JWD

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Posts by JWD

• 
  95

  Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

  by JWD in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

  is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

  of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

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• 

  JWD

  I`m out, but still have a fair number of contacts in.Kind of in a
  unique position. Sorry, can`t go into in details about that.But,
  I think I have a pretty good grasp on what`s happening in the org.
  here in Japan.

  JWD
• 
  33

  Rutherfordian Science

  by AlanF in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the wise man j. f. rutherford wrote about the "cause of the flood" in his 1927 book creation (pp.

  here he informed us of "jehovah's" view of the scientific "annular flood theory" of one isaac newton vail, which the watchtower society had been promoting for decades:.

  annular means that which has the form of a ring, or ring-shaped.

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  JWD

  It`s amazing when you think that the Branch Davidians and the JWs
  came from the same Adventist`s roots. No wonder Christ warned us not
  to follow after people who declare `The end is near`(Luke 21:8-9).
  Seems false prochecy breeds all manner of error.

  It`s also amazing to me that when the WTS picks up the subject of
  false prophecy,such as in the June 1st WT, they define `false prophets` is various ways ALWAYS leaving out the most obvious sign
  of a false prophet, `one who prophecies falsely...duh!` JWD
• 
  95

  Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

  by JWD in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

  is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

  of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  JWD

  SunnyGal41,

  Good one about the myth/moth , hah! At least 25 years in the `cave`
  didn`t take away your humor. Now the trick is to make those 25 yrs.
  useful helping others out of the cave.

  By the way, is the 41, your age(?). I`m 41... and still jogging.
  (Call it male-menopause)

  JWD
• 
  95

  Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

  by JWD in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

  is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

  of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  JWD

  Here in Japan when the WT builds KHs they call the meeting room a
  `sanctuary` (church terminology). When presenting documents to the
  government `elders` are called `pastors`. I have run accross cases
  where sisters in FS tell the householder that they are preaching
  `kirisutokyo` (Christianity) and hide the fact that they are Jehovahs
  Witnesses. One study continued for nearly a year never knowing that
  she was studying with the Jehovah`s Witnesses.

  In recent years as they have gotten a worse reputation here in
  Japan it seems the deception has gotten more extreme. Another
  example of `Theocratic War Stategy...?` or just more lying? JWD
• 
  11

  WT June 1, 2001

  by Defender in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the wt june 1, 2001 issue contains the article "if god is for us who will be against us?".

  in this article the wt talks about identifying the marks of those having god's backing.

  in paragraph 6 it quotes jesus words found in mathew 7:15,16 where he says that "be on the watch for false prophets that come to you in sheep's covering, but inside they are ravenous wolves.

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• 

  JWD

  Regarding persecution:

  It is estimated that every year about 130,000 Cristians world-wide,
  both protestant and Catholic, are killed for their faith. I personally
  know of several cases. Friends who went to the Philippines as mission-aries with a protestant group were stabbed to death.
  
  For the WT to claim that they have cornered the market on persecution
  is absolutely ridiculous. In fact, there are many, many other religions which suffer persecution in some form or another.

  JWD
• 
  95

  Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

  by JWD in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

  is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

  of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  JWD

  Don`t know if I mentioned it earlier, but the WT headquarters here in
  Japan has a fledging legal department.They sent a couple of brothers
  off to law school and made them into lawyers.One is a second genaration elder`s son. I`ve seen him `in action` in court several
  times.He talks like he`s answering questions at a study at the KH.

  There are three other full-time WT lawyers.At least one of them is a JW as well.They had a sister on the stand testifying against her
  husband in a recent law suit.They had coached her to tell about how
  free life was as a Jehovah`s Witness.They got her to say that JWs
  were free to read and listen to anything they wanted to.In cross-
  examination, her husband`s lawyer was able to show her contradicting
  herself and lying about the nature of her religion.

  After the hearing was over I walked up to three sisters and said ,
  `Sister ++++ lied on the stand today,didn`t she?`. They claimed they
  didn`t know what I was talking about so I quoted her and then refered
  to a couple of articles in the WT and a recent Kingdom Ministry that forbade reading information critical of the society.When confronted
  with that info, they ignored me and walked away.

  Theocratic warfare strategy in action ...? Or is it just called lying?
  JWD
• 
  95

  Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

  by JWD in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

  is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

  of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  JWD

  Sometime back a sister who had been inactive for several years and
  had actually been attending a Christian church was told she couldn`t
  come to meetings because she might be a bad influence on the others
  in the congregation.However, they said she WAS allowed to go out in
  FS! That was a first for me. Apparently, `spiritually weak` people
  can still peddle magazines okay.

  There is often a great disparity on how people are disciplined.One
  sister`s son is sleeping around and smoking,but he has not been
  disciplined at all. On the other hand, one sister who was living
  morally okay was DFed for attending services at a Christian church.
  It seems the whims of elders and the way they personally feel about
  an individual has a greater bearing on the action taken than anything
  else.

  The society here in Japan is much more authoritarian than in the
  west and that makes the elders virtual dictators in their congrega-
  tion. All manner of unreasonableness and inequity can be seen as a
  result.

  JWD
• 
  19

  Why Japanese become JWs

  by JWD in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i have posted some of the following info in various other threads i`ve.

  started which touch on the matter of jws in japan.however,people continue to ask me `why japanese become jws?`,so i thought i`d put.

  down a few of my observations for anyone who might be interested.. as you may or may not have noticed,japan has(had) the fifth largest number of jws in the world.

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• 

  JWD

  I have posted some of the following info in various other threads I`ve
  started which touch on the matter of JWs in Japan.However,people continue to ask me `Why Japanese become JWs?`,so I thought I`d put
  down a few of my observations for anyone who might be interested.

  As you may or may not have noticed,Japan has(had) the fifth largest number of JWs in the world. (I think one African nation recently
  surpassed Japan...) The fourth largest are America, Brazil, Mexico
  and Italy. America is no doubt the largest due to the fact that the
  WT originated there. Brazil,Mexico and Italy have the commonality
  of being predominately Catholic countries. Since the majority of WT
  attacks are aimed at Catholicism, it follows that discontent Catholics
  would tend to be attracted to the WT.(That issue has been dealt with
  on other threads) So, the question is, Why Japan?
  Here`s a few reasons:

  1) Japanese like things which are American

  2) In post WWII Christian missionaries presented the Bible to many
  children and young people via Sunday School and private Christian
  schools.The WT cashed in on that `Biblical interest` via their
  aggresive door-to-door approach.

  3) Society has been breaking down. Trust relationships are harder
  to find. People are moving from the village to the city thus
  breaking long standing relationships and finding themselves lonely
  and friend-less. The JW who comes to their door offers instant
  friendship.

  4) There is a lack of absolutes in the society here, so people long
  for some system that tells them what`s right and wrong.

  5) In the latter years of the 20th century there was an
  intense fascination with the `end-of-the-world` theme.
  In the late 1980`s and early 90`s the WT cashed in on that frenzy.

  6) Ancestor worship. The focus of Japanese religion is always dead
  relatives. Ancestor worship is strong even among very secular
  Japanese. The WT version of a `Paradise Earth` offers them a
  chance to re-unite with the dead realtives in an idyllic
  environment.

  7) The WT`s similarity to Budhism. Surprising as it may seem the WT
  teaching shares many things in common with the most popular form
  of Budhism here in Japan. Budhism consists of `Tariki-hongan` and
  `Jiriki-hongan`.Tariki is the idea of salvation based on someone
  else`s works. In Budhism the saviour is `Amida`.However, the most
  popular type of Budhism is `Jiriki`.Jiriki-hongan is the idea of
  earning your own salvation via various works you do yourself.
  For example, climbing a high mountain, going to a sacred place,
  fasting, meditating, etc. The WT teaching of earning salvation
  via, FS, meeting attendance, obeying the organization,etc. fits
  right in with the Japanese mindset. Receiving something simply on
  the basis of Grace is a hard concept to grasp. The WT method is
  easier to grasp.

  8) Focus on the SEEN. Japanese like concepts which can be seen.Thus
  the popularity of idols. The WT offers them a very visible
  religion. Outward cleanliness, Pictures of Jehovah God, Good
  Works, A visible organization, Large assemblies, Lots of real
  estate ,etc.

  9) Japanese are also study intensive. The WTs emphasis on constant
  study played well until recently.

  10)Japanese love for things to be ORGANIZED. I understand that the
  Germans in general tend to be very organized and the Japanese
  are as well. Freedom and emotional expression are not high
  priorities, organization is.

  * There are undoubtedly other factors as well, but these are the ones which came to mind. If you`ve lived in Japan...feel free to add some that I`ve missed.
  I wonder how many of those things would be true in other countries, as well?

  JWD
• 
  95

  Org. Re-orging in JAPAN

  by JWD in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  for those of you who haven`t been following it,the wts is in a downward spiral here in japan.fs hours are down,memorial attendance.

  is down,pioneers are down,studies are down,donations are down,number.

  of congregations is down and the number of publishers continues to.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  JWD

  I only have the older version card. A sister who recently quit gave me here `new-version` card and I was surprised at how the content had
  been changed. A legal manuvere to avert possible law suits(?).

  JWD
• 
  15

  To ALL Jw's and Lurkers!

  by VeniceIT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i've noticed several posts the last few days slamming people with different beliefs.

  now i enjoy a good debate but i think this is something that you who claim to believe or follow the teachings of the wts should keep in mind.

  now i will only be using scriptures so you need not worry!.

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• 

  JWD

  Did you ever hear about the dyslectic, agnostic,insomniac who used to
  lay awake at night wondering whether or not there was a DOG?

  JWD