I'm sure there were more than 144,000 martyrs in the first couple of centuries.
Were the vast majority of them counterfeit Christians?
according to watchtower, only anointed christians existed between the first and 20th centuries.
the great crowd of other sheep only began forming after the 20th century started.. how do they support this conclusion?
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I'm sure there were more than 144,000 martyrs in the first couple of centuries.
Were the vast majority of them counterfeit Christians?
text: matthew 24:45-47.
45 “who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time?
46 it will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.
I like Don Cameron's approach in Captives of a Concept.
The WT has now abandoned more than 90% of what it taught from 1914-1919, so if Jesus inspected what it was teaching back then he would have found it to be at least 90% falsehood rather than truth.
The latest book published before 1919 was The Finished Mystery, which is an absolute embarrassment -- get a copy and read it. (Michael is the Pope, Leviathan is the locomotive, Abaddon is "a bad one sure enough" [comment on Rev. 9:11], etc.)
Ray Franz summed it up well when he wrote, "It would be an insult to Jesus Christ to say that he selected this organization on the basis of what it was teaching as of 1919.” (In Search of Christian Freedom, p. 145)
with the jw congregations about to be informed that the ubiquitous awake!
magazine is to be issued just once a month from january 2006, now is an apt time for interested parties to share brief memories and/or impressions about the bi-monthly awake!
magazines, whether poignant, hard-hitting or humorous.
I used to wonder what "life saving message" was contained in Awake articles with titles like, "Interesting Flowers of Brazil."
https://www.fox5vegas.com/2024/02/09/1000-jehovahs-witnesses-reach-out-super-bowl-fans-las-vegas/ .
1000 lit-up carts at 50 strategic locations near the stadium and on the strip.
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I wonder if Taylor Swift will become a dubbie through their efforts...
at the 128th annual meeting of the watch tower bible and tract society of pennsylvania, on october 6 th 2012 .
during this meeting “food at the proper time” was given and the most important, was given during a symposium of six talks by members of the governing body—brothers jackson, lösch, pierce, herd, lett, and splane— which analyzed and discussed the meaning of jesus’ words recorded at.
" (matthew 24: 45, 46) it must be conceded, then, that at the end ot the world, at the "time of the end", during the presence of the lord, during the harvest, he would have in the earth a servant who would be faithful and wise.
BTTT to remind us all that the "faithful and discreet slave" (FDS) keeps changing its mind on:
Seems to me they have built their house on shifting sand.
the book reasoning from the scriptures was released in the 1980's, and it was used at virtually every meeting for service, every service meeting, and every theocratic ministry school meeting thereafter.
many jws had copies bound together with their bibles.
it was huge in jw land back then.. at that time, with the reasoning book, jws were trained to keep conversations going in spite of objections, to almost stick their feet in people's doors to keep conversations going, to defend "the truth," to argue doctrine, etc.. compare the situation today with that of the 80's.
I'm sure many JWs kept the Reasoning book hidden in their Bibles so they could look at it without alerting the householder to the fact that they were just parroting Watchtower statements.
I suspect the book was as small as it was for that very purpose.
After leaving the organization, a friend of mine called it "a portable ammunition dump of Watchtower theology."
couple years ago as a promising ms i had some weird conversations with two young elders.
it was always as we where alone only i and the elder.
they would initiate a conversations about things like blood doctrine, celebrating birthdays, view on homosexuality etc.
Ask them why they haven't gone to their "loving shepherds" for help and see what they say...
the gb seems to have a bunker mentality, that they are special, and that the world is out to get them, so they tend to keep within their tightly controlled, protective environment.
bottlegate proved that there is some danger outside of the rarified atmosphere of their echo chamber; you never know when a camera might be trained on you, or that someone might recognise you as being something more than plain old "joe citizen".
further, tm3's new address was quickly found and distributed, and (as i understand it) someone drove to his gated community to tell the security guard that tm3's "ass is grass".
I'm looking for the recent quote and citation where the GB said that JWs should be ready to obey any directives they receive even if they don't seem to make sense.
Could someone help me find that, please?
Thanks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh9w8zmgli0.
( starts at the 21:00 minute mark ) governing body member jeffrey winder reveals the real reason for the failed doctrines throughout the watchtower's 150 year history.
he claims that the governing body are neither inspired or infallible.. the governing body do not need to apologize for getting doctrines wrong.. the governing body ''do their best with what they have and what they understand at the time.''.
The fact that the GB makes it up as they go along seems to me to be a much more logical explanation.
does anyone remember seeing old watchtowers in their kingdom hall library before they destroyed them all, of the watchtower annoucing jehovah from pleiades kingdom.
i am 72 years old and i remeber seeing these old magazines somewhere..
I remember that. I don't have any old literature which contains it.