i was thinking a bit about this the other day.
ct russell, from what i remember about him, kinda seemed like a genuine, nice(ish) guy, although he had a few eccentric but harmless ideas.. during the russell era jws (actually bible students) could still celebrate christmas, worship in other churches if there was no kingdom hall available, and accept blood transfusions.. then after russell died, along came rutherford - a major league a-hole, for sure.. rutherford had plenty of eccentric ideas but at least some of them weren't/aren't harmless.
some have been long forgotten about - jesus depicted without a beard, the plan to rename the names of the week because names such as thursday (thor's day) is pagan, the articles about the 'dangers' of aluminium, etc.. one key contribution of rutherford which does a lot of harm is no blood transfusions, even in life-threatening situations.. another is shunning, something which never occurred under russell, or at least was much milder.. rutherford has a lot to answer for, i reckon ....
The WT started out wrong.
Russell was a false prophet.
Rutherford was worse.
He saw the failure of Russell's predictions and doubled down.
When he saw his own 1925 prediction fail, he just kept on going.
He disfellowshipped anyone who got in his way.
this one stands out in my mind.
it was reported that 'a brother', unnamed of course, was out in field service and was set upon by a pack of vicious dogs.
he made it back to the car and was injured quite badly with his arms, hands and leg bleeding heavily.
I remember two stories. Not sure where I read or heard them.
1. Some brother swam through crocodile-infested waters in Africa to be able to witness in some remote village.
2. A brother witnessed in a very rough neighborhood and was severely beaten for his efforts. When asked about his experience he said, "I just thank Jehovah for his undeserved kindness."
I remember thinking how dedicated those men were and how I could never measure up to that standard.
It wasn't until years later that it occurred to me that those stories might have been complete fiction.
That was after I realized that the Watchtower motivates mostly via guilt, fear, and shame.
a dyed in the wool witness actually posted this as if non-witnesses invented unheard of terminology,.
"those who devote their life to criticize jehovah’s witnesses use a lot of very specific expressions and ideas common only to them:.
“8 old men in new york”,.
Sounds like we read WT literature far more than they do...
i dont know why the question popped into my head.
i've been out since '90-'91 and haven't read any literature in years.
was this a fred franz quirk or do they still write in that style?
I always noticed the titles' use of question marks.
"Living Forever-- How Possible?"
so, my 17 year old niece reveals to me that for the past few years, her father (my sister's husband) has been physically and verbally abusive to her.enough so that it finally came to a breaking point, and she reported it to the police.
she told me that she had wished she had told me sooner, but she was trying to wait til she was 18 so that she could leave.i knew that she and her parents had been locking horns for the past couple of years, but i chalked it up to teen puberty and general growing pains.
but on their last, most recent visit, i could tell that something was really eating at her.apparently, what set off this latest incident was that he discovered that she had been seeing/involved with a non-witness boy about her age, and got so violent with her that it left marks.ironically, she went and got help from her boyfriend's father, a paramedic, who documented the injuries and encouraged her to report it.so, yeah, he spent a night in jail.she is now staying at the parents of her boyfriend, while still trying to have some aspects of her old life (work, school, etc.
So sorry to hear this.
If your niece's parents object to her living elsewhere, point out that her being away from the house prevents further allegations of abuse being made and they have enough accusations to deal with as it is.
Also, she's 17. Even without abuse allegations, soon she'll be a legal adult and able to leave despite any of their objections.
obviously, the older “ anointed ” from 1914 died.
and because they were anointed, they hopefully went to heaven.
in the first century though, a newer generation did not replace the old.
Given all the prophetic flip-flops and failures since the inception of the organization, why does anyone take anything they predict seriously?
watchtower, september 15, 1895: "beware of "organization.
" it is wholly unnecessary.
the bible rules will be the only rules you will need.
Rutherford must have gotten new light on what "new light" is...
i met freddie franz who was born in the 1880’s and many others from the 1880’s.
but as a very small child i remember someone very old aged 106 and that person was born around 1856 which means that he was around people from the 1700’s..
I knew a man who was born in 1864 and lived to age 106 (born when Lincoln was President, 39 when the Wright brothers made their first flight, and saw Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the moon).
My own grandmother was born in 1882 and lived to be 98.
Sounds like Jehovah treats Satan better than the WT treats "apostates"
breaking news | house-to-house preaching will resume on september 1, 2022. the governing body is pleased to announce that the house-to-house preaching work of jehovah’s witnesses will resume on september 1, 2022. we pray for jehovah’s rich blessing to be with all of you as we resume our house-to-house ministry!.
https://www.jw.org/en/news/jw/#newsalerts.
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1. Think of all the money JWs will save on postage stamps.
2. Think of all the money JWs will spend on fuel.
3. JWs who were using the pandemic as an opportunity to fade will have to decide whether to complete the fade or come back to "mother."
