jschwehm

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Posts by jschwehm

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  34

  scams scams and more scams

  by zev in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ding..... a bell went off.

  i wonder why it took me so long.. veniceit posted a link in her story on her sight to this article, which i scanned into text and repost here.

  the point being, that this is one scam to make money by the borg.

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  jschwehm

  Hi Gang-

  I used to work at the accounting department at the assemblies where people would buy the food tickets and use those to purchase food. The money made from the food was used to help pay for the expenses of using the assembly hall. That is why the Society was "encouraged" people to purchase food and eat at the assembly. I suspect they changed to the donation arrangement for food to avoid paying sales tax and when the people eventually quit donating enough to cover the cost of the food they quit providing the food. In addition, it was not uncommon for us to hold off counting some of the money towards the end of the assembly so as to show a deficit that could be reported to the assembly so as to motivate people to give more money.
  Also, at the circuit assemblies it was always interesting to see the District Overseer show up and get his money from us. :)

  One year I worked in the accounting department for an international convention in New Orleans. At the end of the day, we would make a deposit of the days receipts. I would drive the car and we would be followed by a bunch of armed police and security guards to the bank. It was quite a production. :)

  Jeff S.
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  39

  RE: Ozzie's post on "Restrictions"

  by had_enough in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have a question about restrictions on df'd persons wanting to come back to the org.. i finally joined here on mar 26, after reading posts for about a month, with telling my story first.

  what moved me to join in was reading ozzie's post on mar.23(i think), about "restrictions" regarding reproofs, probations, and df'ing.

  i appreciated his comments and was so glad when he brought the subject up.

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  jschwehm

  Hi Gang-

  The Jews in the 1st century liked to expel people from the synagogue in a similar manner as the JWs expel people from the congregation. When people talk about their experiences being DFed it reminds me of how the Jewish religious leaders of the Bible treated Jesus and his disciples. I guess sometimes you become the dragon that you are trying to slay.

  Jeff S.
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  26

  Bad Defensive Arguments

  by AlanF in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a bozo calling itself "shiningone" recently posted on the h2o board some typically bad arguments supposedly defending the bible.

  i posted a rebuttal to a number of specific points, which is reproduced below.

  guess what the response was.. those familiar with jw teaching will recognize some of the bad defensive arguments.. <hr>.

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  jschwehm

  Hi Alan-

  The Bible is a compilation of books that the church chose as representing the norm of the Christian faith. This was done mostly in response to certain groups that the church viewed as heretical and to discourage individuals from following those individuals' writings. So, the purpose of developing the Bible canon from the view of the church is to demonstrate to individuals in the church at outside of the church what the Christian faith teaches and believes about God according to the tradition that was given to the church from the apostles.

  Now, as far as the Bible being "inspired" that is a different issue entirely in many respects. If one does not believe that the individuals who developed the Bible canon were directed by God to do so, then I would not expect that person to believe the Bible is anything other than a compilation of books chosen by men. Also, the typical fundamentalist arguments that supposedly "prove" that the Bible is inspired are extremely weak. The Bible is not a science book and to use science to "prove" the inspiration of the Bible just demonstrates how ignorant these individuals are of science and the history of Christianity.

  Jeff S.

  Jeff S.
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  17

  Special assembly day

  by comment in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i attended a local special assembly day yesterday.

  didn't seem like too much had changed overall.

  however, i've got some questions.. 1) when did the society decide to revert to allowing witnesses to study more than one book with their bible studies?

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  jschwehm

  Hi Gang-

  Back in 1943, the Watchtower made it clear that the organization's directions for working the territory should be viewed as coming from God Himself. Take a look at this link.

  http://www.jwfiles.com/scans/WT7-1-43p205.htm
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  26

  Bad Defensive Arguments

  by AlanF in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  a bozo calling itself "shiningone" recently posted on the h2o board some typically bad arguments supposedly defending the bible.

  i posted a rebuttal to a number of specific points, which is reproduced below.

  guess what the response was.. those familiar with jw teaching will recognize some of the bad defensive arguments.. <hr>.

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  jschwehm

  I think also that many fundamentalist Christians are not familiar with how the Bible came into being and what its purpose is. The Bible was compiled to demonstrate to Christians what the church believed to be the "norm" of faith. There are tons of Christian written material that was used by the early church but finally around 3 or 4 centuries after Christ the church decided upon those books that are in the New Testament although I believe the Ethopian Coptic Church has some extra books in their canon that most other Christians do not.

  The purpose of the Bible is really not to comment on science. It is to demonstrate to the world what Christians believe about God.

  Jeff S.
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  6

  Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of Florida???

  by Gianluca in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  on my post asking about the wts valley farms, osarsif posted an interesting link to a french web site which has a list of the different wts corporations among them there is this one:.

  watchtower bible and tract society of florida, inc. (incorporated 1986).

  president : leonard r. pearson .

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  jschwehm

  I believe the Florida corporation is used to run the orchards that the Society uses to grow fruit to eat at Bethel.

  Jeff S.
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  4

  BMJ debate nearing conclusion

  by Lee Elder in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i believe the bmj debate on the blood issue is nearing an.

  end.

  what will probably be my last post was added to the.

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  jschwehm

  Hi Lee Elder-

  I started reading the posts of Mr. Furuli and I was not impressed and I agree with your statements. His posts are a good example of someone trying to defend the indefensible.

  Jeff S.
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  4

  Questions re Lyman Swingle

  by expatbrit in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  does anyone know what duties or departments lyman swingle was responsible for?.

  how might wt policies change now that his influence is no longer upon the gb decision making processes?.

  expatbrit.

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  jschwehm

  He was the Treasurer of the New York Corporation.

  Jeff S.
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  45

  The three wise men

  by Simon in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  just a thought.... looking through the greatest man book, something just occurred to me which i can't recall has ever been highlighted (but please correct me).. i always thought it a bit strange that jehovah allowed the three pagan astrologers to find jesus especially as they were obviously guided to him by satan's star (remember they were led to herod first who wanted to kill the messiah).

  what purpose did it serve?.

  well, a few pages earlier in tgm book, we see mary presenting a dove as a sin offering at the temple - this was the cheapest offering that was acceptable which must have meant that they were pretty poor at the time.. shortly after the three wise men visited the family had to flee to egypt when herod started to kill all the young boys in an attempt to kill jesus.. what would they need to travel and live as exiles for a couple of years?.

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  jschwehm

  Hi Simon-

  If what you say is true, perhaps the star did not originate with Satan after all. Maybe Jehovah lead the way.

  In any case, it is amazing how God can turn an event that we might consider bad into an opportunity for good to happen.

  Jeff S.
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  45

  What is truth?

  by spectromize in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  ah!

  yes, that remark made by pilate after pilate had asked jesus wether he was a king.

  ( john 18:37-38 ).. how would you answer the question according to what we know from the bibles definition, and how the faithful and discreet slave have endeavored to give us spiritual food at the proper time?.

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  jschwehm

  Didn't Jesus say that he was "the Truth"? Perhaps the truth is a person and his name is Jesus.

  Jeff S.