do you hate lawlessness?.
can the elders enforce any laws since they cannot read hearts?
love one another.
aqua makes a good point.
Assuming someone gets into the door of a newbie and indoctrinates/love bombs them for six months, what are they gonna think when they come to the KH and study this garbage? People commenting on how much shunning=Gods love has got to give them second thoughts about this bunch.
LOL, oops is right, but I still expect the Awake meet its maker sooner than later.
Ballistic, that would be great if you don't mind. I'm keeping a file on all of their "scholarly work" so another nail in the coffin is always good.
it is interesting to say that the means of communication of god [jehovah ]happens to be varied throughout the ages.
in apostolic times god had eyewitness to proclaim the message.
these faithful men furthered the message by spreading the message by word of mouth coupled with oral tradition.
Jehovah is just a tricky fellow..
After making Adam, he stayed pretty focused on what was happening. Once he and that evil wench Eve ate from the magic fruit tree, it was "Get out of my lovely Garden"
Then he tired of his creation, except for one dude's family who he kept alive in a gigantic box while he flooded the rest of the earth.
He took a pretty active role for a few hundred years, marching those Israelites out of Egypt and even providing tasty snacks on the ground each morning.
He was a bit bi-polar though, smoking fools like Uzzah who has the gaul to try to keep his personal chest of treasures from falling to the ground. Or having his main man Moses kill off those pesky married women in Numbers 31.
After a record like this, I think an obscure sect of Adventism in the late 19th century is about the right choice.
No I got your point..I looked at it from the view of the "worldly" who had this thing dumped in his door on a Saturday morning and started to thumb through it.
I agree, if it were a Kool-aid WT, all of the fault would be laid at the foot of the JW. Its always their fault that things are difficult, never the fault of the WT who gave them all kinds of bad advice.
in today's watchtower study, towards the end, you had one of those typical comments by a former df'ed witness expressing appreciation for being shunned.
these comments always remind me of a stalinist show trial in which the accused enthusiastically accepts being executed for the greater good (probably to save his family).. after this kind of nonsense is expressed, you will get a flurry of self righteous comments emphasizing how important it is to shun your disfellowshipped relatives, so that they can come back in the "truth".. oh, really?
do any of these people raising their hand realize that, if the "success" of disfellowshipping depends on your shunning, then the "repentant" person is "coming back in the truth" for the sake of their relatives -and not because of fearing jehovah !!!???.
JWGoneBad- I don't read any of that into it. Check the follow-up in the 7/15 WT where the blast anyone who hangs with family members under the excuse of family business.
They are tightening their stand- I wouldn't be surprised if the GB is swallowing lumps of coal and crapping out diamonds as we speak.
What is the point of this, Awake writer?
Are you just trying to say "Life sucks" or is it "Life sucks if you are rich and Life sucks if you are poor"
What a ridiculous article - This is the best they have to recruit the public?
Oh wait, I have to read ahead four or five pages where life doesn't suck if you become a cult recruiter, because "soon" you will witness everyone die while you get to live into the paradise.
The Awake is like Old Yeller, someone needs to take that dog outside and put it down for good. I bet is happens in the next five years as Jehovah simplifies, the WT cuts costs yet again.
what sort of conversations could you have in a perfect world?
i have a hard enough time creating conversation in this world.
when i need a conversation topic, i might mention a news story, or some problem such as the price of gas.
It would be cool for about a year, just kickin' it with lions and tiger and bears.
Then the monotony would simply start to overwhelm everyone like a cancer. I mean, no sinning at all!!?!?!?
What would you do? No football? No gambling? No "competition" at all? How ridiculous is that? And what happens when someone organizes a competitive league of some sort? Are they then a "sinner" and going to be put to death?
The simple fact is that the JW world cannot/will not exist until free will is revoked from man. If you don't care about having free will, then by all means hope for that JW la la land
this is one subject that really annoyed me when i was a jehovah's witness - and i find it still annoys me after being out 7 years from the jw's.
the title of this jw only wt study article is " have regard for those who are working hard among you ".
in my opinion there always seemed to be a double standard in which rank and file publishers were always told to be patient with elders shortcomings - however if rank and file publishers slipped up - elders would be into admonishing and disciplining them like flies attracted to dung with no delay.
I reminded them that we need to realize that the brothers leading the organization are imperfect. It seriously took their teeth away.
Awesome reasoning! A perfect way to let them know there is no damn good reason to follow whatever Pharasiacal rule or "suggestion" they are putting before the congo.
" at the bottom of the image on the back of the invitation raises some eyebrows, but last night in the routine district convention article during the service meeting, i caught that one of the paragraphs mentioned that we would be encouraged to keep a copy of the tract in hand for a discussion during sunday's last talk.
my guess is, there is going to be some new revelation about what the "?
" represents, or some other fangled idea.
I distinctly remember A LOT of people leaving during the song after the Sunday afternoon drama, LOL
after looking at the latest 2011 "god's gonna cut you down" district convention invite, i found myself getting a strange and familiar feeling.
back when i was mentally in the borg, i used to actually get a bit intimidated by the "fire & brimstone" message on these things.
and now that i've mentally unshackled myself, i am beginning to see the deep-seated psychological effect that a lifetime of dogma has infused in me.
JWs do a pretty good job of hiding the fact that they are an apocalyptic cult to both those outside and in. They do this by not stating a specific date, and not publicly browbeating others that they are going to die and only witnesses are going to live. But if you peel back the layers, that is exactly what they are saying and doing.
They have to do this to get the numbers. The cults that are very upfront in their rantings are usually much smaller, maybe a few thousand members at most.
Your feelings are normal, I still get a tinge of "what if" when things like the Japan earthquake happen, but it quickly disappears when I put my rational hat on over my tin foil hat upbringing.
