocking with a mile between houses!!!!
I knew a reg pio sister who married a worldly man after committing fornication with him. i think he was her bible study for a little while too. she was not D/F but lost all 'priveledges' for quite a time, and he got baptised.
one of my old girlfriends mothers did the same thing with a return visit and got D/F.
these were some 25 years ago now.
me thinks it may happen more than we think
oz